Head of R&D and Lab Ops

About CREW Carbon

CREW's technology and services make wastewater treatment cheaper and more efficient, while permanently sequestering CO2.

Leveraging advanced chemistry, natural minerals, and AI, we have developed and are deploying a category-defining process intensification technology, with decarbonization at its core. Today, we help wastewater treatment facilities and operators:

• Improve the efficiency of existing, legacy infrastructure

• Eliminate hazardous chemicals & reduce operational costs

• Avoid $100M+ infrastructure upgrades

• Capture & Store CO2

We are currently deploying this technology across the US. In addition, we have signed $33M+ in carbon removal offtake agreements with leading corporations, including JP Morgan, Google, and Stripe who are looking to meet their climate goals, supercharging CREW's expansion.

As Head of R&D and Lab Ops at CREW Carbon, you will serve as a technical authority on the science underlying CREW's wastewater process optimization and decarbonization solution. This role requires a wastewater treatment and aqueous chemistry expert who can interpret complex data to drive internal R&D and lab operations, working in close partnership across functions to ensure that science translates cleanly into what CREW designs, deploys, and delivers.

You will play a pivotal role in accelerating the application of CREW’s technology by translating biological treatment process data from laboratory studies and full-scale deployments into rigorous, defensible technical insight. You will quantify and articulate the value CREW delivers through process intensification within biological treatment systems - including the carbon removal performance that underpins CREW’s MRV work - and you will drive the internal data collection, analysis, and modeling required to support those conclusions and enable scale across treatment facilities.

This role will work closely with CREW Carbon’s world-class Advisory, Commercial, and Technical Solutions teams to define scientific priorities, mentor lab and R&D team members, and drive CREW’s mission through innovative research and rigorous analysis.

This position is a full-time role. Location is onsite at CREW’s New Haven, CT or Brooklyn, NY offices. Remote considered only for exceptional candidates, with regular travel to New Haven and Brooklyn expected.

• Serve as CREW’s senior technical authority on biological nutrient removal (BNR), aqueous chemistry, and process performance, applying this expertise directly to CREW’s deployments and R&D.

• Analyze operational and experimental data, identify the metrics that matter, and drive process and product decisions using mass/energy balances and process modeling.

• Lead and mentor CREW’s lab/R&D team, setting experimental protocols and data collection standards that rigorously validate process performance.

• Apply process engineering expertise to translate lab-scale findings into improvements CREW can deploy at scale.

• Collaborate closely with CREW’s Platform and Technical Solutions teams to leverage CREW’s data infrastructure and turn experimental and operational data into actionable product decisions.

• Support carbon removal quantification methodology and monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV) for CREW’s deployments.

• Serve as a process‑engineering resource to Technical Solutions and Operations when a field issue needs deeper root‑cause analysis - diagnosing the underlying process science and feeding fixes back into R&D.

• Author technical reports and internal R&D documentation that capture CREW’s process engineering rigor.

• Bachelor’s degree (required) in Environmental Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Civil Engineering, or a related field.

• 10+ years of hands‑on experience in biological wastewater treatment process engineering — process evaluation, design, or modeling.

• Strong understanding of wastewater treatment processes, including nutrient removal, solids handling, and pH and alkalinity control.

• Comfortable leading and growing a technical team.

• Exceptional technical writing skills, with the ability to translate complex process science into clear, defensible documents.

• Experience…