Lead Carbon Dioxide Removal Specialist

Job Description and Duties

The California Air Resources Board (CARB) is the state agency responsible for reducing greenhouse gas emissions in California. CARB leads the development and implementation of strategies to achieve carbon neutrality by 2045 and tracks progress toward that goal. Carbon dioxide removal (CDR) is a critical component of California’s carbon-neutrality pathway, as directed by Senate Bill 905 (Caballero, 2022).

The Carbon Strategies Section leads CARB’s technical analyses, protocol development, and carbon accounting related to CDR. The Section’s work spans non–nature-based carbon removal pathways, including carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS); biomass carbon removal and storage (BiCRS); marine CDR; direct air capture (DAC); and other emerging technologies.

The Lead Carbon Dioxide Removal Specialist serves as the senior technical and policy expert within the Carbon Strategies Section. This position leads the most complex and impactful technical, regulatory, and policy work related to CDR, ensuring the timely, credible, and high-quality delivery of Section products. The role requires strong engineering or scientific judgment, policy acumen, and the ability to translate complex technical concepts into actionable regulatory and strategic outcomes.

The Lead Carbon Dioxide Removal Specialist serves as a subject-matter expert on carbon dioxide removal technologies, pathways, and policies, providing technical leadership across the full scope of the Section’s work. The position conducts and oversees advanced technical and policy analyses to evaluate the efficacy, costs, benefits, limitations, public-health impacts, feasibility, scalability, and equity implications of CDR approaches for use in protocol development, regulatory design, and statewide climate policy. The Specialist stays current on CARB, interagency, academic, and federal research, programs, and policy developments to ensure that the Section’s work reflects the best available science and data and achieves meaningful policy impact. The role involves communicating the Section’s work to external stakeholders, coordinating meetings and engagement with partners, and collaborating closely with public agencies, research institutions, equity stakeholders, industry representatives, and CARB staff, management, and executive leadership. The Specialist identifies research gaps and emerging issues to advance CARB’s understanding of cutting-edge CDR topics and incorporates social-equity considerations into all aspects of technical and policy development. In addition, the position leads the development of reports and other section deliverables, ensures project timelines are met, and mentors and coaches staff by providing guidance on the section’s most complex and high-priority technical and policy efforts.

Please note that applicants will need to have successfully taken the Staff Air Pollution Specialist exam or to be currently employed as a Staff Air Pollution Specialist in California State Service, available here:

The exam is to determine experience in and exposure to relevant fields; it does not include technical questions. Exam-takers should consider review of material in a professional or academic setting to count towards relevant experience.

You will find additional information about the job in the .

Working Conditions

This position may be eligible for hybrid in-office work and in-state telework. The amount of telework is at the agency's discretion and is based on the California Air Resources Board’s (CARB) current telework policy. While the CARB may support telework, some in-person attendance is also required.

The positions at the CARB may be eligible for telework with in-person attendance based on the operational needs of the position under Government Code 14200 for eligible applicants residing in California, subject to the candidate meeting telework eligibility criteria outlined in the CalEPA telework policy and/or future program need. Employees not residing in California are not eligible for telework. Regardless of hybrid telework eligibility, all employees may be required to report to the position’s designated headquarters location at their own expense, as indicated on their duty statement.

Effective July 1, 2025, the California Department of Human Resources (CalHR) implemented the Personal Leave Program 2025 (PLP 2025). PLP 2025 directs that each employee shall receive a 3 percent reduction in pay in exchange for 5 hours PLP 2025 leave credits, monthly. The salary range(s) included in the job advertisement do not reflect the 3 percent reduction in pay.

• Position located in a high-rise building.
• Requires being stationary, consistent with office work, for extended periods.
• Standard office environment (artificial lighting, controlled temperature, etc.).
• Daily use of a personal computer, office equipment, and/or telephone.

Special Requirements

Applicants must include a Supplemental Questionnaire (SQ) for this recruitment. Applications without an SQ or including an SQ that does not directly answer all the items below will not be considered. Cover letters and resumes do not take the place of the SQ.

• Require Name on SQ
• Require Job Control Number on SQ
• Maximum number of pages: 2 (Arial font, 12 point, single spaced, 1-inch margins)

1) Describe your experience with carbon dioxide removal technology and how many years you have in this space.
2) Describe your experience in carbon accounting and how many years in this space.
3) Describe your leadership experience and how many years you have been in a leadership position.
4) Describe your experience in carbon markets, regulatory environments, and/or CDR project implementation and how many years of experience.
5) Describe your experience leading large/complex projects involving multiple people.
6) Describe your experience mentoring and coaching others and how many years.

Desirable Qualifications

In addition to evaluating each candidate's relative ability, as demonstrated by quality and breadth of experience, the following factors will provide the basis for competitively evaluating each candidate:

The most competaitive candidate will have strong technical, engineering, scientific, and/or analytical skills. Additionanly, they will possess leadership, writing, project management, and communication skills, with an ability to speak and write effectively using direct, concise, and non-technical language. Further, the candidate must be able to interact diplomatically with a wide range of stakeholders and collaborators. The candidate should be proficient at making presentations and communicating to both highly technical expert scientists and non-technical persons, alike. The candidate must be organized and possess well-developed project management skills, allowing them to manage multiple high-priority assignments under accelerated and competing deadlines, be adaptable to a rapidly changing policy and political environment, and be comfortable with a flexible and highly collaborative management structure based on cross-agency project teams. The ideal candidate will have knowledge of carbon removal technolgoies, carbon accounting, political/societal sensitivities about CDR pathways/technolofies, governmental processes, and/or protocol exposure. Experience working and communicating with various stakeholders and various levels of government, inside and outside of CARB, is necessary. Demonstrable examples of producing public facing products or reports for CARB is desired.

You will find additional information about the job in the Duty Statement.

Benefits

Benefit information can be found on the CalHR website and the CalPERS website.

• Nearby (third-party) Parking
• Convenient to public transportation
• Gym
• Daycare facility

Experience and Education

For experience/education to qualify during the application screening process and to ensure that minimum qualifications can be determined, applicants should include all employment history on the Employment Application (STD 678), including detailed job descriptions, hours worked per week, and start/end dates (MM/DD/YYYY). Application packages without this information may experience delayed processing times, and your eligibility for this position may be impacted.

If you are using education to meet the minimum qualifications for this position, you must submit a copy of your transcript or diploma. Applicants who completed their education outside the United States (with foreign degrees/transcripts) must obtain and submit verification of the United States course/degree equivalency.

Foreign education credential evaluation services can be found at

Failure to submit all the required documentation will result in an incomplete application and disqualification from consideration for this position.

Required Application Package Documents

The following items are required to be submitted with your application. Applicants who do not submit the required items timely may not be considered for this job:

• Current version of the State Examination/Employment Application STD Form 678 (when not applying electronically), or the Electronic State Employment Application through your Applicant Account at All Experience and Education relating to the Minimum Qualifications listed on the Classification Specification should be included to demonstrate how you meet the Minimum Qualifications for the position.
• Resume is required and must be included.
• Degree and/or School Transcripts
• Other - Cover Letter
• Supplemental Application -

  Please see the Special Requirements section of this job advertisement for detailed instructions for the SQ submission.