Chief Executive Officer & Co-Founder

Terravation Labs is building a stealth startup to significantly improve how wastewater injection and induced seismicity are understood, managed, and mitigated in West Texas. By combining subsurface physics, real-time field data, and artificial intelligence, the company aims to reduce seismic risk to communities, protect critical infrastructure, and enable more predictable regulatory outcomes for industry. The company will build a new, industry standard platform for induced seismicity intelligence — a centralized system that warehouses and disseminates key information related to injection and field data, subsurface models, and indicators of seismic risk - continuously updated and interpreted in near real time.

The platform will serve regulators, energy companies, water injection and recycling companies, researchers, and communities.

A highly driven CEO is sought to lead company formation and scaling, including market strategy, product definition, R&D oversight, fundraising, and team building. This is a hands‑on, co‑founder‑level role. The ideal candidate will be equally comfortable discussing subsurface uncertainty with researchers, risk mitigation with regulators, AI with data engineers, and venture‑scale growth with investors — and should be motivated by building a company that meaningfully improves outcomes for communities and the environment.

The company is being incubated by Terravation Labs and will have close coordination with the Bureau of Economic Geology at the University of Texas, which leads the country’s top research consortium in this area. Preference for applicants currently or soon to be located in Austin, Texas.

As Co‑Founder & CEO, you will be responsible for the following:

• Defining the company’s initial product‑market fit and go‑to‑market strategy across regulators, corporate stakeholders, and public interests
• Leading product vision, definition, and technical direction in partnership with engineering and research teams, including the development of a scalable SaaS platform leveraging modern cloud infrastructure and AI capabilities
• Translating frontier academic and applied research in induced seismicity and subsurface modeling into commercially viable, trusted products
• Raising institutional capital from AI, software, climate tech, and deep‑tech investors, and managing ongoing investor relationships
• Recruiting and leading a high‑performing, multidisciplinary founding team across software, geoscience, environmental sciences and applied AI
• Representing the company with regulators, industry partners, research institutions, and public stakeholders, establishing the company as a credible, authoritative voice in wastewater injection and induced seismicity intelligence

• Entrepreneurial Drive: A proven track record in launching and scaling successful technology ventures
• Strong Business & Strategic
  
  Skills:
  
  Experience with market research, financial modeling, business development, and strategic planning
• Leadership & Resilience:
  Ability to lead teams, adapt to challenges, and thrive in an ambiguous, fast‑paced startup environment.
• Venture Capital Fundraising:
  Demonstrable experience successfully raising venture capital for a new technology company
• Executive‑Level Relationship Building:
  Proven ability to build executive‑level relationships with regulators, energy and water injection and recycling companies, research institutions, and public‑sector stakeholders
• Geotechnical Expertise:
  Fluency in subsurface modeling or adjacent geophysical domains, with the ability to lead and commercialize highly technical teams
• Software & AI Leadership:
  Experience leading the development and commercialization of modern SaaS platforms
• Market Acumen:
  Understanding of the challenges and opportunities within environmental safety and geological hazard monitoring markets

• Bachelor's or Master’s degree in a relevant field (e.g., Geology, Computer Science, Engineering)
• Existing, high‑level relationships within major energy and wastewater disposal and recycling companies
• Experience with software development and artificial intelligence applications
• Familiari…