HJ Jost received his Ph.D. from the University of Berne in Switzerland in applied physics. He then moved to California and worked initially as a postdoctoral researcher and later as senior scientist on various NASA air- and balloon borne atmospheric research field campaigns all over the world. In 2006 he joined Novawave Technologies, a Silicon Valley start-up focused on developing laser based trace gas analysers, and was director of atmospheric sensing. After the acquisition of Novawave by Thermo Fischer Scientific in 2010, he initially served as a senior manager of R&D and then moved back to Europe where he took a product management role with global responsibilities.

In 2016, he helped co-found Karsa Ltd and has been serving as CEO since the beginning.