Software Engineer

About Us (Valis Insights aka VALIS)

VALIS is a Worcester-based early-stage company, backed by leading climate-tech VC’s, looking to bring on new team members that can help us build VALIS and transform the industry. We deliver value to metals recycling stakeholders through material sampling, production analytics, and recovery process monitoring solutions. We deliver value to our planet by helping emissions related to primary metal production, maximizing secondary production (recycling of metals) which requires a fraction of energy. We deliver value to our team members by empowering them to learn quickly, take ownership, and drive change.

We're a remote-first team, with our headquarters in Worcester and most of our team residing in the greater Boston/Worcester area. Our current customer base is metal recycling facilities across the United States, but we're expanding into other material streams and beyond the US market.

Role Overview

We are seeking a strong software engineer to join our talented team. The ideal candidate would have Linux experience, strong networking fundamentals, general electronics competence, and software engineering experience. You'll have an opportunity to own technical management and improvements of existing products. You'll lead greenfield R&D, spearheading the full-stack development of high-throughput vision systems, first at lab-scale, then at our partner pilot customer facility, and ultimately rolling out to customers in production as a new VALIS product line. You'll also work on managing/improving existing hardware/firmware deployed in the field, along with leading deployments to new customer facilities.

Fundamental knowledge and general competence in our web stack, beyond firmware/networking/systems, will be valuable. Our two existing products are web-based, one a purely-software production analytics platform (VALI-Sort), and the other is a material sampling tool consisting of a scale-integrated-camera accompanied by a web app UI (VALI-Sample). We are a small engineering team, so breadth of skillset and excitement to expand/learn is critical to our success.

This is a remote-first role, but occasional in-person work will be required at our Worcester, MA headquarters. Additionally, some travel for deployments/upgrades/maintenance will be required to our customers' recycling facilities; all of our customers are currently in the continental US.

Responsibilities

• Greenfield R&D, building and deploying real-time computer vision systems
• Building a lab-scale vision system at our HQ in Worcester, MA (in-person on an as-needed basis)
• Designing and implementing high-throughput data pipelines from edge devices to cloud infrastructure
• Implementing on-device signal processing and data pre-processing
• Building observability infrastructure to track system health, throughput, and performance metrics
• Improving existing material sampling hardware (and accompanying web-based analytics platform) deployed at customer recycling facilities
• Improving/building systems that reliably interface with hardware
• Remotely managing firmware, improving remote update & manage processes
• Remotely connecting to hardware deployed in the field
• Reading datasheets, writing drivers, and controlling hardware through software
• Developing and enhancing our web products
• Writing infrastructure-as-code (IAC) and working with Pulumi
• Contributing to backend services (.NET, C#) that process & serve data from deployed hardware systems
• Collaborating with the broader dev team on full-stack features, spanning from edge devices to web UI
• Working with cloud infrastructure (AWS)
• Remote-first work, with occasional in-person work at our office in Worcester, MA (you must provide your own transportation)
• Whatever work you can do from home, you may do at home
• Occasional travel to customers' facilities for deployments, upgrades, and maintenance (continental US)

Requirements

Required Skills

• Strong async programming fundamentals
• Linux foundational knowledge and practical experience
• Networking fundamentals
• General basic electronics competence (prototype wiring, Raspberry Pi)
• Experience working with cloud infrastructure (AWS)
• Experience working on web products (TypeScript, React)
• Basic database fundamental knowledge (SQL, PostgresSQL)

Nice To Haves

• Prior startup experience shipping products at a startup pace
• Proficiency in C#, working in the .NET ecosystem
• Networking experience working with Wireguard and ssh
• Practical experience deploying and remotely managing firmware
• Experience working with observability tools (OpenTelemetry, Prometheus)
• Exposure to infrastructure-as-code (Pulumi)
• Proven experience designing and deploying high-volume data systems from edge to cloud
• Strong proficiency in TypeScript and React fundamentals
• Some background or knowledge in statistics, mathematics, signal processing, and/or ML fundamentals
• Basic soldering skills

Non-Technical Qualifications

• Degree in computer science or similar discipline
• Excitement in joining a seed-stage startup and growing (with) the company
• 1-4 years experience in a similar role (or significant internship experience)
• You must be legally authorized to work in the U.S. on a full-time basis (we cannot offer sponsorship at this time)

Application Form

Please note that we will screening all application question responses for authenticity; any pure AI-generated answers will result in automatic disqualification. Our team members will be personally reviewing each application, and we want to hear your voice & personal experience!

Benefits

• Salary ($100-160k)
• Equity (Employee Stock Option Plan)
• Employer Matched 401k Contribution
• Health Care Plan (Medical, Dental, & Vision)
• Paid Time Off (Sick, Personal, Public Holidays, & Unlimited Vacation)