About Us

We’re Blue River, a team of innovators driven to radically change agriculture by creating intelligent machinery. We empower our customers – farmers – to implement more sustainable solutions: optimize chemical usage, reimagining routine processes, and improving farming yields year after year. We believe that focusing on the small stuff – pixel-by-pixel and plant-by-plant – leads to big gains. By partnering with John Deere, we are innovating computer vision, machine learning, robotics and product management to solve monumental challenges for our customers.

Our people are at the heart of what we do. Through cross-discipline collaboration, this mission-driven and daring team is eager to define the new frontier of agricultural robotics. We are always asking hard questions, rapidly iterating, and getting our boots in the field to figure it out. We won’t give up until we’ve made a tangible and positive impact on agriculture.

Position Summary:

SEE AND SPRAY ULTIMATE reduces the amount of herbicide used in major growing operations, it lessens chemical run-off into waterways and improves our global climate situation.  John Deere’s agricultural self-propelled sprayers will leverage AI and Software built by the team you’ll be joining. Working hand in hand with John Deere, the world’s largest farming equipment manufacturer, means you’ll impact the process of farmers across the globe. Come help us turn rivers blue!

This position offers a blend of responsibilities from tactical work delivery through strategic planning to supervision. You will have an opportunity to demonstrate both your deep technical skills as well as your people leadership skills.

As a Software Engineering Manager, you will supervise a small team of direct reports.  You will also lead a slightly larger team of engineers in designing, building, testing and hardening new features that make See&Spray machines more accurate, efficient, reliable and faster. There will be a healthy mix of production development and R&D. You will drive feature development from inception through delivery to customers.

The team you’ll be joining consists of experienced Roboticists and Software engineers. We work alongside agronomists, systems and embedded software, mechatronics, computer vision and machine learning engineers; and we are in constant conversation with our product managers.

SUMMARY OF RESPONSIBILITIES

• Lead a right-sized agile team that will be responsible for delivery of new See & Spray features that will delight our customers and allow farmers to be more productive, for example increasing machine speed through clever scheduling or customizing herbicide application for different types of weeds.
• Facilitate iterative engineering team planning in an uncertain environment. Collaborate closely with Product Management on requirements and prioritization.
• Support your direct reports in their professional development.  We believe in empowering our engineers with a high degree of agency to foster a culture of ownership and accountability.
• Directly contribute to software development, including concept reviews, writing code, code reviews, documentation. We believe that collaboration and feedback is essential to all software development.
• Drive continuous improvement of engineering practices in collaboration with other engineering teams.

DESIRED SKILLS

We value a variety of voices. You don’t need to check every box on this list to apply.

• Track record of leading teams in development of complex software products from conception to customer delivery
• Effective relationship builder and highly approachable technical leader
• 6+ years of Software Engineering experience
• Experience as a Tech Lead or People Manager
• Experience with complex interconnected systems (from design to debugging)
• Highly skilled in Linux and C++
• Desire to work in a product driven environment and ability to carry out prototyping and experimentation.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Experience working hands on with robotic or sensor based systems.

Blue River offers competitive compensation and benefits, including a great 401(K) match. We believe in a work life balance and offer generous Paid Time Off and Sick Leave as well as Paid Parental Leave and an adoption benefit. Subsidized lunches, flexible work hours, CalTrain passes (with mobile Wi-Fi!) and a collaborative and supportive environment also contribute to making Blue River a great place to work.

We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, gender, gender expression, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and to receive other benefits and privileges of employment. Please contact us to request accommodation.

The US base salary range for this position is $160,000 – $230,000, along with eligibility for Blue River’s bonus and benefit programs.

Our salary ranges are determined by role, level, and location. Within the range, individual pay is determined by work location and additional factors, including job-related skills, experience, and relevant education or training. Your recruiter can share more about the specific salary range for your location during the hiring process.

During the recruitment process, we may identify an alternative role or level which you are more suited to. If your ideal role at Blue River differs from the advertised position, we will provide an updated pay range as soon as possible during the hiring process.