CTO at biochar climate-tech startup

Big ambition. Full ownership.

We’re looking for a hands-on technology leader to build on our validated reactor designs and deliver reliable deployment at scale. You’ll shape our technology roadmap, grow the engineering team, and drive the development and industrialization to set the global standard for decentralized biochar production.

Company

Cotierra is a climate-tech startup company making agricultural value chains more resilient by providing the infrastructure for scalable and trusted biochar interventions. We develop decentralized pyrolysis systems and a verification platform to turn crop residues into high-quality biochar, improving soils and farm productivity while removing carbon from the atmosphere with full traceability. Starting in coffee, we work with farmers and some of the world’s leading agricultural and food companies to deploy our solution at scale across the tropics.

Responsibilities

• Own Cotierra’s overall technology roadmap and technical architecture
• Lead development of our reactor equipment and embedded software from R&D and prototyping through testing and iteration
• Drive industrialization from validated design to robust serial production
• Build and scale the international manufacturing setup, suppliers, quality assurance, and production processes
• Lead, mentor and develop the cross-functional engineering team
• Contribute to company-level strategic decisions

Must Have

• 8+ years of experience building hardware products involving mechanical engineering and electronics
• Experience taking products from prototype to international roll-out and serial production ideally in startup context
• Strong manufacturing and supply chain experience
• Experience leading engineering teams
• Highly structured and methodical technical problem solver
• Comfortable operating in a startup environment with ambiguity and resource constraints
• Excellent communication skills in multidisciplinary teams
• Fluent in English

Nice to Have

• Experience in pyrolysis, gasification, high-temperature systems, steel fabrication
• Software engineering know-how (full stack)
• Spanish / Portuguese / German

Personality

• Radical ownership
• Extremely hands-on
• Builds MVPs within days, not months
• Curious and continuously learning
• Ability to connect technical decisions with product and business requirements
• Comfortable making decisions with incomplete information

Location

• Flexible homebase
• Willing to travel extensively (~ 4 months annually to project regions Latam, manufacturing regions and management sessions Switzerland)