Head of Research And Development

Connecticut Innovations (“CI”) is Connecticut’s strategic venture capital arm, serving a portfolio of 220+ companies with strengths in life sciences, technology, and climate tech. This role is with CREW Carbon, a portfolio company whose technology and services make wastewater treatment cheaper and more efficient while permanently sequestering CO₂. Leveraging advanced chemistry, natural minerals, and AI, CREW has developed a category-defining process intensification technology with decarbonization at its core.

Today, CREW helps wastewater treatment facilities and operators:

• Stabilize pH & alkalinity 24/7
• Eliminate hazardous chemicals & cut costs
• Avoid $100M+ infrastructure upgrades
• Capture & Store CO₂

CREW is currently deploying this technology across the US and Europe and has signed $30M+ in carbon removal offtake agreements with leading corporations. The company has offices and labs in New Haven, CT and offices in Brooklyn, NY, and is funded by Counteract, ReGen, Ponderosa, Connecticut Innovations, and others.

About The Role

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 expertise in wastewater treatment and aqueous chemistry to interpret complex data, drive internal R&D, and ensure science translates into CREW’s designs, deployments, and deliverables.

You will accelerate the application of CREW’s technology by translating biological treatment process data from laboratory studies and full-scale deployments into rigorous, defensible technical insight. This includes quantifying and articulating the value CREW delivers through process intensification—such as carbon removal performance—and driving the data collection, analysis, and modeling required to support these conclusions and enable scale.

This role works closely with CREW’s Advisory, Commercial, and Technical Solutions teams to define scientific priorities, mentor lab and R&D team members, and advance CREW’s mission through innovative research and analysis. The position is full-time and onsite at CREW’s New Haven, CT or Brooklyn, NY offices. Remote work may be considered for exceptional candidates, with regular travel to New Haven and Brooklyn expected.

Responsibilities

• 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 key metrics, 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 scalable improvements for CREW’s deployments.
• Collaborate with CREW’s Platform and Technical Solutions teams to leverage 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 for root-cause analysis of field issues, diagnosing 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.

Requirements

• 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 with process modeling tools (BioWin, SUMO, GPS-X, ASM libraries, or equivalent).
• Familiarity with analytical methods used in wastewater and aqueous chemistry system characterization (e.g., IC, TIC, ICP) and ability to interpret analytical data.
• Comfortable working in a rapidly evolving environment and able to quickly synthesize new information to proactively adjust focus.
• Professional Engineer (PE) license is a plus.
• Practice extreme ownership (no task is too small).
• Enjoy working in the trenches with your team and demonstrating high empathy.
• Possess a growth mindset.

Benefits

• Equity through option grants
• Flexible paid time off
• 401(k) plan
• Well-equipped office environment
• Health benefits offerings

Pay

The expected base salary range for this role is $120,000 – $180,000. Compensation at the time of offer is unique to each candidate and based on factors such as skill set, experience, qualifications, and work location.

About CREW Carbon

• Signed a carbon credit offtake agreement with the Frontier Climate Fund in 2024
• Selected as 1 of 24 companies by the US Department of Energy in 2024 to be a potential supplier of high-quality carbon credits to the federal government
• Highlighted as an “Innovator of the Month” by US Senator Chris Murphy in 2024
• Selected by ImagineH2O, the leading water sector innovation accelerator, in 2024
• Highlighted by Business Insider as “One of the Most Promising Climate-Tech Startups of 2023”

CREW Carbon is an equal opportunity employer committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. The company maintains strict wage minimums, generous benefits, and personal leave policies, aiming to provide safe, rewarding, and empowering work environments.