Director of Engineering
Explore Tech
San Diego, CA · $220k a year · Posted November 3, 2026
Just laid off? Start here: a plan for the first weeks
See every open role at Explore Tech
More in California job market · Director of Engineering jobs in California (36) · All Director of Engineering jobs (142) · Technology & Software · Engineering jobs
More roles at Explore Tech
- Vice President, Exploration
- Business Development Representative · San Diego, CA
- Business Development Manager · San Diego, CA
Similar jobs
- Senior Director Product Development - Single Cell - US Milpitas CA · Waters · Milpitas, CA
- Director of Engineering · Marriott International · Los Angeles, CA
- Engineering Manager · Flux · San Francisco, CA
- Civil Manager · Aecom · Long Beach, CA
- Head of Customer Engineering · AnyScale · San Francisco, CA
- Civil Manager · Aecom · Orange, CA
Where San Diego, CA ranks
Where San Diego, CA placed in our monthly rankings, month by month. Each month stays online at its own address.
November 2026
- #1Cities hosting the most business conferences in the West Coast78 conferences · of 17
- #2Cities hosting the most human resources conferences6 conferences · of 10
- #3Best cities for life sciences and biotech jobs454 openings · of 41
- #3Best cities for aerospace and defense jobs377 openings · of 67
- #3Cities hosting the most legal services conferences7 conferences · of 17
- #3Cities hosting the most staffing & human capital conferences6 conferences · of 8
Rankings about engineering jobs
- Best cities for software and engineering jobs #1 San Francisco (3,412 openings)
- Best cities for engineering pay after cost of living #1 San Mateo ($216k)
- Most requested AI skills in engineering jobs #1 AI tools in daily work (6.1%)
- AI tools named most often in engineering jobs #1 Claude (1.7%)
- Employers with the most engineering jobs #1 Amazon (2,992 roles)
Pay compared with the market
This listing pays about $220,000 a year. Across 45 open director of engineering listings that state pay, the middle half runs $203,500 to $290,000 and the median is $256,500. That is inside the middle half of those listings, 14% below the median.
Listed pay is what employers advertise, not what people are paid.
Director of Engineering salaries by state · Check your own pay
How AI is used in this kind of work
AI use among architectural and engineering managers is little observed so far. Measured exposure for architectural and engineering managers: 3% (little observed).
Share of this job’s tasks that AI is already used for at work, from real usage. It is not a forecast of job loss, and a low number means no use seen yet. Source: Anthropic Economic Index.
Skills this job asks for
Say which you have and which you want to build. We use it to match you to jobs like this one.
About the job
Careers Director of Engineering
About the Company
Our mission is to discover the raw materials needed to create a prosperous world for the next 1000 years. With modern software and hardware, we aim to reduce mineral discovery timelines from 10 years to 1 year. Founded in 2023 by lifelong geoscientists, ExploreTech is a venture-backed business that develops technology and uses it to explore for minerals all over the world.
About the Role
We’re accelerating the pace of mineral discovery. Our AI drill targeting software has gone 8 for 8 hitting mineralized targets, a significant improvement over industry standards. We are now making the product bullet-proof for enterprise deployment so we can scale up mineral discovery at a global scale. In this role, you’ll set the technical direction for the engineering team and lead the transition from an early product with traction into the platform the world’s biggest mining companies use to discover new minerals.
This is not a CRUD app – you’ll architect software for rugged and remote parts of the world, from APIs that orchestrate massive cluster computing systems to interfaces that work in an arctic snowstorm in January. You’ll make the calls that decide whether the system holds up at 10x scale. The best part - you’ll help build and lead a world-class team of scientists, engineers, and explorers that live and breathe this work every day.
What You’ll Do
Own the architecture of the platform across web, mobile, data, and compute
Set the technical direction for the engineering team, and mentor and grow it as we scale
Design high-performance computing architectures to orchestrate hundreds of thousands of parallelized physics simulations
Lead development of agentic AI systems that automate mineral exploration workflows
Build the systems that connect 3D AI geological models to the people who use them
Make the product enterprise-ready: security, reliability, observability, deployment
Work directly with scientists, geologists, and customers to turn field problems into roadmap
About You
Bachelor’s in computer science or equivalent experience
8+ years professional software engineering experience, including 2+ years leading engineers or owning the architecture of a system at scale
Fluent in Python, Go, and Javascript (or similar languages)
Proven track record taking a product from early traction to enterprise-grade
Deep experience with distributed systems and cloud infrastructure
Able to travel to remote parts of the US and world
Bonus Points For
Experience with high-performance computing or agentic AI systems
Experience with scientific, geospatial, or mining software
Location
San Diego, California Field deployments as needed
Salary
Starting at $220,000 + equity
Benefits
100% healthcare coverage (medical, dental, vision)
Our Hiring Process
Intro call: a conversation with a founder about your background and what you want to work on.
Role conversation: a deeper discussion of the work itself with the people you’d work alongside.
Final conversation: meet the founders and the team, and ask us anything. If it’s a fit, we’ll make an offer.
If you’re ready to accelerate critical mineral discovery across the world, we encourage you to apply!
Apply Now
ExploreTech is an equal opportunity employer. We consider all qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.