Founding Engineer

Buckstop Industries Inc.; Washington (District of Columbia); Hybrid; USD 120,000 - 170,000; Full time

Job summary

Buckstop Industries Inc. is hiring early engineers to report to the CTO and shape the platform’s architecture from design to production. You will own end-to-end deliverables and directly impact customers and the planet through a high-standard engineering approach.

We hire across software, data, and ML tracks. You should have strong Python/SQL skills, cloud experience, and a commitment to quality; hybrid work with DC/DMV or Seattle is preferred, with remote options for the right candidate.

Qualifications

• 3-5+ years of professional experience in software engineering, data engineering, or a related technical discipline.
• Strong programming skills in Python and/or a relevant language for your track - production-quality code, not just scripts.
• Solid SQL fundamentals: complex queries, schema design, and performance intuition.
• Experience shipping and operating systems in a cloud environment.
• Must be legally authorized to work in the United States. Visa sponsorship (e.g., H-1B) is not available for this role.

Responsibilities

• Architect and build - Design purpose-built systems with clear responsibilities. Write production-quality code, participate in design reviews, and hold the bar on what ships.
• Own your work end-to-end - From design through deployment and operation. Before something ships, you define what "healthy" looks like and instrument it accordingly. We build it, we run it.
• Champion quality - Quality gates exist because our customers make financial decisions on our outputs. Raise the bar over time; challenge a process that slows us down without adding value.
• Collaborate and iterate - Work directly with the CTO and product team to understand requirements. Write design documents for consequential decisions; move fast on everything else.
• Leverage AI tooling - We use AI aggressively to accelerate engineering work. You are responsible for every line that ships under your name, regardless of how it was generated.
• Document constantly - Updating internal documentation is part of the definition of done. If you change how something works, write it down.
• Surface issues early - Say something as soon as you know something. Over-communicate. The cost of a cascading failure caused by silence is always higher than the cost of raising a flag early.

Skills

Python

SQL

Cloud

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related field

Tools

Docker

Kubernetes

CI/CD

Job description

The opportunity

Buckstop's mission is to create a sustainable end-of-life for every electronic device on Earth. Our vision: measure the residual value of every real asset on the planet and become the intelligence standard for the circular economy.

As an early engineering hire, you will report directly to the CTO and have a significant hand in defining, building, and scaling Buckstop's technical platform. This is not a feature-ticket role. You will influence architecture, own work end-to-end, and see the direct impact of what you build on customers and the planet.

We are hiring across engineering disciplines. Whether your background is in software engineering, data engineering, or data science, the foundation is the same: product-minded builders who take ownership, prepare before they execute, and hold themselves to a high standard.

"Ship fast, but prepare first. Small decisions get made and corrected quickly; big ones get a design doc. Surface issues immediately - silence causes cascading failures. The company values are not wall art; they are the operating system for how engineering decisions get made."

- Buckstop Engineering Philosophy

What track are we hiring for?

This posting covers three engineering tracks. Each shares a common foundation - ownership, quality, speed - with different areas of focus:

Software Engineer

Build and operate the backend services, APIs, and frontend applications that power our appraisal platform. Own services end-to-end from design through production.

Data Engineer

Design and build the data pipelines, models, and infrastructure that turn raw market signals into trusted, analytics-ready assets. Data quality is a first-class engineering concern here.

Data Scientist / ML Engineer

Develop and productionize the models and analytical frameworks that drive solar asset appraisals. Bridge statistical rigor with real-world business outcomes.

What you'll do

• Architect and build - Design purpose-built systems with clear responsibilities. Write production-quality code, participate in design reviews, and hold the bar on what ships.
• Own your work end-to-end - From design through deployment and operation. Before something ships, you define what "healthy" looks like and instrument it accordingly. We build it, we run it.
• Champion quality - Quality gates exist because our customers make financial decisions on our outputs. Raise the bar over time; challenge a process that slows us down without adding value.
• Collaborate and iterate - Work directly with the CTO and product team to understand requirements. Write design documents for consequential decisions; move fast on everything else.
• Leverage AI tooling - We use AI aggressively to accelerate engineering work. You are responsible for every line that ships under your name, regardless of how it was generated.
• Document constantly - Updating internal documentation is part of the definition of done. If you change how something works, write it down. Amnesia is the default state of a team; documentation is the cure.
• Surface issues early - Say something as soon as you know something. Over-communicate. The cost of a cascading failure caused by silence is always higher than the cost of raising a flag early.

Who you are

Required

• 3-5+ years of professional experience in software engineering, data engineering, or a related technical discipline.
• Strong programming skills in Python and/or a relevant language for your track - production-quality code, not just scripts.
• Solid SQL fundamentals: complex queries, schema design, and performance intuition.
• Experience shipping and operating systems in a cloud environment.
• Must be legally authorized to work in the United States. Visa sponsorship (e.g., H-1B) is not available for this role.

Preferred

• Software Engineering:Backend API development, async programming, relational database design, containerized deployments, CI/CD pipelines.
• Data Engineering:ETL/ELT pipeline design, data modeling, data quality frameworks, orchestration tools, event-driven architectures.
• Data Science / ML:Statistical modeling, ML model development and productionization, experimental design, applied analytics that inform real business decisions.
• Infrastructure-as-code and security fundamentals (credentials management, access control) are a plus across all tracks.

The Buckstop fit

We hire for demonstrated ability over pedigree. A strong portfolio or project history carries more weight than a specific degree. These are the qualities that define success here:

The buck stops with you

You own outcomes, not just tasks. When something breaks on your watch, you surface it, communicate it, and fix it - no finger-pointing.

Insist on the highest standards

You treat excellence as a daily practice and actively raise the bar - for your own work and your teammates'. Standards aren't static.

Never stop learning

You question your own approaches, explore new tooling, and document what you learn so others benefit. We operate in a fast-moving landscape.

Strong opinions, weakly held

You make a passionate, data-backed case for your ideas - and update your position when better information arrives.

Who prepares wins

You write the design before you write the code. You research thoroughly before making recommendations. Preparation is what makes speed sustainable.

Time is our most precious resource

You automate repetitive work and spend your engineering time on problems only engineers can solve.

Customer first

Every decision passes the customer test. Downtime and bad data aren't engineering inconveniences - they are customer failures.

Planet & profits

You understand that inaccurate appraisals produce bad outcomes for customers and for the circular economy we're building. Data quality is environmental integrity.

Why join us

Build from the ground up

Early engineers shape architecture, process, and culture. Your fingerprints will be on this platform for years.

Direct access to leadership

Report directly to the CTO. High-impact work with short feedback loops - not a queue of tickets.

Clear growth path

Contract-to-hire with a path to leadership and team-building as the company scales.

Mission that matters

Every line of code advances a sustainable end-of-life for electronic devices at planetary scale.

Flexibility

Hybrid - Washington D.C./DMV or Seattle preferred. Remote work eligible for the right candidate.

A note on ability over accolades

We value demonstrated skills over credentials. If you've built interesting things - even outside a traditional engineering path - we want to hear about them. Show us your work.