Founding Software Engineer

GuruLink; Remote; CAD 80,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

A pioneering technology company in Montreal is seeking a Founding Software Engineer to lead the development of their core platform. The role involves strengthening existing systems and scaling operations. Candidates should have solid Python experience, familiarity with cloud-native architectures such as GCP, and the ability to mentor a growing team. This hands-on role offers the opportunity to evolve into a technical leadership position and make impactful contributions to a technology that aids mineral exploration.

Qualifications

• Solid experience with Python in production environments is mandatory.
• Experience with cloud-native architectures, especially GCP, is preferred.
• Strong communication skills are essential for collaboration.

Responsibilities

• Take ownership of the core platform foundations.
• Understand and maintain the existing system architecture.
• Ensure platform stability and operational robustness.
• Improve deployment processes and monitoring.
• Identify and prioritize technical improvements.
• Contribute to technical documentation.
• Work closely with external consultants.
• Help build and mentor an internal engineering team.

Skills

Python proficiency

Experience with cloud-native architectures

Familiarity with MongoDB

Familiarity with PostgreSQL

Understanding of distributed computing

Scalable systems experience

AI-related workloads

Strong communication skills

Tools

GCP

Dask

Next.js

React

Job description

Location

REMOTE / Montreal, Quebec

Company Overview

The Seed Stage ($2 million) technology company is building solutions at the intersection of mineral exploration, geophysics, and advanced data processing. They develop and deploy innovative technologies that help mining and exploration companies make faster, better‑informed decisions in complex geological environments.

By combining IoT sensors with artificial intelligence and advanced data analysis, the company provides precise 3D mapping of the Earth’s subsurface at depths of up to three kilometers. Their primary mission is to accelerate the discovery of deep critical mineral deposits such as copper, cobalt, and nickel, which are essential for the global energy transition and decarbonization of the economy.

The company distinguishes itself by offering a sustainable and highly efficient alternative to traditional seismic and geophysical methods. Beyond exploration, their technology is applied to monitoring tailings facilities, geotechnical risk assessment, and hydrogeology, allowing mining companies to significantly reduce their environmental footprint.

Role Overview

This role:

We are looking for an experienced Founding Software Engineer to take ownership of the core technical foundations of the platform and help structure the next phase of its evolution.

This is a hands‑on, high‑impact role for someone who enjoys working close to production systems, setting technical direction pragmatically, and progressively building a small, solid engineering team.

The platform is already in production, supporting real projects with significant data volumes. The focus of this role is to strengthen, scale, and evolve an existing system. Over time, this role is expected to naturally evolve into a technical leadership / architecture role as the team matures.

Responsibilities

• Take ownership of the core platform foundations
• Understand and maintain the existing system architecture (backend, data pipelines, cloud infrastructure)
• Ensure platform stability, scalability, and operational robustness
• Improve deployment processes, monitoring, and reliability
• Identify and prioritize technical improvements and technical debt
• Establish clear technical standards and best practices
• Contribute to technical documentation (architecture, workflows, critical components)
• Work closely with external consultants during transition phases
• Gradually help build and mentor a small internal engineering team
• Progressively take on a broader technical leadership / architecture role

Must Have Skills

• Solid experience with Python in production environments
• Experience with cloud‑native architectures (GCP strongly preferred)
• Familiarity with MongoDB and PostgreSQL database structures
• Experience with distributed computing, scalable systems, and AI‑related workloads
• Able to reason about scalability, data pipelines, and system reliability
• Pragmatic, delivery‑oriented mindset
• Interested in growing into a broader technical leadership role
• Strong communication skills and ability to work with non‑software specialists

Nice to Have Skills

• Experience with frontend development (Next.js, React)
• Experience building distributed systems with Dask is a plus