Software Engineering Manager

About Terabase

At Terabase Energy we believe that digitalization and automation will drive the next wave of innovation and cost reduction in large scale solar. To fully unlock the potential of this opportunity Terabase is developing an interconnected software and construction automation platform. We work alongside project developers owners and engineering & construction firms to support the design optimization and construction of huge solar projects around the world. Our team is a blend of solar-industry veterans and newbies thought-leaders dreamers software electrical and mechanical engineers coders product managers project managers and sales and marketing professionals. We are based in Northern California with several other offices in the United States and around the world.

Position Overview

Software Engineering Manager is a senior-level player-coach engineering role that combines direct technical contribution with team leadership responsibilities within the Terafab product area. This role is responsible for guiding the day-to-day execution coordination and technical direction of a team of software engineers while remaining a strong individual contributor. The manager serves as the primary interface between the Terafab software engineering team and adjacent hardware-focused teams including Autonomy IoT and Controls defining and maintaining clear cross-team technical interfaces. This role reports to the Sr. Director of Software Data IoT and Autonomy.

Key Responsibilities

Strategic Technical Leadership

• Define and drive technical strategy and architecture for the Terafabs manufacturing execution system (Fab)

• Lead design and implementation of significant features services or architectural components within Fab

• Drive technical decisions and architectural direction for construction automation orchestration workflows

• Design and implement complex data models APIs and system integrations that balance current needs with future scalability

• Define establish and maintain technical interfaces between Fab software and adjacent systems including Autonomy IoT and Controls/SCADA

• Identify and lead efforts to address technical debt refactoring and system modernization within Fab

• Establish and evolve coding patterns best practices and technical standards within the team

• Evaluate and introduce new technologies tools or approaches that improve team productivity or product capabilities

• Conduct thorough code reviews with a focus on architecture maintainability and knowledge transfer

• Represent engineering in planning discussions with product and cross-functional stakeholders

Complex Problem Solving and Execution

• Resolve complex technical challenges that span multiple systems or have ambiguous requirements particularly at the boundaries between Fab and hardware-adjacent systems

• Proactively identify systemic issues performance bottlenecks or architectural limitations and drive resolution

• Lead investigations into production issues root cause analysis and implementation of long-term fixes

• Balance technical perfection with business pragmatism making strategic trade-offs that serve team and product goals

• Contribute to technical planning estimation and risk assessment for major Fab initiatives

• Serve as technical escalation point for production incidents requiring expert-level intervention

People Management and Team Coordination

• Manage a small team of software engineers including performance oversight career development and regular 1:1s

• Own and facilitate the teams scrum process: sprint planning backlog grooming daily standups retrospectives and sprint reviews with support from senior management

• Coordinate task prioritization and delivery across the team resolving blockers and managing dependencies

• Serve as the primary point of coordination between the Fab engineering team and cross-functional partners including Autonomy IoT and Controls teams with support from senior management on more strategic coordination and decisions

• Translate product requirements and stakeholder needs into actionable technical work for the team

• Mentor team members through code reviews pairing sessions and technical guidance

• Raise the technical bar for the team through knowledge sharing and establishing engineering best practices

• Assist the Sr. Director in engineering planning resource estimation and risk assessment for Fab initiatives

• Contribute to engineering hiring technical candidate assessment and onboarding of new team members

• Contribute positively to engineering culture team process improvements and cross-functional relationships

Required

• 10 years of professional software engineering experience with demonstrated technical leadership across complex systems

• Strong architectural thinking with proven ability to design systems that scale across multiple dimensions (performance team size feature complexity)

• Expert proficiency in Python Django framework and building scalable backend services

• Strong experience with modern frontend frameworks particularly Angular including complex state management and performance optimization

• Deep experience with relational databases (PostgreSQL) and query optimization; proficiency with PostGIS for spatial data workloads

• Productive non-dependent use of AI-assisted coding tools (e.g. Claude Code Cursor) with demonstrated ability to set appropriate guardrails for junior engineers; balances velocity gains against code quality long-term maintainability and ensuring the team develops durable technical skills

• Proven experience designing and implementing complex data models with intricate relationships and constraints

• Demonstrated experience defining and maintaining technical interfaces between software and hardware-adjacent systems (e.g. industrial automation robotics or IoT systems)

• Passion for developing other engineers through mentorship goal-setting and clear direct communication

• Hands-on experience participating in and facilitating agile/scrum processes including sprint planning backlog management and team velocity tracking

• Curiosity and an ability to adapt and rapidly learn new tools and technologies

• Strong bias toward action with proven ability to thrive in ambiguous fast-changing environments

• Excellent communication and coordination skills across both technical and non-technical audiences

• Experience working effectively with distributed and cross-functional teams
• This role is primarily remote but requires candidates to be located within commuting distance of Davis CA. Regular travel to the Davis office is expected as needed for team collaboration and project support.

Preferred

• Prior experience managing or leading a small engineering team including people management performance feedback and career development (strongly preferred)

• Deep experience with workflow orchestration or state machine systems event-driven architectures discrete event simulation or industrial automation particularly in the context of construction or manufacturing execution

• Familiarity with hardware integration protocols and patterns relevant to construction robotics or field automation (e.g. Modbus OPC-UA MQTT CAN bus or similar)

• Experience with real-time monitoring and telemetry systems edge computing or IoT data pipelines

• Strong experience with cloud infrastructure and infrastructure as code (AWS CloudFormation Terraform)

• Subject matter expertise in construction technology industrial automation renewable energy systems or related domains

• Track record of technical and team leadership in fast-paced high-growth startup or scale-up environments

• Experience with microservices architectures and distributed systems

• Experience with performance optimization scaling and reliability engineering

Compensation And Benefits

Our salary ranges are determined by role level and location. This role offers a base salary of $135000 $165000. Within each posted range individual pay is determined (and may be greater or higher) dependent on work location and additional factors including job-related skills experience and relevant education or training. Terabase offers competitive compensation along with a comprehensive benefits package including:

Generous time off and holiday policy

Hybrid flexibility

Flexible time off

Comprehensive benefits package

Career progression

401k match

Stock options

Home office set up allowance

And much more!

Terabase is an equal opportunity employer. We recruit hire employ train promote and compensate individuals based on job-related qualifications and abilities. We strongly encourage people of all backgrounds to apply.

We do not discriminate for any reason including race color sex gender age religion or religious creed national origin ancestry citizenship marital status sexual orientation gender identity gender expression genetic information physical or mental disability military/ veteran status or any other characteristic protected by law.

We offer a welcoming and inclusive environment in service to one another our products the diverse consumers we represent and the communities we call home.

Principles only. This role is not open to receiving agency candidates and any contingent submissions will not be considered. Terabase Energy does not utilize third-party recruitment agencies. Please contact our Recruiting team at with any staffing-related inquiries.

Required Experience:

Manager