Chief Operating Officer

About InPlanet

InPlanet is a mission-driven, remote-first ClimateTech startup headquartered between Germany Brazil and the US with hubs in Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, New York and London. We’re scaling Enhanced Rock Weathering (ERW) in tropical agriculture as a powerful method to remove carbon, regenerate soils, and transform the way food is grown in the tropics.

Our vision is simple but bold: to sequester gigatons of CO2 while regenerating tropical soils in order to create a liveable planet with nutritious food and healthy ecosystems for future generations. We’re doing this in partnership with farmers, scientists, and industry leaders - and we’re growing fast.

Our company culture blends people-first care and performance excellence. The Rocket represents our ambition and drive; the Heart symbolizes our focus on empathy, integrity, and collective impact.

We’re proud of our globally diverse team and inclusive culture. Our teams span across continents, but our boots are firmly on the ground in Brazil - where the real climate impact happens.

You can check out independent reviews by other candidates on Glassdoor to see how people experience the interview process with us.

Check out our Culture page here

About the Role

Hybrid, with travel in Brazil

Location: Brazil (São Paulo or surrounding regions preferred)

Language Skills: Must: Portuguese, English (fluent)

Start Date: asap

As COO, you will oversee and optimize our end-to-end value chain from mineral sourcing, processing, transportation, and inventory management to field deployment, operational delivery, and cross-functional execution. You will lead the development of scalable systems, processes, and partnerships that enable efficient growth while maintaining operational excellence.

Working closely with commercial, scientific, and technical teams, you will translate strategy into execution, aligning customer demand with operational capacity and supply availability. You will play a central role in shaping our operational roadmap, building resilient supplier and logistics networks, and ensuring seamless coordination across all parts of the organization.

This is a senior leadership role where strategic vision meets commercial innovation and operational excellence.

You will help define how one of the world's most promising carbon removal approaches scales from pioneering deployments to global implementation.

This is a rare opportunity to build and lead the operational engine of a high-growth climate technology company, establishing the systems, partnerships, and capabilities required to deliver transformative climate impact at industrial scale. On the operational front, you will work closely with our Chief Impact Officer, VP of Operations and Commercial Director who leads the charge on regional management, farmer acquisition, and the logistical execution of rock powder spreading across Brazil. You’ll work hand-in-hand with our Chief Science & Research Officer, ensuring that our field strategy is aligned with our scientific standards, operational goals, and long-term climate impact targets - building a delivery system that is not only efficient, but deeply trusted by our farming partners.

You’ll be responsible for orchestrating our 1-100 scale-up journey: evolving early pilots into robust, repeatable, and high-impact operations at national scale.

The ideal candidate brings a proven track record leading complex operations in agribusiness, logistics, supply chain, or related sectors, with the ability to combine operational excellence, commercial thinking, and innovation.

You will report directly to the CEO and be a critical member of our Senior Leadership Team.

As COO, you will hold overall accountability for operational performance, scalable delivery, and execution across InPlanet's value chain, partnering closely with leaders across Science, Impact, Carbon, Technology, and Commercial functions.

You’ll directly lead a large and growing team, including:

• VP of Operations, Commercial Director and all project deployment teams including Supply and Regional Managers
• Strategic collaboration with our Chief Impact Officer, and commercial partners
• Close partnership with our Chief Science & Research Officer
• Collaboration with Carbon, and Technology teams

Key Responsibilities

Strategy, Innovation & Scaling Operations

• You’ll help define and scale a novel carbon removal product - taking it from early traction to being a key player in agriculture and mining. This is a 1-100 leadership role, demanding bold strategy, deep market insight, and relentless execution.
• Drive market adoption by identifying scalable customer use cases, strengthening product-market fit, and developing strategic partnerships across agriculture, mining, and carbon markets.
• Lead the design and execution of a world-class ERW deployment operation across Brazil, with scalability in mind.
• Translate InPlanet’s carbon and climate goals into clear operational strategies and regional delivery models.
• Drive continuous improvement through operational KPIs, systemisation, and performance data.

Agricultural, Supply Chain, Logistics Leadership

• You’ll drive go-to-market strategies that bring breakthrough mineral products into entrenched agricultural systems, building the trust and partnerships needed for national adoption. Commercial creativity and strategic grit will be essential.
• Build strategic partnerships with input suppliers, logistics providers, agricultural service firms, and regional stakeholders.
• Oversee the sourcing, logistics, and deployment of rock powder - from mine to farm.
• Ensure operational excellence and compliance with carbon standards, farmer requirements, and regulatory frameworks.

Science-Driven Operations & Technology Alignment

• Collaborate with Science, Carbon, and Technology teams to ensure smooth integration of R&D, field trials, and data flows.
• You’ll bridge science and market, ensuring our product not only works in trials but wins in the real world. Field feedback will shape product evolution and create operational systems that scale with credibility and speed.
• Support the legal team to uphold integrity in carbon reporting and environmental impact.

Team & Culture Building

• You’ll build a leadership culture that’s entrepreneurial, fast, and accountable - turning high performers into high-impact owners. Your teams will know not just what to do, but why it matters.
• Lead, mentor, and grow high-performing operations teams across Brazil and globally.
• Champion a culture of accountability, collaboration, and impact-driven execution.
• Empower regional managers and technical leads to deliver quality projects at scale.

You can be a Rock-Star if you have

• 10+ years of executive leadership experience in operations, agribusiness, supply chain, or related sectors in Brazil, including experience in high-growth companies, startups, or scale-ups.
• Experience as a COO, General Manager, CEO, Founder, Business Unit Leader, or equivalent executive leadership role.
• You’ve scaled something from messy beginnings to market success - ideally as a founder, GM, CEO or Ops Director. You know what product-market fit looks like, and how to turn it into category leadership.
• Proven experience leading multidisciplinary teams and building scalable systems from the ground up.
• Strong communication and negotiation skills in Portuguese and English.
• Deep knowledge and network of Brazilian logistics, agriculture or mining.

Key Qualities

• Visionary but pragmatic - able to balance long-term strategy with daily urgency.
• A confident, emotionally intelligent leader who knows when to listen, act, and delegate.
• Comfortable navigating complexity, ambiguity, and rapid growth.
• Hands-on, humble, and willing to “get your boots dirty” when needed.
• Passion for sustainability, tropical agriculture, and climate innovation.

Bonus Points

• Experience in impact-driven sectors such as climate, carbon markets, or regenerative agriculture is a big plus.
• Experience building strategic and commercial partnerships in Brazil, within agriculture.
• Experience with building and scaling tech for agriculture.
• Strategy and management consultant is also a plus.

Living Our Values

At InPlanet, we have a big vision of solving climate change, and we are looking for individuals who are genuinely passionate about making a positive difference in the world of Carbon Removal Solutions. Trust guides our actions, drive fuels our efforts, and impact is our goal.

• Trust: You believe in being kind and transparent in the workplace, fostering an environment where trust thrives and collaboration flourishes
• Drive: You possess an innate drive to take action with a hands-on, can-do attitude, propelled by urgency
• Impact: You dream big and are committed to making a meaningful difference in the world, aligning with our overarching mission to address climate change

Benefits

• Competitive Compensation expectations and our comp philosophy are openly discussed in the first interview with the goal of managing expectations fairly
• Share options to make you feel like an owner
• Home Office Budget
• Hybrid Remote: ideally around Sao Paulo
• Personal development budget
• Language Programme Monthly Allowance
• 40 days annual leave
• The opportunity to be autonomous, make a huge difference and belong to a vision.
• Bi-annual offsites in Brazil yay!
• Laptop to fuel your productivity

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