We are open to hiring at multiple levels for this role, depending on experience, impact, and demonstrated ownership. While this role is level-agnostic, it is best suited for engineers with experience owning production systems and working in highly ambiguous problem spaces.

Software Engineer

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 the manual techniques of yesteryear – 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, and Standard Investments; and natural resources companies Equinor, BHP, and Mitsubishi.

We are hiring Software Engineers to accelerate our mission.

About The Role:

At KoBold, software engineers have the unique opportunity to embed directly with their users and learn the ins and outs of mineral exploration and geology while developing state of the art technology solutions. Unlike traditional software engineering roles, we don’t simply ship code and passively wait for feedback about its utility: our userbase includes our colleagues… and ourselves! While there are real technical challenges in making mineral exploration data broadly searchable and accessible to both humans and machines, we believe that solving these technical challenges cannot be done without “getting our hands dirty” – sometimes literally! – by embedding directly with the exploration teams and even occasionally (~once a year) joining our colleagues in the field, be it in Zambia, Canada, or Arizona, to experience the impact of our software in real time.

As a Software Engineer on the Data Systems Engineering team at KoBold, your main role will be to enable systematic exploration and materially improve exploration success rates by making mineral exploration data broadly accessible to humans and machines.  Past projects have included SIP (the Structured Ingest Pipeline), DataKit generation (producing curated sets of data on demand), and RAG (Retrieval Augmentation Generation, utilizing natural language processing on unstructured data). Our tech stack is primarily python and includes Django, React, AWS, and additional technologies like Retool and Prefect. 

Your work will empower KoBold to unlock invaluable insights and streamline intricate scientific processes. Collaborating with our exceptional team of data scientists, geologists, and other software engineers, you will have the opportunity to tackle complex problems head-on and collectively pave the way for the discoveries of vital energy transition metals like lithium, copper, nickel, and cobalt. Together we can shape the future of mineral exploration and contribute to building a sustainable world.

This role be responsible for:

• Deep engagement with exploration geologists and data scientists, continual learning about mineral exploration, and tailoring technology development to the needs of exploration project scientists
• Building data pipelines and tooling for deriving advanced human and machine insights from exploration data, often leading a small group of software engineers to successful delivery
• Developing expertise in KoBold’s Data Systems and deeply understanding how they impact exploration
• End-to-end ownership of projects from design to implementation and testing to continued engagement with colleagues on exploration teams using your solutions
• Responding well to design and code feedback, also providing feedback to teammates 
• Operationally managing the team’s services and assisting scientific colleagues with our tooling

Qualifications:

• 2+ years of software engineering experience, ideally building production cloud data systems
• Proficiency with Python
• Ability to write production-quality code that is correct, readable, well-tested, scalable and extensible
• Skilled in large-scale system design
• A track record of taking ownership from definition of the problem and delivering projects with demonstrated impact in an iterative manner
• Intellectual curiosity and eagerness to learn about all aspects of mineral exploration, particularly in the geology domain. Enjoys constantly learning such that you are driving insights through using our tools in exploration and willing to work directly with geologists in the field.
• Ability to explain technical problems to and collaborate on solutions with domain experts who are not software developers. A strong communicator who enjoys working with colleagues across the company.
• Excitement about joining a fast-growing early-stage company, comfort with a dynamic work environment, and eagerness to take on an evolving range of responsibilities.
• Keen not just to build cool technology, but to figure out what technical product to build to best achieve the business objectives of the company.

Nice to Haves: 

• Experience with modern frontend frameworks such as React
• Experience with geospatial data and building map-based experiences
• Familiarity with containerization and container orchestration platforms, such as Docker, AWS ECS, Kubernetes, etc.
• Formal education or job exposure to natural sciences

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: Democratic Republic of Congo

This position is Contract: Indefinite.

How you'll help us achieve it

Wave is rapidly expanding across Africa, and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is a key market in our next phase of growth. As we scale our operations, we’re looking for a mission-driven Senior Recruiter to lead hiring efforts in DRC. You’ll play a critical role in attracting, assessing, and closing top talent while helping us build scalable, data-driven recruiting practices in a fast-growing environment.

You’ll be part of a globally distributed People team and will help shape how we hire as we launch and grow new teams in-country.

In this role, you’ll;

• Own full-cycle recruitment for a wide range of roles (from sourcing to offer), with a strong focus on leadership and business-critical hiring in DRC.
• Build and execute sourcing strategies tailored to the Congolese market, while contributing to regional (multi-country) pipelines.
• Partner closely with hiring managers to understand team needs, define hiring strategies, and deliver high-quality hires quickly in a scaling context.
• Deliver an exceptional candidate experience, acting as a strong ambassador of Wave’s mission and culture.
• Continuously improve recruiting processes, proactively identifying bottlenecks and implementing scalable solutions.
• Use data and analytics to track pipeline health, optimize hiring funnels, and inform decision-making.
• Ensure high-quality data management in our ATS (Greenhouse) to enable accurate reporting and insights.
• Design and drive inclusive hiring strategies to build diverse and high-performing teams.
• Uphold a high hiring bar, ensuring every hire reflects Wave’s values and long-term ambitions.
• Mentor junior recruiters and contribute to building a strong, collaborative Talent function in the region.

