We Came to Build

It takes everybody: Building Twelve’s AirPlant™ One.

Be the Element of Change™ Series

By: Ivy Blossom, Senior Manager of Talent Acquisition at Twelve

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Everyone wants to talk about innovation. Fewer people want to talk about what it takes to staff it.

When Twelve committed to building AirPlant™ One in Moses Lake, Washington—our first commercial demonstration carbon transformation facility—it was more than a technical milestone. It was a test of execution. And that meant building not just hardware and systems, but teams. Fast.

The talent work started before the concrete was poured.

We weren’t hiring for a well-established org chart. We were hiring into motion. The roles we filled didn’t all exist in a single industry—they came from climate tech, oil and gas, chemicals, aerospace, manufacturing, and more. We had to identify the work, align across functions, and attract mission-aligned builders who were willing to move quickly—and sometimes literally relocate.

Hiring in a First-of-a-Kind Environment

We had to rethink the entire process.

Speed 

Roles couldn’t sit open for months—we had deadlines to hit and needed the expertise in seat stat.

Clarity

We had to give candidates a real sense of what life in Moses Lake would be like and what success would look like in an ever-changing environment.

Context

Many hires weren’t just stepping into new jobs—they were stepping into a new category of industrial work. We had to be able to see how their skills translated into carbon transformation.

And we had to build the infrastructure around hiring as we went: aligning hiring managers, prioritizing roles, structuring relocation support, and creating a process that respected both urgency and quality.

It wasn’t perfect. But it worked well—because it had to.

People Make the Project

Behind every stack installation, vendor meeting, commissioning milestone, or shift plan—there’s a human who decided this was worth building.

AirPlant One isn’t just about carbon transformation. It’s about people who changed careers, moved cities, and jumped into something brand new—because they believed in the mission and wanted to work on something that matters.

Andre Gomes, Julia Perilli, Ashwin Jadhav

I’ve had conversations with candidates who said, “I didn’t think I’d leave oil and gas,” or “I’ve never relocated before, but I couldn’t pass this up.” Those decisions don’t show up in press releases, but they’re foundational. They’re the reason Twelve can stand up infrastructure that others are still drawing on whiteboards.

This is What Investment in American Industry Looks Like

For policymakers, this is what real investment looks like: It’s not a talking point. It’s people, process, place.It’s job creation, site development, long-lead hiring, and hands-on execution.

For candidates, this is your signal: carbon transformation isn’t coming. It’s here.

We’re building AirPlant One with real people in real time—and we’re not done. As we expand our platform and stand up new facilities, we’ll need more builders, operators, and engineers who are ready to move with urgency and integrity.

If you’ve ever wanted to work on something tangible—something you can point to and say, “I helped build that”—this is your chance.