---
title: 'Field Equipment Operator at Terranova'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/field-equipment-operator-terranova-berkeley-q7a8f9f0nx69'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-10-26'
---

# Field Equipment Operator at Terranova

- **Company:** Terranova
- **Location:** Berkeley, CA
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** onsite
- **Posted:** 2026-09-21
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-10-26
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/terranova/bed9b2a7-1b58-4810-a787-4281570f9bf5/application

**Skills:** Mechanical systems, Electrical systems, Hydraulics, Pumps, Heavy machinery operation, Field operations, Equipment repair, Troubleshooting, Robotics, Controls, Engines, Construction equipment, Vehicles, Heavy machinery, Industrial equipment

> The Forward Deployed Operator deploys, operates, and improves robotic land elevation systems in the field. This hands-on role involves running machines, fixing equipment, working outside, and solving difficult problems in real time while collaborating with engineering teams to enhance system reliability and safety.

## Job description

## About Terranova

Backed by leading climate and American dynamism investors, Terranova builds intelligent robotic systems to terraform the Earth itself - lifting land, restoring wetlands, and protecting critical infrastructure from floods and sea-level rise. Our mission is to preserve the built environment, create new habitats, and usher in an era of abundance. Our work supports climate resilience, disaster recovery, and defense across the United States and beyond. We’re assembling a world-class team that wants to work on something real, physical, and civilization-scale. If you want your work to reshape the world (literally), this is the place to do it.

## The Role

This is not an office, engineering, or equipment-design position. Most of your work will involve operating, transporting, setting up, maintaining, and repairing equipment in the field. We are looking for someone who has spent significant time working outdoors in environments such as oilfields, drilling sites, farms, construction sites, industrial facilities, or heavy-equipment operations. You should be comfortable getting dirty, performing physical work, working in difficult weather, and troubleshooting equipment when something breaks. Practical field experience is more important than a college degree.

## Responsibilities

- Operate Terranova’s field equipment, pumps, injection systems, generators, sensors, and robots
- Load, secure, transport, unload, set up, and break down equipment
- Operate or support skid steers, loaders, forklifts, trailers, pumps, and similar machinery
- Connect and maintain hoses, valves, fittings, pumps, and pressurized systems
- Inspect equipment before and after each shift
- Perform routine maintenance and mechanical repairs in the field
- Troubleshoot hydraulic, mechanical, electrical, and equipment failures
- Move heavy tools, hoses, parts, and materials
- Support drilling, pumping, and injection operations
- Keep work areas, vehicles, trailers, and equipment clean and organized
- Follow field-safety procedures and identify unsafe conditions

Required Experience

- At least three years of hands-on field experience in oil and gas, drilling, farming, construction, utilities, industrial operations, heavy equipment, or a similar environment
- Experience operating, maintaining, or repairing physical equipment
- Strong mechanical aptitude and practical troubleshooting ability
- Familiarity with pumps, hoses, valves, engines, generators, or hydraulics
- Ability to safely use hand tools and power tools
- Ability to perform physically demanding work outdoors in changing conditions
- Valid driver’s license and safe driving record
- Willingness to work weekends, travel, and stay overnight when required
- U.S. permanent residency

Oilfield, drilling-rig, farm-equipment, pump-operation, diesel-mechanic, and heavy-equipment experience is strongly preferred. A college degree is not required.

Schedule This is a five-day-per-week position, but it is not a Monday–Friday schedule. Workweeks may include weekends, and schedules may change during field deployments. Occasional sixth days, travel, and overnight stays may be required.

## About Terranova

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Terranova builds car-sized terraforming robots that inject a wood slurry deep underground to lift land out of flood zones, providing permanent elevation without surface disturbance.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Seed stage)
- **Headquarters**: Berkeley, California, United States
- **Founded**: Not publicly available
- **Founders**: Trip Allen (CEO/Executive Chairman), Laurence Allen (Forward-Deployed CEO)

## Core Business
- Primary industry/industries: Robotics Engineering, Climate Adaptation, Construction Technology
- Target customers: Real estate developers, infrastructure contractors, government agencies, defense organizations, and wetland conservation groups operating in flood-prone regions
- Mission or purpose statement: “To terraform the earth and usher in a new era of resilience and societal abundance” — Laurence Allen, CEO

