About the Company 

The mining industry has steadily become worse at finding new ore deposits, requiring >10X more capital to make discoveries compared to 30 years ago. The easy-to-find, near-surface deposits have largely been found, and the industry has chronically under-invested in new exploration technology, relying on antiquated manual mining techniques– even as demand accelerates for copper, lithium, and other metals to build electric vehicles, renewable energy, and data centers.

KoBold builds AI models for mineral exploration and deploys those models—alongside our novel sensors—to guide decisions on KoBold-owned-and-operated exploration programs. In the six years since founding, KoBold has become by far both the largest independent mineral exploration company and the largest exploration technology developer. Our data scientists and software engineers, who come from leading technology companies, jointly lead exploration programs with our renowned exploration geologists.

KoBold has proven its first discovery with materially less capital than the industry average and found one of the best copper deposits ever discovered: the copper is far more concentrated than the global average of copper mines, and this asset alone is expected to generate meaningful revenue for decades. KoBold has a portfolio of more than 60 other projects, each of which has the potential for another high-quality 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 natural resources companies Equinor, BHP, and Mitsubishi.

About The Position: 

The HSE Manager, DRC, will play a critical role in supporting KoBold Metals' commitment to operational excellence and zero harm. This role will build and drive the implementation of health, safety, and environmental strategy and initiatives across KoBold's DRC locations,  anchored by our Manono and Pedicle exploration projects, with additional accountability extending across KoBold's rapidly expanding DRC footprint. While this is a leadership role, this person is expected to have a hands-on approach, both building HSE systems and strategy while driving safety performance to the frontline worker. 

This role will report to the Global HSE Director, and responsibilities will include:

• Develop KoBold's DRC HSE strategy and drive performance across all DRC operations, aligning with corporate sustainability and zero-harm objectives
• Champion a strong safety culture through visible leadership, engagement, and communication at all organizational levels and across the Congolese and expatriate workforce
• Design, implement, and continuously improve the DRC HSE management system, including policies, standards, procedures, and field-level tools appropriate to the demands of large-scale exploration and development operations
• Develop, review, and implement HSE policies, standards, and procedures consistent with applicable DRC regulations and KoBold's global standards; serve as KoBold's primary liaison with DRC mining and environmental regulatory authorities
• Provide technical HSE expertise and guidance to operational leaders, supervisors, and front-line employees across all active programs
• Develop and maintain project-specific HSE execution plans and emergency response plans for all active field programs, including drilling campaigns, camp operations, and contractor-heavy scopes across the DRC portfolio
• Develop HSE training strategy for DRC and deliver training when required 
• Conduct regular site audits, inspections, and risk assessments to ensure adherence to HSE policies and DRC legal requirements; enforce compliance with DRC mining and environmental regulations, including inspection of mining equipment for statutory compliance
• Drive root cause analysis investigations for all incidents, near misses, and non-conformances; ensure corrective action plans are documented, assigned, tracked, and closed
• Oversee incident reporting and tracking systems; act as focal point for incident management and lessons-learned dissemination across the organization
• Collect, manage, and analyze HSE performance data; maintain reporting on both leading indicators (observation rates, near-miss frequency, training completion, critical control verification) and lagging indicators (TRIR, LTIR); prepare and submit regular HSE performance reports to leadership and regulatory bodies
• Build genuine HSE capability within the Congolese workforce and contractor base
• Develop and maintain contractor HSE pre-qualification requirements; review and approve contractor HSE management plans and performance throughout program execution
• Monitor and report on environmental performance including waste management, water usage, and emissions; support initiatives that minimize environmental impact and advance KoBold's sustainability commitments

