Hippo Harvest
Full-Stack Engineer, Backend-focused
Pescadero, CA
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Full time
As a full-stack engineer (backend-focused), you’ll sit at the intersection of data, infrastructure, robotics, decision-making systems, and front-end development, with an opportunity to own and make an impact on many different areas. As a robotics and machine learning-centric agriculture company, data is central to everything we do, and we need someone with strong opinions on best practices and a passion for making data available to users and systems throughout the organization. We run both on-premise and cloud-based compute infrastructure, and you’ll partner with DevOps engineering to make sure that our infrastructure is serving the needs of the organization. The robotics and decision-making apparatus is running 24/7 and coordinating activities around our automated farm, and you will develop domain expertise in the implications of such systems on back-end and front-end systems. While this job will not primarily focus on front-end development, you’ll occasionally flex into that area, especially for data-centric projects, in partnership with front-end engineering. The ideal candidate for this role will enjoy a balance between spending the bulk of their time working broadly across many different problem spaces, while occasionally needing to go deep in an area of need and design and own new efforts.
Description
In a world increasingly impacted by climate change, pollution, and population growth, conventional production of fresh/fruiting vegetables is unsustainable. Compared to field production, greenhouse hydroponic methods use 90% less water, increase yields, reduce food waste, use fewer pesticides, eliminate fertilizer runoff, and allow crops to be grown locally. However, greenhouse producers make up only a small part of today’s market due to high capital/labor costs and operational complexity. To close this gap, Hippo Harvest uses new methods of hydroponics, robotics, and machine intelligence to re-imagine greenhouses and build the sustainable, economical, and scalable production systems of the future.
You Will
- Own significant parts of Hippo’s backend systems, particularly those around storing and reading data
- Work closely with our front-end engineers, and occasionally flex into front-end engineering, particularly for data-heavy projects
- Be a thought partner for our infrastructure/dev-ops team, particularly around data infrastructure, testing, and deploying back-end systems
- Collaborate with the robotics engineers, particularly around data-driven decision-making systems, and systems that require user input or interaction
- Partner with our plant science, machine learning, commercial, and operational teams, particularly around data use cases
You Have
- 5+ years of experience working with complex, data-centric backend systems
- Experience designing and implementing backend APIs (REST, GraphQL)
- Substantial experience with React (or similar frontend framework) and TypeScript, with experience deploying and maintaining Node.js backends
- Expertise in both SQL and ORM methods of database interaction, as well as database architecture, schema management, and administration
- Proficiency in Python and at least one compiled language (bonus points if that includes Rust)
- Nice-to-haves include experience with one or more of FastAPI, Pydantic, Kubernetes / Microservice Design, ArgoCD, MLOps, or GitHub actions (or similar CI/CD systems)
- Robotics and/or machine learning experience is useful, but not necessary
We Offer
- An exciting and fun work environment where your contributions will make a true difference
- A hybrid work environment, with 1 day a week in person at our Pescadero facility, and 4 days a week working from home
- Competitive salary from $150,000 - $195,000 based on level
- Full benefits package including six weeks of paid vacation, medical/dental/vision/life insurance, twelve weeks of paid parental leave, 401k with company match, company stock options
Salary
$150,000 - $195,000 per year