Co-Founder, CTO (Next-Gen Geothermal)

Department: Marble Residency

Location: USA

Employment Type: FullTime

About Marble

Marble is a climate tech venture studio. We partner with scientists, engineers, and operators to create companies solving hard climate problems in the world's largest industries.

Our first 13 companies are building transformative products across energy, industry, agriculture, and climate resilience. 100% have been successful in raising follow-on to date. We are looking to partner with exceptional individuals to create our next venture.

Making Geothermal Scalable

Electricity demand is projected to rise sharply over the next decade, requiring new generation capacity at a pace well beyond today’s build rates. In the US alone, rapid load growth is expected to reach 25% by 2030, driven by electrification, data centers, AI infrastructure, and industrial buildout. This demand explosion calls for a massive increase in clean firm power, which next-generation geothermal is uniquely positioned to provide.

Despite the vast availability of geothermal heat, most remains inaccessible. Many geothermal reservoirs, especially those in low-permeability or geologically complex settings, cannot deliver sufficient flow using conventional vertical or mildly deviated wells. Most recently EGS has expanded the resource potential, but still remains constrained by technical limitations, such as water usage and thermal breakthroughs, high costs, and community and regulatory resistance due to concerns about induced seismicity. As a result, today’s projects tap only a small fraction of the subsurface, keeping geothermal below 1% of global electricity, despite IEA estimates of up to ~800 GW of potential by 2050.

The Opportunity

We are building a next-generation geothermal company focused on deploying novel well architectures that significantly increase reservoir contact and heat extraction.

By enabling access to a larger effective rock volume, we are targeting 2–3× greater well productivity. Combined with disciplined drilling execution, this will allow us to drive down costs that lead us on a path to the $50/MWh LCOE target.

We have de-risked all fundamental technical aspects, initiated discussions with key technical partners, and identified potential site geographies for pilots and first-of-a-kind.

We are looking for a CTO and Co-Founder with word-class drilling engineering experience. Your role will be broad, centered on leading the company's technical strategy and execution, from early pilots to building a multi-GW global project portfolio. You will oversee novel well design, site selection, project development, supplier management, and drilling operations in complex subsurface environments.

You will join a stellar CEO who was the former COO at Fervo Energy, with 20+ years in energy with technical and strategic roles across oil & gas, geothermal, utilities, hydropower, and long-duration storage. She brings deep experience building and scaling energy companies from the ground up.

Requirements

We are looking for an entrepreneurial drilling engineer, who brings a proven track record in designing complex wells, demonstrated success executing projects from planning to completion, and a driving motivation to build the future of geothermal power.

Must have: deep technical expertise in well design, including well architecture, casing design, directional trajectories, mud systems, with experience using standard well planning and design software. Strong drilling engineering and operations experience, including managing drilling risks such as lost circulation, wellbore instability, and thermal degradation.

Proven track record in project execution, designing and delivering complex wells safely and efficiently. Able to lead cross-functional technical discussions and align drilling decisions.

The ideal candidate will have prior experience with novel geothermal systems and advanced well architectures, as well as building and managing high performing technical teams, ideally in a startup and/or project developer environment. Above all the candidate should have an entrepreneurial mindset and willingness to take ownership in a founder-level role.

Location: We are primarily seeking candidates based in the US, with a preference for Western U.S, with the ability to travel to project sites across the region when necessary.

Example of relevant backgrounds:

• Senior drilling engineer with deep experience in well design and drilling in a geothermal or oil & gas field service company

• Technical expert in energy, with experience in drilling complex well architectures at an oil & gas or geothermal operator

• Startup founder / operator with technical leadership experience in drilling engineering and related drilling / well service operations

You’re encouraged to apply even if your background isn’t a perfect match. Above all, we value intelligence, creativity, and founder potential.

What We Offer

As a CTO and Co-Founder, you will partner with a Marble Founder in Residence who has been developing this project and will take the CEO role. You will, of course, have the opportunity to meet and work with them before making any big commitments!

We offer (among other things)

• A €3,000 monthly allowance during your participation in the Residency

• A €250,000 pre-seed investment in startup creation, if you are successful. You and your team will own 80% of the company at incorporation.

• Full-stack support in our venture creation programme

  • Mentorship and guidance at every step of the way

  • Hands-on support across technology derisking and market research, landing interviews with experts, potential partners, and customers, techno-economic modeling, roadmap and scale-up strategy, sourcing your future founding team, advisors, partnerships and more

  • Access to an unparalleled network across science, industry, talent, investors, mentors, and other climate deeptech founders

  • Access to our research insights, knowledge base, and curated resources

  • Weekly check-ins, work sessions in our Paris HQ (or remote,) and continuous peer learning with other program participants

• Seed Fundraising support after the program. Introductions to the best seed investors and help with term sheet negotiation.

We believe that a diverse group of minds is key to solving the climate crisis. We encourage women and people of colour to apply. Studies have shown that under-represented candidates are less likely to apply for an opportunity unless they feel they meet every single qualification. We are committed to building a diverse, inclusive and mission-driven cohort. If you’re excited about the programme but your past experience doesn’t align perfectly with what you read on our website, we encourage you to apply anyways!

FAQs

For a full list of FAQs, please visit our website.