Director of Engineering

About Square Roots

Square Roots is the technology leader in urban indoor farming. Our mission is to future-proof agriculture for a world facing climate change. 

Founded by serial entrepreneurs, Kimbal Musk and Tobias Peggs, Square Roots partners with food distributors, retailers, consumer goods producers, and foundations. Our farming-as-a-service model combines proprietary technology, indoor growing expertise, and production facilities, to deliver bespoke value to our customers in the short term while contributing to climate change solutions for the long term. 

About the Role:

Square Roots is seeking a Director of Engineering who will lead a team of engineers and construction managers to design, prototype, and deploy proprietary indoor farming technology systems.  This platform includes the core indoor climate control, growing hardware, chemical systems, and software automation, all of which ultimately enable the success of our production growing and R&D teams. 

This person will report directly to the Chief Executive Officer and be responsible for developing the organizational processes and technical strategy to bridge the gap between the business and technology implementation. We are looking for an engineering leader who is excited to lead and empower a small team while also doing whatever it takes to ensure successful technical outcomes to our farming-as-a-service customers. 

This role is based at our Brooklyn HQ and will require 3+ days a week in-person. 

You will:

• Lead a cross functional team of hardware engineers, software engineers, and construction managers to design, prototype, and deploy proprietary indoor farming technology systems in service of our Farming-as-a-Service customers and partners.  
• Collaborate with leadership to develop the engineering strategy, roadmap, and objectives and key results. 
• Serve as an effective people manager, keeping the team focused on the right priorities, engaged, and motivated.
• Develop and iterate on internal team processes, retaining what is working and improving what could be improved.
• Foster and develop a cohesive and values-aligned team culture.
• Collaborate with internal and external stakeholders to drive successful implementation and iteration of growing systems

You have experience with:

• Coaching, recruiting and leading hardware and software engineering teams in a biosystems environment, preferably indoor growing.
• Getting hands-on as needed, to apply your technical expertise in environmental systems
• Participating in and leading agile workflows. 
• Being external-facing in technology implementations for external customers or partners.
• Managing contractor scopes of work.
• (Bonus) Chemical experience in an environmental systems context a plus.

You are: 

• An engineering leader who has managed a team in a fast-paced, scrappy startup environment.
• A systems thinker with a technical background.
• An empathetic and emotionally intelligent leader who proactively seeks out input from all corners to get to the right outcome.
• Comfortable managing people, working crossfunctionally internally, and managing external stakeholders. 
• Passionate about building effective team culture and processes
• A clear communicator who can collaborate with external teams and stakeholders.
• A fantastic people manager who understands how to mentor, motivate and inspire.
• Comfortable finding clarity in ambiguity and having a bias for action.
•  

You'll love working at Square Roots because: 

• We're here to change the food system. You'll have the opportunity to play a significant role in our work at the intersection of technology, farming, and the global food industry - and we're only just getting started. 
• Our team is driven by a shared set of values. These keep us aligned and remind us how to show up every day in the face of growth and ambiguity. Whether you’re working remotely or on the farms,  collaboration, respect, optimism, and humility are all embraced, and we seek to empower people at every step. Ask us about the rest!
• Benefits and perks, of course. We're all here first and foremost to play our part in the mission, but medical, dental, and vision coverage, flexible work-life culture, and lots of samples of the delicious food we grow certainly do not hurt. 

At Square Roots, we are committed to fair and equitable compensation practices. That’s why all entry-level roles start at Living Wage, not minimum wage, and it’s why we use third party benchmark data to inform salary across all roles and geographies.  You can read more about our practices here.

Based on how we have planned for this role, we believe the range is $200,000 to $230,000. However, this range may vary depending on skillset, experience, and geography. Salary is just one part of compensation at Square Roots. We also offer generous health benefits, paid time off, free herbs and greens, and more!