Software Engineer, Entry Level

BurnBot; South San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; USD 115,000 - 150,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity — Incentive Stock Options

Health, dental, and vision

Flexible paid time off

Job summary

BurnBot in South San Francisco is seeking a software engineer with 0–5 years of experience to work across the stack alongside a mentor. You’ll touch autonomy tooling, backend services, operator interfaces, and data pipelines, with code running on field machines within weeks.

You will be building end-to-end features, crafting tooling and tests to accelerate the team, and triaging field data to diagnose issues on burns and field tests.

Qualifications

• Bachelor-level computer science degree or equivalent self-taught experience.
• Strong fundamentals in at least one programming language.
• Proven ability to build and finish projects such as internships, coursework, or open source.

Responsibilities

• Own features end-to-end with a senior engineer alongside you.
• Develop tooling and tests to speed up the team.
• Triage field data and help diagnose issues on live machines.
• Fix real bugs on real machines to accelerate learning.

Skills

Python

C++

TypeScript

Go

Rust

Education

B.S. in computer science or related field

Job description

• Location: 340 Shaw Rd, South San Francisco, CA, 94080, United States
• Base Pay: $115,000.00 - $150,000.00 / Year
• Employee Type: Exempt (FT)

About BurnBot

Wildfire has stopped being a season. BurnBot builds the machines that get ahead of it — remotely operated systems that apply and contain prescribed fire, and platforms that clear heavy fuel on terrain that isn’t safe for crews.

Our fleet is at work today for PG&E, CAL FIRE, the U.S. Forest Service, Caltrans, fire districts, and tribal nations across California, Oregon, and Washington — treating land at up to 40x the pace of conventional methods. We’re roboticists, engineers, and career fire practitioners. Hardware we design in South San Francisco is in the dirt within weeks, and the people who designed it are usually standing next to it.

THE ROLE

This is an unusually good first or second software job. The machines are real, the feedback loop is short, and nobody here will hand you a narrow slice and tell you to stay in it.

You’ll work across the stack with a mentor — autonomy tooling, backend services, operator interfaces, and the data pipelines connecting them — and you’ll see your code run on a machine in a field within weeks.

WHAT YOU’LL OWN

• Features end to end, with a senior engineer alongside you — design, build, review, ship
• Tooling and tests that make everyone else faster. This is how you learn the system.
• Field data triage: something looked wrong on a burn yesterday, and you’ll help figure out what
• Real bugs on real machines, which is the fastest engineering education available

WHAT YOU’LL BRING

• 0–5 years of experience. New graduates are genuinely welcome here.
• Strong fundamentals in at least one language — Python, C++, TypeScript, Go, or Rust
• Evidence you can build something and finish it: internships, coursework projects, robotics teams, open source, or something you made because you wanted it to exist
• Curiosity and comfort with ambiguity. A lot of this is not documented yet.
• Willingness to get on a plane, wear boots, and see the machines work
• B.S. in computer science or a related field, or equivalent self-taught experience

NICE TO HAVE

• Robotics coursework, a competition team, or ROS exposure
• Machine learning or computer vision projectsGeospatial or mapping work
• Anything you built for a physical device
• An interest in wildfire, forestry, or climate work

HOW WE WORK

• Based onsite in South San Francisco — design, build, and test all happen in one building, and being near the machines is most of the point
• Flexible within that. You own your calendar: work the hours where you’re sharpest, and go remote on heads-down days.
• Expect a few days a month in the field across California, Oregon, and Washington. Watching your work run on a live burn is the best part of the job.

COMPENSATION & BENEFITS

Base salary: $115,000 – $150,000 — final offers reflect experience and demonstrated scope.

• Equity — Incentive Stock Options
• Health, dental, and vision
• Flexible paid time off

Burnbot is an Equal Opportunity Employer and does not discriminate based upon race, religion, color, national origin, sex (including but not limited to, pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, transgender status, sexual stereotypes, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with one or more disabilities, or other applicable legally protected characteristics.

If you need assistance or accommodation due to a disability, you may contact us at [phone] x 1010 or [e-mail].