Reservoir Engineer

Description

About Charm

Our mission is to return the atmosphere to 280 ppm CO₂. We convert excess inedible biomass into carbon-rich bio-oil and inject it into underground storage for permanent carbon removal. At scale, we can use bio-oil to make fossil-free iron.

Our carbon removal efforts began in 2020 with initial purchases from customers like Stripe, Shopify, and Microsoft. Since then, we’ve scaled to thousands of tons of carbon removal , grown to over a hundred employees, and established three locations in San Francisco, Colorado, and Louisiana.

We're expanding our team of ambitious, creative, and hands-on problem solvers. We value psychological safety, collaboration, and continuous learning. We take calculated risks and treat mistakes as opportunities to improve. If you're excited about tackling big challenges, we encourage you to explore our company values .

Come help us reverse climate change. Gigatons or bust!

About the Role

Charm is looking for a Reservoir Engineer . Successful bio-oil sequestration requires a deep understanding of the reservoir: how much we can inject, at what pressure, for how long, and whether we can prove confinement and compatibility with regulators. This role owns that technical story end to end — from the reservoir engineering that tells us how our wells will behave, to the UIC permit applications that will help us bring more wells online.

This is a hands-on role for an engineer who wants to do both halves of the job. On the subsurface side, you'll build and maintain the injection strategy, reservoir models and forecasts that guide where and how we inject. On the permitting side, you'll draft and steward our Class V UIC applications — turning your own reservoir analysis into permit-ready narratives that stand up to scrutiny. Efficient permitting keeps long-term injection operations from ever being roadblocked, and doing it well requires someone who understands the subsurface deeply enough to defend it.

You'll partner closely with our subsurface, land, operations and MSE (Materials science & engineering) teams.

Your Responsibilities

Permitting

Draft, assemble, and steward Charm's Class V UIC permit applications for EPA regional and state programs in collaboration with other members of the development team.

Translate reservoir engineering work directly into permit-ready technical narratives, and lead the response to regulator questions and deficiency letters.

Coordinate with Charm’s Head of Development and subsurface consultants to keep applications moving on schedule so that Charm’s injection operations are never roadblocked by regulatory timelines.

Develop and maintain relationships with key state, regional and federal regulators

Injection & reservoir management

Monitor subsurface reservoir response to ongoing injection using pressure data, tracer surveys, and formation logs, identifying anomalies early.

Build and maintain analytical tools that track injection performance, flag pressure deviations, and forecast potential reservoir problems.

Analyze reservoir behavior to optimize injection rates, protect formation integrity, and prevent unintended fluid migration to shallower zones.

Partner with Charm’s Head of Injection Development and the MSE team on designing and executing high-impact subsurface studies including formation characterization, reservoir modelling inputs, and other laboratory projects .

Evaluate opportunities to improve injection efficiency or expand the injection footprint as new sites come online.

Design data collection and field studies to advance both subsurface understanding and permitting activities

Travel as needed to support ongoing operations, new well development and permitting

Forecasting & asset life planning

Build and update well-by-well and portfolio-level injection forecasts to support capital allocation and business planning.

Assess reservoir uncertainty and communicate end-of-life risk: expected injectivity decline, pressure limits, and mechanical constraints.

Continuously refine forecast models as new field data (pressure tests, tracer returns, MIT results) become available.

You Bring

Working knowledge of UIC permitting (Class I, Class II and/or Class VI) — you've drafted or meaningfully contributed to permit applications, area-of-review analysis, or pressure/plume modeling narratives — or you have deep reservoir expertise and a clear appetite to build permitting into your toolkit.

A degree in petroleum or chemical engineering, or a closely related geoscience/engineering field.

5+ years of reservoir or subsurface engineering experience — injection/disposal (SWD), EOR, carbon storage, or reservoir management.

Hands-on fluency with reservoir modeling and forecasting including pressure-transient behavior, petrophysics and formation characterization.

Skills in adapting laboratory derived data into actionable optimization in the field

Strong technical writing — you can turn quantitative analysis into narratives that regulators, finance, and non-engineers can follow and trust.

Strong stakeholder and cross-functional communication skills; comfortable picking up the phone to work through a problem with a teammate, consultant, or regulator.

A proactive, organized, self-directed working style that thrives in a fast-paced startup where you'll wear multiple hats.

A demonstrated passion for contributing to our mission.

Bonus if You Bring

Direct experience with carbon storage or Class VI / Class V injection.

Design and interpretation of pressure-transient tests, step-rate tests, tracer surveys, or mechanical integrity tests (MIT).

Familiarity with pore space, mineral rights, well bonding, and the land/regulatory interfaces of injection projects.

Experience with reservoir simulation or subsurface software (e.g., CMG, Petrel, Kappa) and data/analytics workflows.

Prior experience in a lean or early-stage operating environment.

Benefits

• Equity ownership through stock options
• 100% employee healthcare premiums covered
• Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage with multiple plan options
• Employer-funded HSA contributions for eligible HDHP plans
• Traditional and Roth 401(k) with a 50% match on contributions up to 6%
• Paid leave, including parental and medical leave
• PPE and workwear allowances
• Annual professional development stipend
• Employee recognition programs that celebrate impactful work and team contributions
• Opportunities for internal growth, career development, and transition into climate from a range of industries and backgrounds
• Visa Sponsorship Policy
• Since we are a small startup, certain accommodations for visa sponsorship may not be within our capability. At this time, Charm Industrial is only sponsoring E3 and TN visas.
• Our Commitment
• Charm Industrial is an equal opportunity employer. We hire based on skills, experience, and passion for our mission. Climate challenges require a wide range of perspectives and expertise, and we welcome applicants from all backgrounds. We’re excited to grow our team with people who bring unique strengths and help us improve as a company.