Qualifications

• Must be legally authorized to live and work within the Democratic Republic of Congo
• Degree in Occupational Health and Safety, Environmental Science, Engineering, or a related field preferred
• NEBOSH Diploma or equivalent professional qualification (CRSP, CSP, CMIOSH); NEBOSH General Certificate minimum
• 10+ years of progressive HSE experience with at least 5 years in a senior role within the African mining sector
• Must have demonstrated experience in the DRC operating environment 
• Expert knowledge of DRC HSE legislation, the 2018 Code Minier and its environmental and safety provisions, and applicable regulatory reporting obligations
• Proven track record building and leading HSE teams in remote and complex African operating environments
• Advanced incident investigation certification: ICAM, TapRooT, or equivalent
• ISO 45001 and ISO 14001 internal or lead auditor certification
• Full professional proficiency in English and French required; Swahili or Lingala an advantage
• Advanced First Aid certification; medically fit for moderately strenuous activity in a remote environment
• Strong people leadership, communication, and stakeholder engagement skills across all levels and across all disciplines of an organization
• Ability to drive a manual vehicle

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.

Location: Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of Congo. All candidates must be legally authorized to live and work within Democratic Republic of Congo.

Contract: Indefinite

Please submit your application to JOBS@koboldmetals.com by December 31, 2026

About the Company 

The mining industry has steadily become worse at finding new ore deposits, requiring10Xmore capital to make discoveries compared to 30 years ago. The easy-to-find, near-surface deposits have largely been found, and the industry has chronically under-invested in new exploration technology, relying on antiquated manual mining techniques– even as demand accelerates for copper, lithium, and other metals to build electric vehicles, renewable energy,
and data centers.

KoBold builds AI models for mineral exploration and deploys those models—alongside our novel sensors—to guide decisions on KoBold-owned-and-operated exploration programs. In the six years since founding, KoBold has become by far both the largest independent mineral exploration company and the largest exploration technology developer. Our data scientists and software engineers, who come from leading technology companies, jointly lead exploration programs with our renowned exploration geologists.
KoBold has proven its first discovery with materially less capital than the industry average and found one of the best copper deposits ever discovered: the copper is far more concentrated than the global average of copper mines, and this asset alone is expected to generate meaningful revenue for decades. KoBold has a portfolio of more than 60 other projects, each of which has the potential for another high-quality 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 natural resources companies Equinor, BHP, and Mitsubishi.

About The Position:

The HSE Lead will play a critical role in supporting KoBold Metals’ commitment to operational excellence and zero harm. This role will build and drive the implementation of health, safety, and environmental initiatives across KoBold Metals’ DRC locations by developing and enforcing policies, facilitating training and inspections, managing data and reporting, and ensuring compliance with DRC regulations and KoBold’s global HSE standards. 

This role will report to the Director of HSE, and responsibilities will include:

• Drive the execution of KoBold Metals’ HSE strategy across DRC operations, aligning with corporate sustainability and safety objectives.
• Champion a strong safety culture through visible leadership, engagement, and communication at all organizational levels.
• Provide technical safety expertise and guidance to operational leaders, supervisors, and front-line employees on HSE matters.
• Develop, review, and implement HSE policies, standards, and procedures consistent with applicable regulations  and KoBold Metals global standards.
• Drive root cause analysis investigations for incidents and injuries that may occur.
• Maintain a library of HSE documentation and ensure accessibility and understanding across departments.
• Identify opportunities for continuous improvement in HSE management systems and operational practices.
• Collect, manage, and analyze HSE performance data to track progress against targets and identify trends.
• Prepare and submit regular HSE performance reports to leadership and regulatory bodies.
• Oversee the use of incident reporting and tracking systems, ensuring timely investigation and closeout of corrective actions.
• Develop and deliver HSE training for employees, contractors, and supervisors, including induction, hazard recognition, and leadership safety training.
• Conduct regular site audits, inspections, and risk assessments to ensure adherence to HSE policies and legal requirements.
• Enforce compliance with DRC mining and environmental regulations, including inspection of mining equipment for statutory compliance.
• Maintain the site Emergency Response Plan, ensuring readiness and effectiveness.
• Serve as an emergency coordinator and first responder during emergency events or drills.
• Act as the focal point for incident management, investigation, and lessons-learned dissemination.
• Monitor and report on environmental performance, including waste management, water usage, and emissions.
• Support initiatives that minimize environmental impact and promote sustainability across operations.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Occupational Health & Safety, Environmental Science, Engineering, or related field preferred.
• Minimum of 5 years of experience in a Health Safety and Environment (HSE) role with demonstrated success in driving safety culture. 
• Direct experience in Mining or Mineral Exploration
• Expert knowledge of DRC HSE legislation, mining standards, and best practices.
• Motivates the team to work together in the most efficient manner. 
• Mitigates team conflict and communication problems. 
• Excellent motivational and people skills. 
• Excellent communication skills (written and verbal). 
• Excellent computer skills. 
• Strong people leadership skills.
• Ability to drive a manual vehicle.
• Medically fit to perform moderately strenuous activity.

