Senior Applied Scientist (Onsite/Hybrid) at KoBold Metals in San Francisco, CA

Job description

Senior Applied Scientist, Advanced Technology Group About the Company In the coming decades, demand for critical minerals such as copper, lithium, and cobalt will continue to grow. These minerals are needed to build electric infrastructure, vehicles, data centers, and electronics. However, 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 was founded to be the first AI native 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 This role will drive the design, development, and deployment of new subsurface imaging hardware, on muon projects with high energy physics detectors and seismic measurements with seismometers. This role is ideal for an engineer or scientist who thrives at the intersection of science, engineering, and data and is excited about bringing new technology to life. In this role, you will own mechanical and electrical systems of new imaging instruments through the full technical lifecycle: from concept and prototyping through validation, manufacturing, and deployment in the field. You will work closely with our data scientists, engineers, and geoscientists to design instrumentation that produces rich, high-quality datasets, feeding the machine learning models that drive KoBold’s mineral exploration around the world. You will be a key member of a hardware development team and contributor to various novel hardware projects. You will also help to build the hardware development discipline and organization at KoBold, contributing to a culture and process that will make our engineering efforts innovative, scalable and repeatable. You will report to the Head of Subsurface Imaging and join a world-class team of data scientists, engineers and geoscientists developing novel technologies to accelerate the discovery of critical minerals for batteries and electrification. Responsibilities Own the technical development of mechanical and electrical systems of novel sensing and imaging instruments from concept and prototype to deployment in remote field sites. Coordinate with and orchestrate internal and external resources across hardware and software engineering to deliver. Contribute to system architecture definition, navigating technical tradeoffs through rigorous research and analysis and balancing cost, complexity, and timeline. Coll