Engineering Manager, Data Systems

About the company: 

KoBold Metals is a mineral exploration company using AI to explore for the metals we need for our transition to a low-carbon economy. KoBold’s business is discovering, defining, expanding, and developing mineral resources, and KoBold’s objective is to achieve a step-change improvement in exploration success: we aim to discover more tier 1 resources, faster, and with fewer failures.

KoBold has a global portfolio of more than 50 exploration properties targeting nickel, copper, cobalt, and lithium, which range from 100%-owned to partnerships with both majors, junior explorers, and prospectors.

Our team includes the best of the industry in exploration geoscience, data science, software engineering, operations, and business personnel. Prior to joining KoBold, KoBold team members have made nearly 20 discoveries. Our exploration programs are co-led by our geoscientists and data scientists, who develop exploration hypotheses, rigorously quantify uncertainty in our understanding of the subsurface, and design data collection programs that most effectively reduce uncertainty, drawing upon a large suite of proprietary exploration technology built by our data scientists and software engineers. Our field programs validate and improve the system and have demonstrated material improvements over conventional exploration methods.

KoBold is privately held and our investors include: institutional asset managers T. Rowe Rice and Canada Pension Plan Investments; technology venture capitalists Andreessen Horowitz, Bill Gates’s Breakthrough Energy Ventures, BOND Capital, Standard Investments, and Sam Altman’s Apollo Projects; and leading natural resources companies Equinor, Mitsubishi, and BHP.

About the role:

At KoBold, we believe making mineral exploration data broadly accessible to humans and machines will enable systematic exploration and materially improved exploration success rates. This role is a key ingredient to this strategy. As an early Engineering Manager on the Data Systems Engineering team, you will have the opportunity to shape how we build our product and organization to realize this vision. Through development of our robust data systems, we will empower KoBold to unlock invaluable insights and streamline intricate scientific processes. Collaborating with our exceptional team of data scientists and geologists, you will have the opportunity to tackle complex scientific problems head-on and collectively pave the way for the discoveries of vital energy transition metals like lithium, copper, nickel, and cobalt. Together we can shape the future of mineral exploration and contribute to building a sustainable world.

Responsibilities of this role include:

• Thoughtfully build and lead a team of high-performing software engineers, hiring and growing diverse individuals on your team
• Leverage your team in collaboration with data scientists, geoscientists, and other software engineers to plan, prioritize, and deliver impactful projects that accelerate our exploration efforts
• Work with the Head of Data Systems Engineering and interdisciplinary leaders across the company on our strategy to advance both our technical product and organization
• Collaborate with cross functional peers (geoscientists and data scientists) across the company, learning about mineral exploration. Coach your team to better partner across the company.
• Spend roughly 1/3rd of your time contributing to projects as an individual contributor

Qualifications

Our ideal candidate will have:

• 8+ years experience building production software systems
• 3+ years in an engineering leadership role with reports
• Experience building robust distributed cloud data systems. Bonus for experience building systems managing large geospatial or geoscientific datasets.
• Deep understanding of multiple database and data storage technologies
• A track record of taking ownership from definition of the problem and delivering large projects with demonstrated impact in an iterative manner
• Skilled at dealing with ambiguity and prioritizing effectively from multiple inputs 
• Formal education or job exposure to natural sciences

Work practices and motivation:

• Intellectual curiosity and eagerness to learn about all aspects of mineral exploration, particularly in the geology domain. Open to working directly with geologists in the field across the world. Enjoys constantly learning such that you are driving insights through using our tools in exploration.
• Ability to explain technical problems to and collaborate on solutions with domain experts who are not software developers. A strong communicator who enjoys working with colleagues across the company.
• Excitement about joining a fast-growing early-stage company, comfort with a dynamic work environment, and eagerness to take on an evolving range of responsibilities.
• Keen not just to build cool technology, but to figure out what technical product to build to best achieve the business objectives of the company.

KoBold Metals is an equal opportunity workplace and an affirmative action employer. We are committed to equal employment opportunity for people of any race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, marital status, national origin, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, or veteran status.

The US base salary range for this full-time exempt position is $200,000-$240,000.

Location: Remote, Candidates can be located anywhere in the United States or Canada. All candidates must be legally authorized to work in the United States or Canada.