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.

Location: Manono, Democratic Republic of Congo. All candidates must be legally authorized to live and work within Democratic Republic of Congo.

Contract: Indefinite

About Sand

Sand Technologies is a global Physical AI company using data and AI to make critical industries work better. We partner with governments, cities and enterprises to improve how essential systems operate across healthcare, water, energy, telecommunications and infrastructure.

Our work delivers proven real-world impact. We have built AI systems that help manage London’s water supply, supported telecom network planning across hundreds of cities, and developed digital healthcare platforms serving tens of millions of people across Africa. From intelligent command centers to AI-powered infrastructure platforms, we help organizations sense, analyze and act in complex environments.

Our people are ambitious, curious and relentlessly practical. Our teams work alongside clients in the field, solving hard problems and deploying solutions that last. With colleagues across Africa, Europe, the UK and the US, we operate across the full stack - from research and engineering to deployment and capability building.

Our mission is simple: to harness AI to solve humanity’s most pressing challenges.

About the role

Sand is scaling rapidly across Africa, partnering with Ministries of Health to deploy the Health Operating System (HOS) — a decision-support and execution platform that transforms how health systems sense, analyze, and act on data. The HOS is already operational across multiple countries, with plans to expand to 15 countries by end of 2026, supported by 80+ Forward Deployed Engineers.

As a Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE), you are the technical spearhead of our client engagement in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Unlike our roaming FDE roles, this is a permanently embedded position. You will be based full-time within the Ministry of Health in the DRC, becoming a long-term extension of the client's operational team. Your mandate is to build deep institutional relationships, develop comprehensive understanding of the national health system, and deliver sustained value over an extended engagement — not just rapid sprints, but lasting transformation.

This is not staff augmentation. You are an amalgamation of three roles:

1. The Software Engineer — Deep technical acumen to build and deploy production-grade solutions using Sand's product suite
2. The Product Manager — Strategic foresight to understand client problems, influence business objectives, and identify expansion opportunities
3. The Consultant — Client-facing finesse to navigate complex stakeholder relationships, manage scope, and transfer knowledge

Your primary mission is to prove our value fast, delivering functional solutions rapidly using Sand's products, playbooks, and tools, and then maturing those solutions into mission-critical infrastructure that the Ministry depends on daily. Over time, you become the institutional memory of the deployment — the person who understands the data landscape, the stakeholder dynamics, and the operational realities better than anyone.

Who We're Looking For

The Forward Deployed Engineer is a highly ambitious individual. You are someone who is deeply keen on learning — someone who dives in headfirst to solve some of the hardest, most complex problems in global health. You thrive on understanding the technology, understanding the stakeholders, understanding our product suite, and weaving all three together to deliver solutions that change how health systems operate.

This role is not for someone looking for comfort or routine. It is for someone who wants to step outside of their comfort zone, build something they can be proud of, and grow faster than they thought possible. The FDE programme is a career accelerator — an intensive rotation that exposes you to technical depth, strategic thinking, and client leadership in equal measure, all while working on problems that matter for millions of people.

For this permanently embedded role, you also need the maturity and resilience to sustain deep client relationships over months and years — not just weeks. You will become the face of Sand in Malawi, and that requires patience, cultural fluency, and the ability to navigate institutional complexity while maintaining momentum.

