Staff Software Engineer San Francisco Bay Area

TAR’s mission is to power intelligence for the world. We are building the world’s first off-grid power plant for data centers powered by renewable technologies.

We firmly believe AI should be built in the US for the benefit of all people. For that, power must be fast, clean and scalable. We are singularly focused on delivering GW-scale power faster than anyone has ever done, by rethinking every layer of the stack.

We vertically integrate to solve every bottleneck, from racking systems to power electronics to dispatch algorithms to on-site construction.

Leave your mark on the future of civilization-scale energy infrastructure.

Company

TAR is both a hardware and software company, we are building out massive, critical, physical infrastructure. TAR is working directly with one of the largest compute providers to scale and deploy 5GWs by 2028.

• High ownership. High Agency. Own project end-to-end. Great people don’t need to be managed.
• Speed. We achieve great things on incredible timelines. We push ourselves to go faster.
• First principles. No ego. No hierarchy. Challenge every assumption.
• Passion. Solving the energy problem is one of the largest challenges that faces the world now and in the future.

About the role

As a Staff Software Engineer, you will personally build critical software and help shape the technical direction of the systems TAR uses to design, construct, and operate power campuses.

You will own a core technical area while helping resolve problems that span simulation, design automation, construction software, and energy management. You will work with company leadership and domain experts to identify priorities, make architectural decisions, and turn ambiguous needs into achievable engineering work.

Writing production code, debugging systems, and validating results are central to the role. You will also mentor engineers and help the team make better technical decisions.

The role is based at our San Francisco engineering office.

Responsibilities

• Personally design, implement, and operate critical software, from simulation and optimization services to equipment integrations. Take on difficult implementation and debugging work, including tracing a mismatch between a model’s predictions and observed equipment behavior.
• Shape the technical roadmap with company leadership and domain experts. Identify dependencies, sequence work, and make the consequences of competing priorities explicit.
• Turn ambiguous needs into concrete technical proposals with clear scope, alternatives, and a practical path to delivery.
• Lead architectural decisions across connected systems, such as how equipment data and plant configurations stay consistent across design, simulation, and operations. Establish clear data models and interfaces while preserving ownership within individual engineering areas.
• Work with power systems, construction, and robotics counterparts on shared requirements and interfaces, such as defining how an equipment integration exchanges telemetry and commands, handles communication failures, and is tested before deployment.
• Improve testing, observability, release practices, and validation where they materially strengthen reliability or help the team deliver faster.
• Mentor engineers through design discussions, code reviews, and collaborative problem-solving. Contribute to hiring and help develop technical judgment across the team.

Qualifications

• Typically 8+ years of software engineering experience, including ownership of production systems and leadership of complex technical projects. We also welcome candidates with fewer years who can demonstrate comparable scope and impact.
• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, engineering, or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience.
• A strong record of personally building and shipping production software, with current depth in implementation, debugging, and system design.
• Experience owning important systems through development, deployment, and ongoing operation.
• Evidence of leading complex technical work across multiple systems or groups, including situations where requirements or ownership were initially unclear.
• The judgment to choose an appropriately simple solution, recognize when a decision has wider consequences, and explain trade-offs clearly.
• Depth in at least one of TypeScript, Python, or Rust, with the ability to work across languages and technical boundaries.
• Experience translating business or domain needs into technical priorities and an achievable delivery plan.
• The ability to improve other engineers’ work through collaboration, constructive feedback, and mentoring.

You do not need to have held a Staff title. We are interested in the scope of the work you have owned, the decisions you have made, and the results you can explain.

Nice to have

• Experience building software for energy, industrial infrastructure, robotics, or other environments where software interacts with physical systems.
• Deep experience in simulation, optimization, geospatial systems, design automation, product engineering, or industrial controls.
• Experience building shared platforms or integrating systems across teams with different technical and operational needs.
• Experience delivering software in a small team where you helped define both the problem and the approach.