Lead Climate Scientist (Sales and Advisory)

The Supercritical Mission

Supercritical is the leading carbon removal marketplace: 1 in 5 corporate carbon removal buyers are customers. The company builds the commercial architecture that turns carbon removal pledges into delivered tonnes, sourcing, creating, and guaranteeing permanent supply for corporate buyers running multi-year procurement programs. It has facilitated nearly 2 million tonnes of carbon removal for 200+ buyers and tracks 600+ suppliers across roughly 80% of the global permanent CDR market.

Quality is the strategy. Supercritical’s independent science team vets every project across 118 data points and rejects 88% of what it assesses, and the same scientists help set the standards buyers will be measured against, including on SBTi’s Expert Working Group for carbon removals. When the right supply does not exist, Supercritical creates it: Liferaft was co-designed from the ground up for Microsoft’s 1-million-tonne offtake, the largest biochar offtake in US history, signed in under 18 months. Every contract carries three layers of delivery protection. More than 300,000 tonnes have already been delivered and retired, with zero missed retirements to date.

The mission has never been more explicit. The UN now says the world is set to overshoot 1.5°C, and that carbon removal, alongside deep emissions cuts, is essential to coming back. The requirement is roughly 10 billion tonnes a year by 2050; all the permanent removal ever delivered adds up to less than a single day of that. Supercritical exists to close the gap. Its mission: scale carbon removal to gigatonnes by building the connective infrastructure for the market. Founded in 2021 by Michelle You and Aaron Randall, the team behind Songkick, Supercritical is backed by Lightspeed Venture Partners, MMC Ventures, RTP Global, GreenCode Ventures, and LocalGlobe.

The role

This is an opportunity to work at the cutting edge of carbon removal and work directly with the largest buyers in the market to build robust, high-integrity CDR portfolios. You will build trust by communicating the science of carbon removal and providing expert advice.

This role is broader than a standard climate science position. Alongside supporting our sales team, you will help deliver Supercritical's paid advisory work: policy and regulatory advice, CDR strategy and portfolio design, and commissioned research, sold to corporate buyers as engagements in their own right. Our clients include some of the world's best-known companies, and they come to us because they need to defend multi-year carbon removal commitments to their boards, auditors, and regulators.

You will lead our defined-scope advisory engagements yourself, holding the client relationship and owning the deliverable. On our largest and most complex engagements you will work alongside our Director of Climate Science and Policy, who leads those projects, and you will take on progressively more of that leadership as you build a track record. This is a rare chance to combine deep scientific work with real commercial ownership, and to help build a new advisory practice from its first engagements.

What will you achieve in the next 12 months?

• Lead defined-scope client engagements end to end: shaping the scope, contributing to the proposal, running delivery to timeline and budget, and presenting findings to senior client stakeholders.

• Work alongside our Director of Climate Science and Policy on our largest advisory engagements, taking ownership of substantial workstreams within them and building towards leading engagements of that size yourself.

• Become the go-to expert on the policy and standards landscape that governs our buyers, including SBTi Corporate Net Zero Standard v2, UK and EU compliance markets, and greenhouse gas removal standards.

• Produce the written deliverables clients pay for: assessment reports, strategy documents, portfolio and price models, and board-ready summaries.

• Support the sales and marketing team by contributing to initiatives that promote climate thought leadership, educating potential CDR buyers.

• Cultivate relationships with our CDR buyers, offering support in developing CDR portfolios and sharing market insights.

• Become an in-house expert on the details of our CDR project suppliers and stay up-to-date with the latest scientific developments and advancements in climate science.

• Get training on our commercial CDR vetting framework, which is used to ensure that CDR projects are sustainable and capable of delivering CDR credits well into the future.

• Direct the work of external associates and junior colleagues on your engagements.

• You'll receive training, mentoring and support from our experienced Director of Climate Science and Policy.

Requirements

Requirements

• MSc Degree or higher in chemical engineering, environmental science or relevant natural sciences such as chemistry. OR BEng/BSc with relevant work experience (e.g., 5+ years).

• Expertise in carbon dioxide removal (CDR), including an in-depth aptitude across multiple engineered CDR pathways (e.g., biochar, BECCS, mineralisation, ERW, DACCS).

• Demonstrable experience delivering client-facing consulting, advisory or commissioned research projects. You have owned a deliverable to a deadline for an external client, not only contributed to one.

• The ambition to grow into leading our largest advisory engagements. We are hiring someone who wants to build an advisory practice, not only to work within one.

• Working knowledge of the policy and standards landscape relevant to corporate buyers, for example SBTi, the GHG Protocol, a compliance market such as the EU or UK ETS, or a removal standard such as BSI Flex, Puro.earth or Isometric.

Expectations

• Previous experience working in the climate and sustainability field; academic, consulting, industrial, commercial, government, NGO etc.

• Previous experience in a client-facing role, or experience in engaging with industrial stakeholders.

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