Hardware Operations Manager

About the company

KoBold Metals® is a rapidly growing Silicon Valley start-up using AI to enable the transition to electrification and help solve climate change. We are backed by Bill Gates’ Breakthrough Energy Ventures, a16z, Bond Capital, Sam Altman, T Rowe Price, and other premier VCs.

Our team includes the best of the industry in exploration geoscience, data science, software engineering, and business personnel. KoBold’s world-renowned geoscientists have made nearly 20 discoveries. They work on joint teams with outstanding data scientists, who have PhDs in physics, math, materials science, and geophysics. And our technology backbone has been built from scratch by our team of software engineers who are alumni of top Silicon Valley tech companies.

About the position

In this role, you will deploy state of the art instruments to collect data to guide our exploration programs. You will prepare, install and calibrate sensors for field operations. Identifying and subsequently working with vendors and partners, you will assemble and test hardware and deploy it in the field. You will carefully evaluate, curate, and process the data from our field programs to assure high data quality. 

You will help build a worldwide dataset that underlies our exploration program, with careful attention to identifying and quantifying uncertainty in the data and in our predictions. You will be enabling new types of analyses and modeling to accelerate discovery of critical battery metals.

You will join an outstanding team of data scientists and engineers and will work closely with KoBold’s world-renowned geoscientists to incorporate our best understanding of the chemical and physical processes that create ore deposits. Working with your geoscience colleagues, you will identify new opportunities and technologies for geophysical data collection, identify exploration targets, design field programs to collect data, and use that data to reduce the uncertainty in our predictions and guide the next phase of field work.

Ultimately, your role is to help KoBold make valuable discoveries by preparing and deploying next generation hardware and using data tools to solve scientific problems. As one of the early members of this team, you will manage both first of a kind and repeated field deployments.

Responsibilities

The Hardware Operations Manager will:

• Prepare, test, calibrate, and deploy new mineral exploration data collection instruments and methods.

• Curate a wide variety of geospectral, geophysical, geochemical, geologic, and geographic data and integrate it into KoBold’s proprietary data system.

• Design and own procedures and checklists for safely and effectively calibrating, installing, and maintaining field hardware.

• Design and build an inventory management system to effectively track, maintain, store, and transport data collection systems.

• Build and maintain relationships with external partners - for example, airborne platform operators. 

Qualifications

A great Hardware Operations Manager candidate will have:

• A successful track record of deploying data collection systems in remote locations with cross-disciplinary teams and vendors.

Technical skills, including extensive experience with:

• Physical measurement and data analysis systems that use phenomena such as optics, electromagnetism, radiation, and gravity. 

• Systems integration, data acquisition, and debugging equipment in the lab and the field.

• Python’s data science packages and general software engineering practices.

• Working with and performing first pass analyses with a broad range of data types.

Technical knowledge:

• Broad skills in and knowledge of data acquisition systems and data analysis

• Broad experience working with and configuring Windows and Linux operating systems and the hardware components important for data acquisition and transfer within these systems.

Training and work experience:

• An advanced degree in the physical sciences, engineering, computer science, or mathematics.

Work practices and motivation:

• Ability to take ownership and responsibility of large projects.

• Enjoys constantly learning such that you are driving insights and innovations.

• Ability to explain technical problems to and collaborate on solutions with experts across multiple domains.

• Excitement about joining a fast-growing early-stage company, comfort with a dynamic work environment, and eagerness to take on a range of responsibilities.

• Ability to independently prioritize multiple tasks effectively.

It is also helpful but not required to have experience with:

• Electrical, mechanical, or systems engineering

• Image processing or computer vision

• Safety culture and best practices related to field work and/or aviation operations

• Project and team management

KoBold Metals is an equal opportunity workplace and an affirmative action employer. We are committed to equal employment opportunities for people of any race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, marital status, national origin, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, or veteran status.

This position is full-time, exempt.

Location: Location: KoBold is a remote first workplace, we are open to candidates currently residing anywhere in the United States or Canada. All candidates must be authorized to legally work in either the United States or Canada.

The US base salary range for this full-time exempt position is $125,000-$150,000.