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Director of Engineering

Explore Tech

San Diego, CA · $220k a year · Posted November 3, 2026

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Pay compared with the market

This listing pays about $220,000 a year. Across 45 open director of engineering listings that state pay, the middle half runs $203,500 to $290,000 and the median is $256,500. That is inside the middle half of those listings, 14% below the median.

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About the job

Careers Director of Engineering

About the Company

Our mission is to discover the raw materials needed to create a prosperous world for the next 1000 years. With modern software and hardware, we aim to reduce mineral discovery timelines from 10 years to 1 year. Founded in 2023 by lifelong geoscientists, ExploreTech is a venture-backed business that develops technology and uses it to explore for minerals all over the world.

About the Role

We’re accelerating the pace of mineral discovery. Our AI drill targeting software has gone 8 for 8 hitting mineralized targets, a significant improvement over industry standards. We are now making the product bullet-proof for enterprise deployment so we can scale up mineral discovery at a global scale. In this role, you’ll set the technical direction for the engineering team and lead the transition from an early product with traction into the platform the world’s biggest mining companies use to discover new minerals.

This is not a CRUD app – you’ll architect software for rugged and remote parts of the world, from APIs that orchestrate massive cluster computing systems to interfaces that work in an arctic snowstorm in January. You’ll make the calls that decide whether the system holds up at 10x scale. The best part - you’ll help build and lead a world-class team of scientists, engineers, and explorers that live and breathe this work every day.

What You’ll Do

Own the architecture of the platform across web, mobile, data, and compute

Set the technical direction for the engineering team, and mentor and grow it as we scale

Design high-performance computing architectures to orchestrate hundreds of thousands of parallelized physics simulations

Lead development of agentic AI systems that automate mineral exploration workflows

Build the systems that connect 3D AI geological models to the people who use them

Make the product enterprise-ready: security, reliability, observability, deployment

Work directly with scientists, geologists, and customers to turn field problems into roadmap

About You

Bachelor’s in computer science or equivalent experience

8+ years professional software engineering experience, including 2+ years leading engineers or owning the architecture of a system at scale

Fluent in Python, Go, and Javascript (or similar languages)

Proven track record taking a product from early traction to enterprise-grade

Deep experience with distributed systems and cloud infrastructure

Able to travel to remote parts of the US and world

Bonus Points For

Experience with high-performance computing or agentic AI systems

Experience with scientific, geospatial, or mining software

Location

San Diego, California Field deployments as needed

Salary

Starting at $220,000 + equity

Benefits

100% healthcare coverage (medical, dental, vision)

Our Hiring Process

Intro call: a conversation with a founder about your background and what you want to work on.

Role conversation: a deeper discussion of the work itself with the people you’d work alongside.

Final conversation: meet the founders and the team, and ask us anything. If it’s a fit, we’ll make an offer.

If you’re ready to accelerate critical mineral discovery across the world, we encourage you to apply!

Apply Now

ExploreTech is an equal opportunity employer. We consider all qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.