Lead Software Engineer

TAR; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 150,000 - 190,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Relocation bonus

Unlimited PTO

Health insurance

Meal stipend

Job summary

TAR is building the world’s first off-grid power plant for data centers, powered by renewables. We seek a Lead Software Engineer to own core areas such as data pipelines, cloud infrastructure, or internal tools, reporting to the VP of Software at our San Francisco office.

You will guide a small team of engineers, shape technical direction, ensure security and reliability, and collaborate with cross-functional partners on roadmaps and hiring.

Qualifications

• 5–7 years of software engineering experience with team leadership or tech leadership.
• Hands-on ownership of a platform, data, or infrastructure system in production.
• Strong platform architecture and data/cloud infrastructure knowledge.
• Ability to review designs and explain trade-offs to partners.

Responsibilities

• Own the technical design and delivery plan for a defined platform area.
• Lead day-to-day technical direction and mentor engineers.
• Set scalable architecture with security and reliability in mind.
• Drive end-to-end lifecycle: roadmap input, priorities, releases, monitoring.
• Collaborate with autonomy/robotics teams on data interfaces without owning autonomy software.
• Uphold engineering standards, security practices, and reliability processes.
• Partner with VP of Software on hiring and roadmap input.

Skills

Senior leadership

Platform ownership

Data systems

Cloud infrastructure

Job description

Mission

TAR’s mission is to power intelligence for the world. We are building the world’s first off-grid power plant for data centers powered by renewable technologies.

We firmly believe AI should be built in the US for the benefit of all people. For that, power must be fast, clean and scalable. We are singularly focused on delivering GW-scale power faster than anyone has ever done, by rethinking every layer of the stack.

We vertically integrate to solve every bottleneck, from racking systems to power electronics to dispatch algorithms to on-site construction.

Leave your mark on the future of civilization-scale energy infrastructure.

Company

TAR is both a hardware and software company, we are building out massive, critical, physical infrastructure. TAR is working directly with one of the largest compute providers to scale and deploy 5GWs by 2028.

We operate on…

• High ownership. High Agency. Own project end-to-end. Great people don’t need to be managed.
• Speed. We achieve great things on incredible timelines. We push ourselves to go faster.
• First principles. No ego. No hierarchy. Challenge every assumption.
• Passion. Solving the energy problem is one of the largest challenges that faces the world now and in the future.

About the role

TAR develops, builds, and operates fully islanded solar and storage campuses that deliver firm power to AI data centers, generating a wide software surface: energy and plant data, fleet telemetry, tooling for construction and operations, and customer-facing systems. As Lead Software Engineer, you own the design and delivery of a core area of that platform: such as the data pipelines, cloud infrastructure, or a major internal or customer-facing tool and act as the technical lead for a small group of engineers. You report into the VP of Software and are based at our San Francisco engineering office.

Responsibilities

• Own the technical design and delivery plan for a defined area of the platform (e.g., data systems, cloud infrastructure, or a specific tooling surface), turning org-level roadmap priorities into concrete engineering work.
• Lead day-to-day technical direction for a small group of engineers, reviewing designs and code and mentoring less experienced engineers.
• Set architecture within your area that keeps systems secure, reliable, and built to scale as the campus fleet grows.
• Drive the development lifecycle for your area end to end: roadmap input, prioritization, release, monitoring, and iteration.
• Help maintain the data pipelines or interfaces your area shares with the autonomy/robotics team, without owning onboard autonomy software.
• Help uphold engineering standards, security practices, and reliability processes for the systems you own.
• Partner with the VP of Software on hiring and roadmap input, without owning org-wide strategy or leadership-team responsibilities.

Qualifications

• 5-7 years of software engineering experience, including some experience informally or formally leading a small team or serving as a technical lead on a project.
• Hands‑on experience owning a platform, data, or infrastructure system through to production for an operationally intensive business.
• Solid expertise in platform architecture, data systems, or cloud infrastructure, sufficient to set technical direction for your own area.
• Comfortable reviewing others' technical work and communicating design trade-offs to a manager or cross-functional partners

Nice to have

• Experience building software for energy, utilities, or other industrial infrastructure operators.
• Experience partnering with hardware or robotics teams on data integration, such as telemetry or fleet data pipelines.
• Background at a high-growth, venture‑backed infrastructure or industrial technology company.

Salary and Benefits

• Up to $15K relocation bonus
• Unlimited PTO
• Health, Dental, Vision insurance
• $1K monthly stipend for meals