We will help prevent a climate crisis by freeing the world from fossil fuels. Our breakthrough direct air capture technology captures CO2 from the atmosphere and produces hydrogen in parallel.

The clock is ticking. What are you waiting for?

As Lead Mechanical Design Engineer, you will take a pivotal role within our Hardware Engineering team. Leveraging your extensive expertise in mechanical design, you will not only implement groundbreaking products but also set the strategic direction for design best practices. You will lead efforts to streamline processes, optimize assembly workflows, and establish efficient testing protocols, ensuring the team's success in delivering innovative and high-quality solutions.

Responsibilities

• Own the end to end design of all systems in our plant design, while mentoring guiding and growing a team of engineers who support you.
• Choose process components such as sensors, valves, pumps and vessels according to requirements and translate into physical products.
• Manage mechanical design projects, including initial factory ideation, machine commissioning and eventual hand-off to manufacturing or test engineering.
• Rapidly iterate on system designs and integrations in a fast-paced environment.
• Own the process of creating component and assembly drawings, ensuring all customer requirements are met.
• Lead design reviews internally and externally with suppliers and customers.
• Be responsible for project delivery timeline from early design through production, commissioning and maintenance.
• Exemplify technical excellence and be accountable for your work.

Leadership

• Ensure the successful delivery of team objectives by fostering collaboration, providing leadership support, and driving progress toward project milestones.
• Elevate team capabilities and performance through effective knowledge sharing and education, ensuring findings translate into actionable improvements.
• Contribute to the seamless integration of individual and team efforts by aligning your work with broader organizational goals, ensuring consistency and collective success.

Here's what the first 12 months in the leadership role could look like:

Months 0-3: Your focus will be on establishing design methodologies that ensure the reliable and scalable development of critical system components, including our Electrolysis and Absorption Tower. You will set the vision for design excellence within the team, fostering a culture of collaboration and accountability. By selecting the right materials and components tailored to our unique process conditions, you will enable robust and efficient system performance. Through strategic collaboration with suppliers, you’ll secure long-term partnerships that enhance the quality and innovation of our designs, while empowering your team to excel in delivering these outcomes.

Months 3-6: You will take ownership of technical responsibilities in commercial projects, driving them toward industrial readiness, including achieving CE certification. Your leadership will result in actionable solutions from "scale-up" studies and "design-to-manufacturing" initiatives for mission-critical components, enabling projects to progress efficiently from concept to execution. By mentoring junior designers, you’ll cultivate a high-performing team capable of delivering rapid, high-quality design cycles that align with company goals.

Months 6-12: You will define the strategic framework for future plant iterations through modular design concepts, ensuring scalability and alignment with the company’s milestone of capturing 0.1 Gigatons of CO₂ annually by 2050. Your proactive approach to series production, both in-house and with external suppliers, will result in streamlined operations, predictable delivery timelines, and consistently high-quality outcomes. By anticipating and addressing future challenges, you will enable the organization to stay ahead of industry demands and achieve its long-term goals.

Basic Qualifications

• Completed studies in mechanical engineering or comparable qualification (e.g. diploma, B.Sc., M.Sc.)
• +5 years of experience

Preferred Skills and Experience

• You bring extensive experience in plant engineering (Anlagenbau) or special machinery construction (Sondermaschinenbau) projects, especially those involving liquid mediums, and have a proven ability to lead teams in delivering these complex projects successfully.
• You are a transformative leader, driving how the organization approaches requirements and executes designs, inspiring cross-functional teams to achieve engineering excellence while fostering a culture of continuous improvement.
• You have successfully applied key regulatory standards such as the Pressure Equipment Directive (DGRL, EN 13445, ASME), Operational Safety Ordinance (BetrSichV), and Federal Immission Control Act (BImSchG), ensuring compliance and mitigating risks across projects.
• Utilizing CAD software (preferred SolidWorks), you not only bring innovative designs to life but also mentor team members to adopt advanced design methodologies that drive efficiency and innovation.
• With domain expertise in analysis and simulation tools such as material selection, FMEA, FEA, and CFD, you ensure the reliability and scalability of products while empowering your team to develop data-driven solutions.
• You are fluent in English, with German skills being a significant advantage, enabling you to effectively lead diverse teams and communicate with stakeholders across borders.
• You are willing to occasionally travel and work on-site as needed, leveraging these opportunities to strengthen partnerships, resolve challenges, and align cross-functional teams with organizational goals. Relocation support is available to ensure a seamless transition.

• 30 days of vacation plus public holidays.
• Access to the latest work tools and technologies.
• A culture of mentorship and open communication, where your ideas and contributions directly influence our direction and success.

Are you tired of bureaucracy and slow decision making processes characterized by company politics and a manager's private agenda? Would you like to lose limitations in design freedom and instead have access to all production methods and innovations the market provides? Then become part of a highly motivated design team with a strong problem-solving attitude and high development speed.

This role cannot be done fully remotely. We require someone who lives within commuting distance to Essen or is open to relocate which we are happy to support.

Did you like what you just read? Apply directly and send us your CV. We look forward to hearing from you!

GCT was founded in September 2022 with the ambition to develop a low-cost, robust Direct Air Capture technology that captures CO2 at world-leading energy rates, whilst supplying hydrogen as a by-product. The company’s technology is based on 15 years of research and has been proven at various scales. Since its founding, the company raised 20-million Euros in funding from leading venture capitalists and renowned business angels.