Senior Software Engineer, Scientific Computing

KoBold Metals; United States; Remote; USD 150,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

KoBold Metals seeks a Senior Software Engineer, Scientific Computing to apply software engineering and ML to remote-sensing, drillhole, imaging, and geophysics data. You will build scalable ML systems and collaborate with data scientists and geologists to accelerate mineral discovery while contributing to teams across disciplines.

The role emphasizes developing robust libraries, ML pipelines, and tooling to prototype and productionize models that help locate economic ore concentrations

Qualifications

• Proficiency in Python and related data-science libraries; ability to implement ML models for scientific data
• Strong foundation in ML concepts, including traditional and deep learning approaches
• Experience building production-quality data processing tooling and pipelines
• Experience visualizing scientific data for domain experts
• Background enabling collaboration with data scientists, geoscientists, and engineers

Responsibilities

• Architect and maintain core scientific computing libraries for mineral exploration analyses
• Develop tooling to accelerate ML progress, prototyping in notebooks, and robust ML pipelines
• Collaborate with data scientists to build models predicting ore metal concentrations
• Mentor team on writing robust, testable, and composable code
• Partner with geoscientists and engineers to advance the scientific computing stack
• Travel to exploration sites globally to observe impact and guide technology development

Skills

Python

ML/AI

xarray

numpy

Jupyter notebooks

MLops

data processing

communication

Job description

Senior Software Engineer, Scientific Computing

Remote

Senior Software Engineer, Scientific Computing

About the Company

In the coming decades, our world needs far more critical minerals including copper, lithium, and cobalt, to build electric infrastructure, vehicles, data centers, and electronics. The mining industry is making 10x fewer discoveries per dollar spent on exploration compared to 30 years ago because the easy-to-find, near surface deposits have largely been discovered.

KoBold is the leading scientific mineral exploration, mine development, and technology development company. Our goal is to turn mineral exploration into a repeatable science to discover the minerals the world needs - by integrating artificial intelligence, human intelligence, and new technology. Our multidisciplinary teams of data scientists, engineers, and geologists work together to build data systems, design new sensors, and establish industry-leading workflows to develop and test subsurface predictions on our exploration projects.

Our first discovery, Mingomba, is a high-grade copper deposit in Zambia, found after spending materially less than industry average. We are developing Mingomba with the same technical rigor that we apply to exploration. The Mingomba team brings together mine and processing engineers, geologists, data scientists, software engineers, and community, health & safety, construction, and operations specialists. By combining industry knowledge and cutting edge technology, we are developing Mingomba into a world class project that has safer and more predictable outcomes for ourselves, partners, and communities. It is expected to create thousands of good jobs for generations.

KoBold runs exploration programs in eight countries, all with the potential for another discovery.

KoBold is privately held; investors include institutional asset managers T. Rowe Price and Canada Pension Plan Investments; technology venture capitalists Andreessen Horowitz, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, BOND Capital, Durable Capital, StepStone, and Standard Investments; and strategic natural resources companies BHP and Mitsubishi.

About the Role

At KoBold we believe that a modern scientific computing stack will enable systematic mineral exploration and materially improve our rate of mineral discovery. This role is a key ingredient to this strategy. As a member of our scientific computing team, you will apply software engineering and machine learning to remote-sensing, drillhole, imaging, geophysics and other mineral exploration data in order to build scalable ML systems to help make high-speed, high-quality decisions for our mineral exploration projects. Collaborating with our exceptional team of data scientists and geologists, you will tackle complex scientific problems head-on and collectively pave the way for 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

• Architect, implement, and maintain foundational scientific computing libraries that will be used in KoBold's mineral exploration analyses.
• Build tooling to increase the velocity of our machine learning progress, including enabling rapid prototyping in Jupyter notebooks; build experimentation, evaluation, and simulation frameworks; turning successful R&D into robust, scalable ML pipelines; and organizing models and their outputs for repeatability and discoverability.
• In collaboration with data scientists, build models to make statistically valid predictions about the locations of economic concentrations of ore metals within the Earth's crust.
• Apply-and coach team members to use-engineering best practices such as writing robust, testable and composable code
• Collaborate with data scientists, geoscientists and engineers to invent the modern scientific computing stack for mineral exploration
• Occasional travel to exploration sites around the world to observe the impact of scientific computing on KoBold's exploration products and design new technologies to further discovery. Travel is approximately twice per year depending on project needs.

Qualifications

Our ideal candidate will have:

• At least 5 years of experience as a software engineer, data scientist or ML engineer, though most great candidates will have closer to 10.
• Track record of building production quality data processing solutions or tooling that have delivered business value
• Proficiency with foundational concepts of ML, including statistical, traditional and deep-learning approaches
• Proficiency in Python, ideally including array-based packages such as xarray and numpy
• Deep experience with measured scientific data
• Experience in visualizing scientific data for domain experts
• Experience in MLops and in the making of robust ML systems
• Drive to increase the velocity and effectiveness of our data scientists in both experimental and production workflows
• Capacity to dive deep on novel challenging problems in applying ML to mineral exploration, including understanding a complex domain of geology and mineral exploration practices as well as working with limited, disparate and noisy data sources
• Collaborative attitude to work with stakeholders with different backgrounds (data scientists, geoscientists, software engineers, operations)

Work practices and motivation:

• Ability to take ownership and responsibility of large projects.
• 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. Enjoys constantly learning such that you are driving insights and innovations.
• Ability to explain technical problems to and collaborate on solutions with domain experts who aren't 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 a 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.
• Ability to independently prioritize multiple tasks effectively.

What to Expect

Joining KoBold means getting the opportunity for hands-on exposure to our exploration projects around the world. All employees are expected to travel to project sites, with a minimum of one week per year. Field-facing and technical roles spend significantly more time in the field.

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, disability, or veteran status.