Senior Software Engineer (AI Native): Building Climate Solutions for Cities

Open Earth Foundation; South Africa; Remote; ZAR 823,000 - 1,317,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Unlimited PTO

Paid holidays

Paid sick leave

Remote work

Annual team retreat

Job summary

Open Earth Foundation seeks an AI Native Senior Software Engineer to ship features and infrastructure for digital climate services. You’ll leverage AI-assisted development tools to write, review, and refactor code while upholding open-source principles.

You will collaborate with product and technical teams across time zones in a fully remote role. You’ll contribute to front-end, back-end, cloud-native architectures, and Open Source integrations, helping cities globally with data-driven climate

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or on-the-job experience in computer science or related field.
• 6+ years of work experience as a software developer.
• 3+ shipped projects/products.

Responsibilities

• Write code for front-end and back-end components of Web applications.
• Write code for data storage systems and ORMs.
• Architect systems and components of cloud-native Web applications.
• Identify and integrate Open Source software components into Web applications.
• Deploy components to cloud services.
• Collaborate with software engineering peers and cross-functional teams.

Education

Bachelor’s degree in computer science, electrical engineering, or equivalent technical pursuit

Tools

JavaScript/TypeScript

NodeJS

ReactJS

Express

PostgreSQL & ORMs

Docker & Docker Compose

Git

OAuth/Webhooks

Kubernetes & AWS

Open web standards

Job description

Senior Software Engineer (AI Native): Building Climate Solutions for Cities

Open Earth Foundation is a California-based nonprofit on a mission to create groundbreaking technology that helps combat the climate crisis.

Our climate platforms support cities around the world with data-driven climate planning and delivery.

We’re a diverse, global team working remotely and collaborating with partners worldwide to make real change possible.

With strong funding and a powerhouse team of innovators, we’re ready to tackle big challenges for a resilient Earth for generations to come and we need the planet’s brightest minds to help solve them!

Your mission, should you choose to accept it:

As an AI Native Senior Software Engineer at Open Earth Foundation, you will ship features and infrastructure for digital climate services and other climate tools at a pace that matches the urgency of the climate crisis. As a strong software engineer who has embraced AI-assisted development as a core part of your workflow: you use tools like Cursor, Claude Code, Codex and similar to write, review, debug and refactor code faster and with higher quality. You combine sharp engineering judgment with AI leverage to move fast without cutting corners. Everything we do is Open Source, shared freely with the world, to maximize the impact of our work.

You will be part of the technical team and work directly with the other technical team members and a variety of team members in the organization from the Product Team.

This position is fully remote and international as our organization works across different time zones.

• Schedule flexibility is expected with a willingness to collaborate in overlapping core hours for meetings from 8am PST to 11am PST (GMT-8).
• Availability to work with overlapping hours across U.S., Latin American and European time zones is preferred.
• Experience with asynchronous remote work and the ability to self-organize tasks is preferred.

Priority will be given to applications submitted by November 15th.

The following requirements describe our ideal candidate. If you don't meet some of the requirements, you're encouraged to apply anyway. Let us know if there is something missing and how we can work together to make it up.

Essential Functions and Specific Duties:

• Write code for front-end and back-end components of Web applications
• Write code for data storage systems, such as relational databases
• Architect systems and components of cloud-native Web applications
• Identify and integrate Open Source software components into Web applications
• Deploy custom and off-the-shelf components to cloud services
• Collaborate with a team of software engineering peers
• Collaborate with team members from other disciplines such as design, data engineering, product management, and devops

AI-Assisted Development Duties:

• Daily, proficient use of at least one AI coding tool (Cursor, Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, Codex, Windsurf, AWS Kiro etc.)
• Ability to write effective prompts and context for AI tools to get high-quality code output
• Good judgment on when AI output is correct, when it needs editing, and when to write code manually
• Experience crafting project rules, system prompts or custom instructions to guide AI tools in a codebase

Other:

• Actively participate in team building and culture development activities at Open Earth Foundation
• Encourage and mentor Open Source contributors to OEF’s projects

Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, electrical engineering, or equivalent technical pursuit, or on-the-job experience
• 6+ years of work experience as a software developer
• 3+ shipped projects/products

Interpersonal Skills:

• Ability to work in an agile software development environment with a mix of data engineers, full-stack developers, product designers and product managers
• Ability to estimate and track time worked on tasks
• Communications skills necessary to document and present work
• Effectively perform asynchronous work with a high degree of self organization and proactive problem solving

Technology Experience & Knowledge:

• JavaScript/TypeScript
• NodeJS
• ReactJS
• Express
• PostgreSQL & ORMs
• Docker & Docker Compose
• Git
• Open web standards for application interconnection (OAuth, Webhooks)
• Kubernetes & AWS

Other Competencies:

• Use of low-code/no-code, cloud storage and other tools for rapid prototyping
• Using Linear for project management (or similar tools like Jira)
• Experience working with micro-service oriented architectures
• Experience with migration from mono-repository to service-oriented architecture

Bonus Experience:

• Python scripting
• Next.js & Nest.js
• Keycloak
• Open Source maintainership

Other Qualities:

• Dedication to fighting climate change
• Focus on impact
• Interest in non-profit work

Compensation and Benefits:

• This position is full-time with compensation of $50,000-$80,000/year (USD) , dependent on experience and location (Paid in USD)
• Open Earth offers unlimited paid time off, paid holidays and paid sick leave
• You will work remotely within a dynamic and international environment
• We celebrate our achievements during our annual team retreat

OEF is an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer. We welcome applicants from all backgrounds and do not discriminate on the basis of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, disability, age, religion, national origin, or any other protected characteristic. We celebrate diversity, equity, and inclusion in our teams and believe people should align their work with their purpose. Join us if you love Earth.

We look forward to hearing from you!

We use AI-assisted tools to help organize and summarize application materials. All hiring decisions are reviewed and made by people.