## Products & Services
- **Terraforming Robot System**: A fleet of three car-sized injection robots and one “mothership” that can lift one acre by one foot per day. The robots inject a wood slurry deep underground to permanently elevate land with minimal surface disturbance.
- **Site Suitability Predictor**: An AI-driven tool that analyzes soil composition and flood risk to determine optimal project locations.
- **AI Injection Campaign Designer**: Machine learning reasoning models that design the precise injection pattern needed to achieve a desired surface topology.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation**: $25.1 million (post-seed round)
- **Key Metric**: $7 million in seed funding (closed three times oversubscribed)
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Outlander VC (co-lead), Congruent Ventures (co-lead), GoAhead Ventures, Gothams, Ponderosa (Galvanize Climate fund), and angels including Palmer Luckey
- **Growth Signals**: Emerging from stealth in 2025 with a $7M seed round; targeting costs up to an order of magnitude less than levees or seawalls; actively hiring across robotics, embedded systems, and business development roles

## Competitive Advantages
- **Cost advantage**: Targeting costs up to 10x cheaper than traditional levees or seawalls
- **Speed**: Projects completed in 2–8 weeks versus 3–36 months for conventional methods
- **Minimal environmental impact**: Uses waste biomass (wood slurry) as fill; no surface disturbance; minimal ecological disruption compared to surface fill or seawalls
- **Permanent solution**: Elevation is permanent, providing proactive flood protection rather than reactive defense
- **Unique technology moat**: Proprietary combination of heavy robotics, geotechnical engineering, and AI/ML for subsurface injection

## Strategic Focus
- Scaling from prototype to full-scale production of robot systems
- Beginning first commercial elevation projects in flood-prone regions (e.g., San Rafael, CA)
- Growing core engineering and field deployment teams
- Expanding into multiple verticals: real estate development, infrastructure, defense, mining, and wetlands restoration

## Why Work Here
- **Culture**: Mission-driven climate tech startup tackling a massive global problem (flooding costs the U.S. economy over $180B/year)
- **Work model**: In-office, based in Berkeley, CA (HQ) with a secondary office in Miami Beach, FL
- **Team size**: ~22 employees (as of mid-2025); tight-knit, early-stage environment
- **Engineering focus**: Heavy emphasis on robotics, controls, embedded systems, and mechanical engineering — a hardware-heavy startup building physical robots
- **Recent job openings**: Robotics Controls Engineer, Embedded Systems Engineer, Senior Mechanical Engineer, Director of Business Development, and multiple intern positions
- **Growth trajectory**: Early-stage with strong investor backing and clear product-market fit; opportunity to shape the company’s technical direction and culture

## Sources
1. [terranova.inc](https://www.terranova.inc/)
2. [LinkedIn - Terranova](https://www.linkedin.com/company/terranova-inc)
3. [Built In - Terranova Careers](https://builtin.com/company/terranova)
4. [The Robot Report - Seed Funding](https://www.therobotreport.com/terranova-gets-seed-funding-deploy-terraforming-robots/)
5. [Ashby Jobs Page](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/Terranova)

## Other roles at Terranova

- [Software Engineering Intern](https://feeny.ai/job/software-engineering-intern-terranova-berkeley-86ykdj3chn6h) — Berkeley, CA
- [Embedded Systems Intern](https://feeny.ai/job/embedded-systems-intern-terranova-berkeley-9xhyfdx9g665) — Berkeley, CA
- [Mechanical/Test Engineering Intern](https://feeny.ai/job/mechanical-test-engineering-intern-terranova-berkeley-m8yaxgtmxsy2) — Berkeley, CA
- [Controls/Robotics Intern](https://feeny.ai/job/controls-robotics-intern-terranova-berkeley-jxm04qgs5vck) — Berkeley, CA
- [Lead Field Operator – Wells, Drilling & Pumping](https://feeny.ai/job/lead-field-operator-wells-drilling-pumping-terranova-berkeley-mpb1n22he5zj) — Berkeley, CA
- [Mechanical Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/mechanical-engineer-terranova-berkeley-4m3dv96n0e1v) — Berkeley, CA
- [VP of Ops](https://feeny.ai/job/vp-of-ops-terranova-berkeley-8mzfk1d3knkn) — Berkeley, CA
- [Embedded Systems Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/embedded-systems-engineer-terranova-berkeley-4qhqhpd8pqxx) — Berkeley, CA
- [General Application](https://feeny.ai/job/general-application-terranova-berkeley-q1037bmrb2ny) — Berkeley, CA
- [Director of Business Development](https://feeny.ai/job/director-of-business-development-terranova-berkeley-zeyd791y32z2) — Berkeley, CA