Interview scorecard template

Carbon Capture and Utilization Specialist interview scorecard

Evaluate Carbon Capture and Utilization Specialist candidates across 4 weighted areas: technical depth, work that shipped, diagnosis under uncertainty, and working across the org. Technical depth leads at 35%, so probe capture chemistry and process design: solvent or sorbent behaviour, energy penalty, and the utilisation pathway downstream. Use the rubric to compare role-specific evidence consistently.

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engineering applied sciencecarbon captureccusdecarbonisationprocess engineering
TL;DR
For technical depth, look for evidence the candidate explains capture chemistry and the energy penalty honestly, including where the utilisation pathway stops making sense. For work that shipped, look for evidence the candidate names pilots or plants that captured real tonnes, with capture rate and energy cost figures they owned. Apply the written 1–5 anchors to every answer, record the evidence behind each rating, and use the factor weights to reach a consistent overall assessment.
Complete evaluation framework

What to assess and how to score it

Review the evidence signals before interviewing. Then use the anchored descriptions—not instinct alone—to choose the score that best matches each answer.

01
Evaluation factor

Technical depth

35% weight

Probe capture chemistry and process design: solvent or sorbent behaviour, energy penalty, and the utilisation pathway downstream.

Evidence to listen for

  • Explains the physics or mechanism behind their work, not just the tooling
  • Names the standards, tolerances, and constraints they designed against
  • Can defend a design decision under follow-up questions
  • Distinguishes what they personally engineered from what the team delivered

Five-point scoring guide

1
Poor

Cannot explain the fundamentals of their own stated specialism.

2
Needs Improvement

Knows the vocabulary but not the underlying mechanism; struggles under follow-ups.

3
Satisfactory

Solid working knowledge for the role; depth thins out on edge cases.

4
Very Good

Strong command of the domain; explains trade-offs and defends decisions well.

5
Excellent

Explains capture chemistry and the energy penalty honestly, including where the utilisation pathway stops making sense.

02
Evaluation factor

Work that shipped

30% weight

Look for plants or pilots that captured real tonnes, with capture rate, energy cost, and availability figures.

Evidence to listen for

  • Names specific programmes, parts, or systems that reached production or field use
  • States their own scope inside the project
  • Can give measured outcomes: yield, cycle time, cost, failure rate
  • Explains what went wrong and what they changed

Five-point scoring guide

1
Poor

No delivered work; experience is coursework, lab-only, or purely observational.

2
Needs Improvement

Contributed to projects but cannot say what shipped or what their part was.

3
Satisfactory

Has delivered real work; outcomes described without numbers.

4
Very Good

Names shipped work and their scope, with some measured results.

5
Excellent

Names pilots or plants that captured real tonnes, with capture rate and energy cost figures they owned.

03
Evaluation factor

Diagnosis under uncertainty

20% weight

Test how they diagnose a unit missing its capture rate when solvent degradation, fouling, and flue conditions all fit.

Evidence to listen for

  • Describes a real failure they chased to root cause
  • Shows a method: isolate variables, reproduce, measure, eliminate
  • Distinguishes correlation from cause
  • Says what they ruled out and why, not only what the answer turned out to be

Five-point scoring guide

1
Poor

No diagnostic method; guesses or escalates immediately.

2
Needs Improvement

Trial and error with no structure; cannot explain how they narrowed the cause.

3
Satisfactory

Reasonable method on familiar problems; less structured on novel ones.

4
Very Good

Clear systematic approach with a real root-cause story.

5
Excellent

Isolates solvent degradation, fouling, and upstream flue variation systematically rather than adjusting blind.

04
Evaluation factor

Working across the org

15% weight

Check how they handle host-site operators whose primary process must not be disrupted by the capture unit.

Evidence to listen for

  • Explains technical constraints to non-technical stakeholders without condescension
  • Has negotiated scope, cost, or timeline with manufacturing, product, or suppliers
  • Documents decisions so others can act on them
  • Takes review feedback without defensiveness

Five-point scoring guide

1
Poor

Cannot communicate outside their specialism; dismissive of other functions.

2
Needs Improvement

Communication gaps cause rework; avoids stakeholder contact.

3
Satisfactory

Works adequately with other teams; documentation is thin.

4
Very Good

Communicates clearly across functions; reliable collaborator.

5
Excellent

Works with host-site operations so capture never threatens the primary process, with interfaces documented.

Evidence-led prompts

Interview questions for a Carbon Capture and Utilization Specialist

Use these prompts to surface evidence for the weighted factors above and compare candidates against the same role-specific criteria.

  1. 01

    Describe your experience with capture technologies such as absorption, adsorption and membrane separation.

  2. 02

    How do you approach the design and optimisation of a capture system? What dominates the energy penalty?

  3. 03

    Which CO2 utilisation methods are you most familiar with, and which actually make economic sense?

  4. 04

    Explain a project where you implemented a capture and utilisation strategy. What did it capture?

  5. 05

    Describe your experience with pilot projects or scaling up capture systems. What changed at scale?

See the complete Carbon Capture and Utilization Specialist question set
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