Investor, Early Stage Team

ImpactAlpha Inc.; San Francisco, Northern (CA, KY); Hybrid; USD 180,000 - 230,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Base salary

Performance bonus

Carried interest

Health insurance

Dental insurance

Vision insurance

Diversity & inclusion

Fast advancement

Founders network

Strategy influence

Job summary

Lowercarbon Capital is seeking an investor to join its early-stage team, focusing on identifying and evaluating the best founders in climate technology, critical minerals, energy, and heavy industry. You will engage directly with founders, technical experts, and customers to test both technology and business models, translating insights into investment memos and market maps.

The role requires deep technical understanding, ability to work end-to-end in diligence, and a strong network in climate

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in an engineering discipline or equivalent technical training.
• Demonstrated work experience in scale-up, deployment, or operations of physical-world companies.
• Ability to reason from first principles rather than relying on received wisdom.
• Comfort with forming judgments based on incomplete information.
• Strong ability to explain complex technical and business concepts clearly.

Responsibilities

• Identify and build relationships with founders across energy, critical minerals, manufacturing, and heavy industry.
• Map landscape and bring compelling companies into Lowercarbon Capital’s network.
• Support diligence end-to-end by defining questions and prioritizing risks.
• Go deep with founders on engineering, product development, and project financing.
• Translate conversations into clear investment memos, market maps, and public perspectives.
• Engage with founders, operators, and experts to strengthen credibility in sectors.

Skills

First principles reasoning

Independent project work

Strong communication

Energy transition knowledge

Networking with experts

Hustle and fast learning

Debate on energy topics

Education

Bachelor’s degree in engineering or related field

Equivalent technical training

Tools

None

Job description

About Lowercarbon Capital

Lowercarbon Capital is a venture capital firm focused on climate technology and decarbonization. The firm specializes in backing founders who are rebuilding how critical inputs are sourced and manufactured, hardening global systems for a changing climate, and generating clean, reliable power for both humans and machines. The company operates at the intersection of climate technology, advanced manufacturing, energy infrastructure, and critical minerals extraction. The firm invests across several key sectors including energy generation and storage, critical minerals production, advanced manufacturing processes, and heavy industry decarbonization. Lowercarbon Capital takes a deep technical approach to venture investing, with investment teams that understand both the engineering complexities and operational intricacies of physical-world businesses. The firm maintains conviction in scaling solutions that address fundamental bottlenecks in the global energy transition and industrial decarbonization. Lowercarbon Capital’s investment thesis centers on the premise that solving climate change requires not just technological innovation but also the ability to scale manufacturing and deployment of those technologies at global levels. The firm works closely with founders, technical experts, and industry operators to pressure-test both the technological viability and business models of potential investments.

About this Role

Lowercarbon Capital is seeking an investor to play a key role on its early stage investment team. This role focuses on identifying and evaluating the best founders working on the hardest problems in climate technology, critical minerals, energy, and heavy industry. The successful candidate will find compelling founders early, understand the technical and operational complexities of their businesses, and determine what would need to be true for them to create transformational impact. In this position, you will engage directly with founders, technical experts, and customers to pressure-test both the underlying technology and business model. You will translate these conversations and analyses into a clear point of view that shapes investment decisions. Over time, this role becomes a trusted internal voice on where given spaces are heading and where the firm should be placing its bets. The role involves end-to-end support of the diligence process, from helping define initial investment questions to identifying which technical and market risks matter most. You will go deep with founders on topics ranging from technical engineering details to project financing structures. Your work will help translate messy, incomplete information into clear investment memos, market maps, and public-facing perspectives that strengthen the firm’s credibility in key sectors.

Responsibilities

• Identify and build relationships with founders building industry-defining companies across energy, critical minerals, manufacturing, and heavy industry, ideally before competitors discover them
• Map the landscape of who is working on what within given spaces, run down leads, and bring the most compelling companies into Lowercarbon Capital’s investment network
• Support diligence from end to end by helping define questions for new investments early in the process, prioritizing which risks matter most, and identifying what information would meaningfully change investment conviction
• Go deep with founders on all aspects of their businesses, from technical engineering and product development to project financing and go-to-market strategy
• Build and externalize the firm’s point of view by turning incomplete information into clear investment memos, market maps, and occasional public blog posts
• Use research and analysis work to bring founders, operators, technical experts, and other investors into conversation and strengthen the firm’s credibility in relevant sectors
• Build community that brings the best opportunities to the firm
• Go deep on new and emerging thematic areas within climate technology and decarbonization
• Develop real understanding of where domains are bottlenecked, what has already been de-risked, what remains genuinely hard, and what would need to change for spaces to scale
• Inform where the firm focuses its attention, how it asks questions in future diligence, and where it should be skeptical or patient about market timing

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in an engineering discipline or equivalent technical training (chemistry, materials science, biology, geology, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, or adjacent fields)
• Demonstrated work experience in the scale-up, deployment, or operations of companies operating in the physical world
• Ability to reason from first principles rather than relying on received wisdom
• Comfort with forming judgments based on incomplete information
• Strong ability to explain complex technical and business concepts simply and clearly
• Experience operating in situations with no single correct answer
• Deep knowledge of what it takes to decarbonize the global economy
• Ability to engage in informed debate on energy topics including “electrify everything,” generation and storage technologies (baseload options like nuclear and fission, renewables), and distributed energy resources
• Strong understanding of market signals and business models needed to scale new energy technologies
• Autonomous working style with ability to run projects independently
• Ability to show up with hypotheses and recommendations, not just questions
• Comfort tackling big, hard, and sometimes unconventional problems
• Strong research and communication skills for both internal and external audiences
• Ability to anchor on right concepts quickly and go deep enough to be credible
• Strong network or ability to build networks with technical experts and industry operators
• Detail-oriented approach to both internal documents and external presentations
• Ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously and switch between them without dropping any
• Willingness to admit what you don’t know and learn fast
• Demonstrated hustle and willingness to go above and beyond

Benefits

• Base salary of $180,000 to $230,000 depending on knowledge, education, abilities, internal equity, and market alignment
• Performance bonus
• Carried interest in successful investments
• Health, dental, and vision insurance benefits
• Equal opportunity employer committed to diversity and inclusion
• Fast advancement potential for high performers
• Opportunity to work on transformational climate solutions
• Access to leading founders and technical experts in climate technology
• Ability to shape investment strategy and firm direction