Sensor and Signal Processing Scientist

Join EarthOptics as a Sensor and Signal Processing Scientist! 

Our mission is to be the leading soil information company, delivering maps that growers, farmers, ranchers, and other stakeholders use to cost-effectively increase yields and improve soil health and the climate. We are creating a future where traditional sampling methods are obsolete.

With the recent merger of EarthOptics and Pattern Ag, we are combining cutting-edge genomic analysis, data science, microbiology, and remote sensing to revolutionize agriculture. Our unified mission is to help farmers and ranchers sustainably increase their yields and feed the growing world through all things soil.

We are a growing company with a passion for soil health, innovative technologies, and supporting all within the food value chain. We currently have ~140 individuals spread across 32 states and 2 countries, and they come from all walks of life, industries, and experiences. We are deeply focused on building the future of AgTech and sustainability and helping the world see soil differently.

Our Sensor and Signal Processing Scientist will join our Data Science team to impact our mission through individual contributor responsibilities. We have certain criteria across all our hires at EarthOptics, no matter the position or team. Regardless of the role, our team embraces learning, craves collaboration, and is driven by a fast-paced environment. If you resonate with our values and goals, we encourage you to apply—even if you don't meet every requirement. You could be the perfect fit for this role or future opportunities.

The digs: 

• Job Type: Full-time, exempt.

• Work Location: Hybrid in Emeryville, CA, or fully remote. For candidates not based in the Bay Area, this role can be performed by anyone authorized to work in the US and currently resides in the continental US.

• Travel: Rare, less than 10%.

• Compensation: $100,000-140,000 annually.

• Start date: Early 2025.

*Your actual base pay will depend on your geographic location, job-related skills, experience, and relevant education or training. EarthOptics uses compensation regions that vary depending on location, so ask your recruiter to share more about the specific salary range for your preferred location during the hiring process.

What you’ll cultivate as a Sensor and Signal Processing Scientist: (Your responsibilities)

• Derive requirements, perform studies on sensor data quality, and analyze the performance of sensor data for high-resolution soil mapping.

• Understand the performance requirements for our proprietary sensing systems, establish feature model(s) to operate within the sensor performance envelope, and establish procedures to verify performance both quantitatively and subjectively.

• Work closely with hardware R&D teams to evaluate new sensor technology to improve high-resolution mapping and align to the next generation of commercial insights. 

• Develop workflows for evaluating sensor technology and drive the cross-functional understanding of requirements and metrics for new sensor onboarding.

• Champion and write the routines for signal processing/feature extraction in production settings.

• Continuously manage data integrations, novel data sets, management of relevant BQ tables, and all (non-bioinformatic) ETL pipelines.

Are you our soil-mate? You’ll bloom in this role if you have: (Your qualifications)

• 3+ years experience in some signal processing role.  Strong preference towards candidates who have direct experience using EMI data, GPR or spectroscopy, and/or designing and building-related systems.

• Advanced Python skills.

• Educational background in physics, mathematics, statistics, computer science, or relevant background strongly desired, or demonstrated use of core technologies in advanced graduate research.

• Demonstrated experience working with hardware and/or software teams with interactions that lead to tasking and can communicate requirements and requests to cross-functional teams.

• Working knowledge of electromagnetic theory.

**We are interested in every qualified candidate who is eligible to work in the United States. However, we are not able to sponsor or transfer visas at this time.

Although not required, we’d love to see roots in:

• Prior experience in a fast-paced, start-up environment.

• Passion for and interests in agriculture, soil sustainability, and the ability to bridge from research to commercial contexts.

Aside from “the green”, we can offer you:

• Medical, Dental & Vision Insurance

• Company paid LTD, STD, and Life Insurance

• Meaningful equity option grants

• 401k Plan + Employer Match up to 4%

• 17 days of paid time off, plus 9 additional company holidays

• Parental Leave

• Professional Development Stipend + access to learning platforms

• Candidate Referral Program

• Above and Beyond Bonus Program

• Flexible Schedule & Hybrid/Remote Work Environment

• Regular opportunities to give feedback on our benefits offerings

How we stay grounded:

Although we have teammates working in the field, in-office, and at home, we aim to create a cohesive, diverse, and enriching environment for all of our employees. We embrace different tools to enhance our workflows and communicate intentionally, both live and asynchronously. A few quick facts you should know:

• We rely on Slack to communicate. Although there are a variety of team-specific systems to facilitate your work, this is our primary! 

• We love both food and emojis at EarthOptics. If hired, you’ll come to love (and use many) taco and donut emojis. 🌮🍩

• Our core business hours are Monday through Friday 11am-4pm EST. We have teammates in every time zone, and have some teams that operate outside of that timeframe. As a remote employee, you are asked to honor those hours to ensure enough time to overlap with key cross-functional teams.

• In order to maximize our remote culture, we host company-wide opportunities to connect (virtually and in-person) and create space for focus work. For example, we have a weekly all-hands stand-up meeting on Monday and reserve Fridays as a regular “No Meeting” day.

• Instead of values, we believe in actionable “cultural concepts”. Collectively, we hold one another to act and give feedback with these concepts in mind. Ours are information and intent, recognition and respect, and autonomy and accountability. 

Inclusion and Diversity at EarthOptics: 

At EarthOptics, we embrace diversity and equality, and stand against any form of discrimination or harassment. We base all hiring and promotion decisions on business needs, job requirements, and individual qualifications, regardless of race, color, religion, gender, gender identity, national origin, age, marital status, parental status, veteran status, or disability.

We are deeply committed to welcoming and including every qualified individual. As a part of this commitment, we ensure that persons with disabilities have access to reasonable accommodations. If you require assistance during the job application or interview process, need support to perform essential job functions, or seek other benefits and privileges of employment, please reach out to us at accommodations@earthoptics.com.