Key Responsibilities

Serve as Sand's Permanent Technical Presence in the Democratic Republic of Congo

• Embed full-time within the Ministry of Health, becoming a trusted member of the client's extended team
• Develop deep, longitudinal understanding of the national health data landscape, institutional dynamics, and operational priorities
• Build and maintain relationships across all levels of the Ministry — from frontline data officers to senior leadership
• Act as the primary technical point of contact for all Sand activities in-country, coordinating with launchers, country directors, and visiting FDE teams

Drive On-Site Value Delivery

• Rapidly unlock, explore, and integrate client data sources (e.g., DHIS2, SCADA systems, network management platforms, operational databases)
• Understand client problems through prototyping and rapid value delivery — deploying POCs and MVPs using Sand's product components and playbooks
• Transition initial solutions into hardened, production-grade systems that the Ministry relies on daily
• Own the long-term health of deployed solutions — monitoring adoption, troubleshooting issues, and iterating based on user feedback
• Deliver and track value generated through deployment of Sand products

Enable Product-Led Growth

• Lead with Sand's existing product suite — know the products by heart and where each solution is most effective for the domain you're deployed in
• Document learnings, client challenges, and successful solutions as reusable patterns for the broader FDE community
• Drive discovery and expansion by uncovering new opportunities on the ground

Build Local Capacity and Sustainability

• Work alongside Ministry teams to co-create solutions and progressively transfer knowledge, ensuring they can operate and maintain systems independently
• Identify, recruit, and mentor local data engineers, scientists, and analysts to build sustainable in-country capacity
• Develop training materials and documentation tailored to the local context, language, and skill level
• Be the continuity that ensures handover isn't a cliff — you bridge the gap between Sand's deployment and the Ministry's long-term ownership

Feed the Platform Feedback Loop

• Channel field learnings back to improve the core product through structured mechanisms (Technical Deep Dives, Solution Swarms, pattern documentation)
• Turn "gravel roads" into "paved superhighways" — document solution patterns so the next FDE can move faster
• Contribute field feedback that influences 30% of the product roadmap

Requirements — Essential

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, or related technical field
• 5+ years of experience in software engineering, data engineering, data science, system deployment, or technical leadership
• Proficiency in at least one of: Python, SQL/PostgreSQL, JavaScript — with ability to write production-grade code
• Strong problem-solving skills with a bias toward action and rapid prototyping
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills — comfortable presenting to senior government or corporate stakeholders and translating between technical and non-technical audiences
• Experience working with or deploying to government, public sector, or large institutional clients
• Proven ability to lead local technical teams and build capacity
• Willingness to relocate and be permanently based in the DRC for the duration of the engagement (12-24+ months)
• Language: Local language proficiency is a significant advantage

Requirements — Preferred

• Experience with data integration, ETL pipelines, and working with diverse data sources
• Experience in one or more of Sand's focus domains: health informatics/digital health, water utility operations, telecommunications network operations, or energy systems
• Familiarity with domain-specific platforms (e.g., DHIS2, OpenMRS for health; SCADA, GIS for water/energy; OSS/BSS for telecom)
• Experience with BI and dashboarding tools, particularly Apache Superset
• Experience with data transformation tools such as dbt or Airflow
• Comfort working with data dictionaries, reporting requirements, and identifying common data quality issues
• Knowledge of data security, privacy, and interoperability standards (e.g., FHIR for healthcare, GDPR, local data sovereignty requirements)
• Experience operating in resource-constrained environments (unreliable power, limited connectivity)

Work Environment

This is a permanently embedded role. You will work on-site at the Ministry of Health in the DRC 4 days per week, with 1 day for focused remote work, internal collaboration, and knowledge sharing with the broader FDE community. You should expect to be based in the DRC for a minimum of 12-24 months.

You must be self-driven, comfortable operating as Sand's primary technical representative in-country, and disciplined with online collaboration tools to stay connected with the broader Sand team across geographies. Cultural sensitivity, adaptability, and genuine interest in the local context are essential — you are not passing through, you are putting down roots.