Key details

• The location is primarily based in Kinshasa, with some travel. 
• Work authorization in DRC is required.
• Our salaries are competitive and calculated using a transparent formula.
• We support working parents - we offer generous parental leave policies (26 weeks for mothers and 4 weeks for fathers) and subsidized child care when you return to work.
• We help you live your fullest life now- we subsidize gym memberships and fitness classes.
• Airtime reimbursement

Requirements

• 6+ years of experience owning end-to-end recruitment processes.
• 3+ years of in-house recruiting experience in Africa, ideally in high-growth or scaling environments.
• Strong experience hiring for field and office roles.
• Deep understanding of local talent markets in DRC (Kinshasa and beyond).
• Fluency in French and English (required).
• Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills.
• Strong analytical mindset (comfortable working with metrics, KPIs, and spreadsheets).
• Ability to operate with autonomy in a fast-paced, ambiguous environment.

You might be a good fit if you

• Thrive in high-growth, build-from-scratch environments.
• Are passionate about financial inclusion in Africa.
• Take a data-driven approach to problem-solving and decision-making.
• Love building networks and engaging talent communities.
• Are highly adaptable and comfortable navigating complex, evolving environments.
• Enjoy experimenting and improving processes rather than maintaining the status quo.
• Are tech-savvy and interested in leveraging tools/automation in recruiting.
• Are a strong negotiator and closer.
• Can independently lead projects with minimal oversight.
• Are excited by launching new markets and scaling teams from the ground up.
• Are open to travel within the region as needed.

How you'll help us achieve it

Wave is now the largest financial institution in Senegal and Côte d’Ivoire, with millions of users, growing rapidly year on year. And, we’re still in the early days of our product roadmap and potential impact on people’s everyday lives.

We are looking for a Country Growth Operations Lead who will be based in one of our early-stage countries in West Africa, who will lead our efforts to expand our user base and manage user acquisition strategies in the allocated countries. This role involves leading both user growth operations and agent operations/agent liquidity to help grow a market from an early stage to 1 million monthly active users. 

The Country Growth Ops Lead will report to the Head of Scaling Operations and work closely with the Chief Executive Officer and Country General Manager/Director of Operations.

In this role, you'll;

• Drive user growth by optimizing distribution strategies and leading user acquisition initiatives.
• Collaborate with leadership and country teams to ensure alignment and maximize growth opportunities.
• Enhance distribution processes through partnership with product and engineering teams, leveraging technology and data.
• Oversee agent network operations, including acquisition, setup, and liquidity management, to support distribution and meet user demand.
• Build and lead high-performing teams, fostering a culture of excellence and innovation.
• Manage business and financial KPIs in alignment with overall business objectives.
• Champion Wave's values, leading by example and embedding them within the team culture.

Key Details 

• Location: At one of our early-stage countries in Africa, with a focus on West Africa. You must be willing to relocate to the primary growth country for up to one year, with periodic returns home after each trimester.
• Travel: Anticipated travel requirements of 60-80% within a designated, growth-focused market.
• Our salaries are competitive and calculated using a transparent formula.
• We offer generous health insurance for yourself and your dependents.
• We support working parents - we offer 26 weeks of parental leave for mothers and 4 weeks for fathers, in addition to subsidized child care when they return to work.
• Airtime reimbursement.

Requirements 

• 8+ years of senior leadership experience in user acquisition/agent operations and liquidity management within mobile money, finance, fintech, telecoms, or tech.
• Language: Bilingual proficiency is mandatory, with exceptional written and verbal communication skills in both English and French.
• Enhanced interpersonal skills in building and maintaining positive relationships, effective communication, active listening, and conflict resolution.
• Proven sales ability with a successful track record in sales, including identifying customer needs and connecting corridors.

You might be a good fit if you

• Are deeply analytical in your approach to marketing and in optimizing the cost of customer acquisition and are metrics-oriented and experienced in leading teams towards KPIs.
• Are proactive, disciplined in your thoughts and actions, and committed to continuous self-improvement and professional development.
• Possess the humility, mission focus, and resolve to do what it takes to achieve growth goals.
• Build strong relationships and bring out the best in people.
• Excel at leadership and enjoy managing diverse and large field ops teams.
• Are a strong communicator and are comfortable defaulting to overreaching when it comes to coordination.
• Think from first principles about how things should work.
• Are excessively detail-oriented and seek to achieve excellence in everything you do.
• Are a self-starter and proactive about achieving ambitious targets and willing to go the distance to get something done.
• Adjust quickly to changing priorities and conditions.

#LI-MM1