Lead Engineer - Climate Solutions

Lead Software Engineer — Climate Solutions

Full-time · Remote-first · Helsinki / Nairobi / Remote

SoilWatch is a climate tech company that helps nature-based carbon removal projects to deliver and prove their impact. We combine science, Earth observation, and digital infrastructure to build the measurement, reporting, and verification (MRV) systems that make climate solutions credible, investable, and scalable.

We work across Africa, Latin America, and Asia with UN agencies, investors, project developers, and communities, supporting ecosystem restoration, carbon removal, sustainable land management, and development finance.

We’re a mission-driven team. Joining SoilWatch means working at the intersection of climate science, field operations, and technology — where your work has direct, measurable impact on environment and communities.

About the Role

This is not a typical lead engineer position. At SoilWatch, the systems you build are the systems that determine whether a climate solution is credible. Every architectural decision you make — how data flows from a field operator’s phone or a sensor in the space to a carbon credit registry, how batch-level traceability is maintained, how QA/QC checks are automated — directly affects whether our clients’ climate claims hold up under audit.

We believe that high-integrity quality management is where the real value lies in climate tech — not in building flashy software products, but in building systems that make carbon removal trustworthy. That’s why this role carries primary responsibility for quality control across our digital MRV platform and the climate solution quality we deliver to clients.

You will own the technical architecture and quality framework for our platforms, spanning biochar carbon removal, nature-based solutions, and other climate solutions. You’ll work closely with our science, operations, and delivery teams to ensure that what we build isn’t just technically sound, but audit-ready, standards-compliant, and trusted by buyers, registries, and verification bodies.

Key Responsibilities

Platform Development & Architecture

• Lead full-stack development of our digital MRV platform, from front-end interfaces used by field teams to back-end systems integrating satellite, climate, field, and project data.

• Make architectural decisions for systems that handle chain-of-custody traceability, carbon accounting logic, and audit-ready data exports.

• Translate scientific and operational requirements into scalable, reliable product features in coordination with the Technical Project Manager.

• Support cloud-native deployment and infrastructure decisions across Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure.

Quality Management & Standards Compliance

• Own the quality management framework for SoilWatch’s digital infrastructure — ensuring that data integrity, traceability, and verification readiness are built into systems by design, not bolted on afterward.

• Design and implement automated QA/QC checks across the data pipeline: from field data collection (ODK/ONA) through processing, carbon accounting, and reporting.

• Ensure platform architecture supports compliance with major carbon standards (Verra VM0044 and VM0042, EBC/Global C-Sink, Puro.earth, Isometric, and others as they evolve).

• Build systems that produce audit-ready outputs: complete chain-of-custody records, reproducible calculations, and transparent evidence packages for verification bodies and buyers.

• Work with the science and operations teams to define and enforce data quality thresholds, validation rules, and consistency checks that protect the integrity of our clients’ climate claims.

Technical Leadership

• Improve code quality, testing coverage, documentation, and deployment practices across the stack.

• Contribute to technical planning, prioritization, and engineering standards in close coordination with the Technical Project Manager.

• Mentor team members and help guide execution across workstreams.

Qualifications

Required

• Significant professional experience in software engineering, including ownership of production systems or major product areas from architecture through deployment and operation.

• Strong backend expertise in Python, including API design, service architecture, and data-intensive applications.

• Solid frontend experience with a modern JavaScript framework such as React.

• Strong experience with PostgreSQL and backend data modelling for operational and analytical workflows.

• Experience with Google Cloud Platform services and production cloud deployments; experience with Microsoft Azure is also valuable.

• Proven ability to independently lead technical implementation and make sound engineering decisions in a fast-moving environment.

• Strong understanding of software engineering best practices: testing, maintainability, version control, CI/CD, and deployment workflows.

• A quality-first mindset: you care about data integrity, process management, edge cases, validation, and audit trails. You understand that in climate tech, a data quality failure isn’t just a bug, it’s a credibility failure.

• Ability to collaborate effectively across technical and non-technical teams, including science, operations, and delivery stakeholders.

• Genuine interest in climate solutions, carbon markets, ecological restoration, and mission-driven product development.

Preferred

• Experience with quality management systems, data governance, or compliance frameworks; especially in contexts where data correctness has financial or regulatory consequences (carbon markets, fintech, health tech, regulated industries).

• Familiarity with carbon credit standards and MRV requirements (Verra VCS, EBC, Puro.earth, Isometric, Gold Standard, or similar).

• Experience leading technical direction, mentoring engineers, or owning architecture for a product or platform.

• Experience coordinating closely with a Technical Project Manager, Product Manager, or equivalent delivery lead.

• Experience with containerised deployments and orchestration tools such as Docker and Kubernetes.

• Experience with specific GCP services (Cloud Run, Cloud Storage, Cloud SQL, Pub/Sub, BigQuery) and/or relevant Azure services.

• Experience integrating field-data systems such as ODK, ONA, or similar mobile data collection tools into digital platforms and data workflows.

• Understanding of security, privacy, and compliance considerations relevant to data platforms.

Why This Role Matters

The carbon market is at a credibility crossroads. Buyers and investors are increasingly demanding rigorous, transparent, and verifiable evidence that carbon removal claims are real. The companies that win in this space won’t be the ones with the most features; they’ll be the ones whose data and quality systems are beyond reproach.

As Lead Engineer, you will shape how SoilWatch delivers that credibility. Your systems will be the basis on which millions of dollars in climate finance flows, and on which communities in some of the world’s most vulnerable landscapes receive support for restoration and livelihoods.

What We Offer

• Meaningful work at the core of climate action and carbon removal.

• A role where quality and integrity are the mission, not an afterthought.

• Flexible, remote-first working in an international team across the world.

• Direct influence on products used by UN agencies, NGOs, climate investors, and project developers worldwide.

• A small, agile team where your ideas and decisions directly shape the product and the company’s trajectory.

How to Apply

Send your CV, a brief cover letter (or a short paragraph introducing yourself), and links to any relevant code, publications, or projects to [email protected].