Polymer Engineer

Carbeau is a newly established, innovation-driven company dedicated to transforming CO2 into high-value chemicals and sustainable materials. Building on more than a decade of electrochemical CO2-conversion expertise, Carbeau develops technology that uses electricity, preferably from renewable sources, to turn CO2 from a waste stream into a valuable raw material.

Our mission is simple and ambitious: Making Carbon Work Beautifully.

The materials and chemicals used in everyday life are still largely based on fossil resources. Carbeau is changing that by using electrochemistry to rebuild carbon from CO2 into useful chemical building blocks. In doing so, we help create a circular, carbon-smart future in which CO2 is no longer seen only as an emission challenge, but as a resource for sustainable products.

Carbeau originated from Avantium’s Volta Technology platform and was established as an independent company in 2026, supported by a strong consortium of strategic and financial investors. Our initial product focus includes glycolic acid for the Personal Care market and PLGA, a compostable polymer with strong performance potential.

At Carbeau, you will join a small, entrepreneurial team at an exciting stage of growth, working at the intersection of technology scale-up, market development and sustainable impact.

The Polymerization Engineer will report to the CTO.

Responsibilities

The key objective of the Polymerization Engineer is to be a key player in the execution of projects towards commercialization of Carbeau’s technology. This engineer will be responsible for turning a developing, often incomplete polymerization recipe—primarily based on polycondensation chemistry—into a reliable, scalable manufacturing process executed by external partners. This role owns the technical journey from lab development to commercial production, working hands‑on with external manufacturers to de‑risk scale‑up, ensure product quality, and build long‑term manufacturing relationships critical to a startup’s growth.

To achieve this, you will be responsible for:

• The end‑to-end scaleup of polymerization processes from laboratory through pilot and commercial production, balancing chemistry performance with ‑real-world‑ manufacturing constraints.

• Lead technology transfer to external polymer manufacturers, including development of process descriptions, operating ranges, raw material specifications, and quality requirements.

• Act as the primary technical point of contact for external partners, supporting trial planning, on‑site start‑ups, and troubleshooting during pilot and production campaigns.

• Identify, evaluate, and help onboard suitable external polymer manufacturing partners, provide technical input into partner selection and make vs. buy decisions.

• Proactively identify and mitigate scaleup risks (e.g. heat removal, viscosity, reaction kinetics, by‑product handling) to improve process robustness and reproducibility.

•  Feed manufacturing learnings back into internal R&D to improve formulations, define “manufacturing ready‑” criteria, and support future product generations.

The ideal candidate brings strong hands-on polymerization experience and thrives in a fast‑moving startup environment with evolving processes and limited structure. They are comfortable taking ownership, working across organizational boundaries, and making pragmatic decisions to enable rapid scale‑up through external manufacturers.

You have:

•       Advanced degree (MSc or PhD) in Polymer Chemistry, Chemical Engineering, Materials Science or a related field.

•       5+ years of hands on‑ experience in polymerization process development and scale‑up.

•       Strong experience with polycondensation polymerization and polymer process scale‑up beyond the lab scale.

•       Prior experience working with external producers, contract development and manufacturing organization, or toll manufactures.

•       Practical, execution focused mindset with strong communication‑ skills and willingness to travel (30%).

•       Excellent interpersonal skills and communication skills (both oral as written)

•       Personal skills: enthusiastic, critical but can-do mentality, result-oriented, ability to work at tight deadlines

•       Languages: fluent in English, being able to speak more languages is desirable.

What do we offer?

As we are a small company, we also offer you a unique chance to learn a lot about many fields, not only science, but also business and management, leading people and operations, market strategies, quality and last but not least safety. Learning paths can be steep and we do not offer you predefined career paths and development tracks. You are in the lead of your career, what you bring to the table will be noticed and taking initiative is rewarded and recognized. We have an informal culture, a flat organization and we recognize and celebrate the many cultures that we represent. And on top of that we offer good primary and secondary benefits.