Commissioning Engineer

We’re a London-based climate-tech start-up, working to reframe how the world views carbon in order to enable a thriving planet. Since 2020, we have pioneered the world’s most versatile direct air capture (DAC) technology to recover historic CO₂ emissions from the atmosphere, anywhere, at any scale.

Backed by Breakthrough Energy Ventures, the XPRIZE foundation, Stripe, and the UK Government, we’ve moved a brand new climate technology from lab scale to commercial plants in under three years, to empower carbon removal and sustainable utilisation.

About the role

Join MZT at a pivotal moment as we transition from an early-stage R&D startup to a revenue-generating company ready to scale our direct-air capture technology globally.

We are hiring a Process Commissioning Engineer who has a proven track record in delivering innovative process plants and ancillaries; fully functional, integrated, safe to operate and performing as per design intent. In this role, you will have a broad understanding of a project lifecycle with a particular emphasis on commissioning, but with involvement across conceptual design to full on-stream operations. You will also ensure that the interfaces: construction, mechanical completion, pre-commissioning, commissioning and performance tests, are well delimited. Each phase is reviewed, approved, recorded and handed-over to the operations team after performance tests are completed, and signed off.

Internal interfacing with different engineering disciplines and interacting with external stakeholders and contractors are relevant to this position to ensure effective integration of all elements of MZT proprietary industrial-scale technology and its deployment to host sites.

As a key member of the Engineering to Operations team, you will conduct the commissioning of our DAC plants, managing capacities starting from 250 teCO2/year at our Norfolk site, UK, and Alberta site Canada, to 5,000 teCO2/year and beyond. While the role is based at our headquarters in East-Central London, expect regular assignments at emerging UK sites, European suppliers, and international locations as we expand.

We ensure our early-stage employees are co-owners of the business, integral to the Mission Zero story and the fight against climate change.

What you’ll be doing

• Plant Commissioning design and planning: Create, document and record all required documentation for commissioning of plant or equipment including Hazard Studies close out reports, General and Specific Operating Principles Manual, Functional Testing Philosophy, Training and handover materials, cleaning and Inertisation Plans, Test plans and checklists and Commissioning Sequence Philosophy following a loop test approach.
• Compliance and regulatory requirements review: Provide support to project manager, construction manager and operations manager on identification of relevant regulatory framework in the UK and internationally related to acts, regulations, standards and codes of practices for plant and equipment design, operability and maintenance throughout the whole product lifecycle.
• Hazard studies: Review, conduct, participate and support existing and new hazard studies. Provide timely feedback and to implement actions relevant to each stage of the project and with particular attention between project sanction and handover from procurement, construction and testing to equipment and plant commissioning.
• Work packages SoW and review: Support to process engineers and when relevant to other engineering disciplines on the specification, verification and delivery of all work-packages including the review and feedback on mass and material balance calculations, PIDs, Operating Control Philosophy and cause and effect matrix.
• License and Engineering Agreements review: Support and advise the procurement team on the review of License/Engineering agreements, the selection of contracting services and the definition of the performance tests acceptance criteria.
• Testing and inspection: Participate and support the operations team on the elaboration and continuous review and improvement of plant and equipment technical records, risk based maintenance and inspection program.
• Project Support: Assist the project management team in the technical delivery of detailed plant designs and analyses for pilot and commercial systems, focusing on process and control requirements, and interdisciplinary interfaces.
• Vendor Interfacing: Collaborate with key external vendors on process and control packages, particularly fabricators and site hosts.

What you’ll need to be successful in this role

• MEng Engineering Degree within Process or Chemical Engineering (or relevant discipline).
• 3 years’ minimum industrial experience delivering projects with significant commissioning emphasis across multiple industries.
• Understanding of the full process development engineering lifecycle (conceptualisation, design, construction, commissioning, operations and decommissioning).
• Commitment for keeping high standards of health and safety at work.
• Deep knowledge and understanding of process safety and its relevance outside plant normal operating conditions, in particular during start-up, shutdown, maintenance, process upsets and batch-short operations.
• Comfortable with both hands-on work and desk-based tasks. There will be requirements to validate R&D lab and pilot scale tests results which might involve temporary mechanical and process conditions modifications.
• Comfortable working with ambiguity and flexible to adapt to priority and plant operations schedule changing.
• Ability to review and to provide feedback on process and mechanical design, process control and operating philosophy.
• Resilient and open to working during demanding periods and tight timeframes.
• Flexible in working with a multidisciplinary team and supporting, as well as covering other relevant positions on different sites when required.
• Demonstrate executive presence by promoting team collaboration and engagement both internally and externally.

Ideally you’ll also have

• Experience in a startup environment.
• Experience and knowledge in FEED (Front End Engineering Design) and process simulations.
• Understanding of life cycle assessment including energy management, optimisation of raw materials use and minimisation of waste production.
• Operational experience on plant and equipment.
• Experience with engineering supply chain management.
• Basic understanding of fundamental electrochemistry principles.
• Familiarity with processes handling CO2 and its associated safety concerns / management.
• Experience in contractors management, work packages scoping and budget assessment.

What we can offer you

• 30 Days of Annual Leave
• 3 Months Paternity/Maternity Leave
• Unlimited mental health support
• Employee Share Options Scheme
• Christmas holidays office closure
• Cycle to Work scheme
• Employer-matched contributions to global re-wilding programme
• Opportunities to directly impact where our company is headed
• A high-growth, high-trust environment that encourages bold creativity

At Mission Zero, we value diversity of cultural backgrounds, experience, and perspectives, and leverage these qualities to create exceptional outcomes. We are dedicated to equal employment opportunities regardless of race, sex, religion or belief, ethnic or national origin, age, disability, citizenship, marital, domestic or civil partnership status, sexual orientation, gender identity, pregnancy or related condition, or any other basis as protected by applicable law. Please do not hesitate to let us know if you have a disability or additional need that requires accommodation.

Our Hiring Process

Kindly allow us up to 2 weeks to review your application. Providing both of our schedules align, the total hiring process should take 4-6 weeks total to wrap up.

• Application review
• Intro Call with Functional Lead and Hiring Manager
• Getting to know you – (Partner Assessment)

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