Description
We are hiring Software Engineers to accelerate our mission. At KoBold, software engineers have the unique opportunity to embed directly with their users and learn the ins and outs of mineral exploration and geology while developing state-of-the-art technology solutions.\n\nUnlike traditional software engineering roles, we don't simply ship code and passively wait for feedback about its utility: our userbase includes our colleagues... and ourselves!\n\nWhile there are real technical challenges in making mineral exploration data broadly searchable and accessible to both humans and machines, we believe that solving these technical challenges cannot be done without "getting our hands dirty" – sometimes literally! – by embedding directly with the exploration teams and even occasionally (~once a year) joining our colleagues in the field, be it in Zambia, Canada, or Arizona, to experience the impact of our software in real time.\n\nAs a Software Engineer on the Data Systems Engineering team at KoBold, your main role will be to enable systematic exploration and materially improve exploration success rates by making mineral exploration data broadly accessible to humans and machines.\n\nPast projects have included SIP (the Structured Ingest Pipeline), DataKit generation (producing curated sets of data on demand), and RAG (Retrieval Augmentation Generation, utilizing natural language processing on unstructured data).\n\nOur tech stack is primarily python and includes Django, React, AWS, and additional technologies like Retool and Prefect.\n\nYour work will empower KoBold to unlock invaluable insights and streamline intricate scientific processes.\n\nCollaborating with our exceptional team of data scientists, geologists, and other software engineers, you will have the opportunity to tackle complex problems head-on and collectively pave the way for the discoveries of vital energy transition metals like lithium, copper, nickel, and cobalt.\n\nTogether we can shape the future of mineral exploration and contribute to building a sustainable world.\n\nThis role will be responsible for:\n\nDeep engagement with exploration geologists and data scientists, continual learning about mineral exploration, and tailoring technology development to the needs of exploration project scientists\n\nBuilding data pipelines and tooling for deriving advanced human and machine insights from exploration data, often leading a small group of software engineers to successful delivery\n\nDeveloping expertise in KoBold's Data Systems and deeply understanding how they impact exploration\n\nEnd-to-end ownership of projects from design to implementation and testing to continued engagement with colleagues on exploration teams using your solutions\n\nResponding well to design and code feedback, also providing feedback to teammates\n\nOperationally managing the team's services and assisting scientific colleagues with our tooling\n\nQualifications:\n\n4+ years of software engineering experience, ideally building production cloud data systems\n\nProficiency with Python\n\nAbility to write production-quality code that is correct, readable, well-tested, scalable and extensible\n\nSkilled in large-scale system design\n\nA track record of taking ownership from definition of the problem and delivering projects with demonstrated impact in an iterative manner\n\nIntellectual curiosity and eagerness to learn about all aspects of mineral exploration, particularly in the geology domain.\n\nEnjoys constantly learning such that you are driving insights through using our tools in exploration and willing to work directly with geologists in the field.\n\nAbility to explain technical problems to and collaborate on solutions with domain experts who are not software developers.\n\nA strong communicator who enjoys working with colleagues across the company.\n\nExcitement about joining a fast-growing early-stage company, comfort with a dynamic work environment, and eagerness to take on an evolving range of responsibilities.\n\nKeen not just to build cool technology, but to figure out what technical product to build to best achieve the business objectives of the company.\n\nNice to Haves:\n\nExperience with modern frontend frameworks such as React\n\nExperience with geospatial data and building map-based experiences\n\nFamiliarity with containerization and container orchestration platforms, such as Docker, AWS ECS, Kubernetes, etc.\n\nFormal education or job exposure to natural sciences