VP Software Engineering

Energy is the binding constraint on human progress. Solar and storage are the lowest cost sources of new generation, but the conventional project delivery model has not changed in 30 years. Deployment cannot keep pace with demand. Planted transforms power plants from projects into products. Our software converts raw land into a build-ready power plant in minutes instead of months. Our hardware delivers twice the energy on every hectare. Our robots deploy as one integrated system so output scales with production lines instead of headcount. We’re expanding our team of ambitious, curious, and hands-on engineers and operators. You will join a group at the intersection of deep tech and large-scale physical systems. Our engineering core brings robotics and automation DNA from SpaceX and Tesla, working directly alongside energy infrastructure experts. Planted is led by repeat founders with a successful prior exit (Cogenra to SunPower) and backed by Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Piva Capital, Google, Gigascale Capital, Khosla Ventures, and RA Capital Management Planetary Health. Come take ownership of large parts of our product and company development as we power the world with 100% clean and abundant energy. About The Role Software is both the brains of our machines and the connective tissue of Planted operations. You will lead and grow a software organization spanning three domains: autonomous robotic vehicle software, our suite of web-based power plant design, build, and operate tools, and an emerging portfolio of AI agents that automate engineering, estimation, and operations workflows. We are looking for a pragmatic technical leader with a track record of building high-performing, multi-disciplinary software teams. You must be deep enough technically to drive key architectural decisions across the vertically integrated platform, and strategic enough to drive and execute on the product roadmap. You have systems literacy (e.g., how data moves from a robot's camera into an ML pipeline) and prioritize delivery mechanics over heavy-handed project management. Our robots are building projects in the field today and our design software is in front of customers. Your mandate is to scale the product and the team to support our current 10x year over year growth in megawatts deployed. The Team: You will join a group at the intersection of deep tech and massive physical infrastructure. Our engineering core brings robotics and automation DNA from SpaceX and Tesla, working directly alongside veteran energy developers. We are led by repeat founders with a successful prior exit (Cogenra to SunPower). Planted is backed by leading investors in energy and Physical AI, including Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Khosla Ventures, and Piva Capital. The annual salary range for this full-time position is $275,000-$325,000 plus a meaningful equity stake and benefits. Pay within the range is based on candidate experience, job-specific skills, and education. The target experience for the position is 10–15+ years. We work together in person 5 days/week at our HQ in Oakland, CA. KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

• Organizational Leadership & Talent Development: Build, scale, and mentor a high-performing, multi-level software organization, including direct management of engineering managers, principal engineers, and system architects. Foster a culture of technical excellence, accountability, and continuous growth. Recruit and retain top-tier software talent across cloud, spatial/CAD, embedded, and robotics domains while allowing technical experts to own the architecture.
• Strategic Execution & Stakeholder Management: Own the software roadmap and drive the predictable, on-time delivery of complex, multi-system software projects across multiple products. Set clear expectations, communicate progress, and align software deliverables. Collaborate seamlessly with the Commercial team, Hardware Engineering, and Project Operations. Make the build-vs-buy, stack, and platform decisions that will hold up at 100x scale.
• Software Product Suite Ownership: Lead development across our core platforms: Power Planter (automated layout, engineering, and costing), Build View (autonomous fleet management, field deployment, and QA/QC), and Operate View (inspection, operations, and maintenance tools for large-scale solar plants).
• Autonomous Robotic Vehicle Platforms: Lead the engineering teams deploying the full software stack across our autonomous field machine fleet (fleet logic, behavior trees, and path planning, modern and classical controls, ROS2, etc.).
• Data Flywheel: We operate our field machines like modern manufacturing lines. You will own the telemetry and data infrastructure that monitors production with statistical process control and turns every installation into training data for better models and improved machine productivity.
• AI Systems: Build the team and roadmap for AI agents that automate design, estimation, project delivery, and operations workflows, grounded in the data our robots and projects generate. QUALIFICATIONS
• 10 to 15+ years of software engineering experience, including 5+ years leading engineering teams (senior ICs and managers) shipping production systems.
• Deep expertise in full stack software development involving hardware and software integration like robotics, IoT, or industrial automation.
• Track record shipping robotics, autonomous vehicles, or hardtech software into the field at scale—with a strong focus on fleet reliability, continuous testing, and real-time observability.
• Broad leadership capability across platform/full-stack teams, cloud infrastructure, data systems, or applied AI/ML groups outside your core specialty.
• Systems architecture judgment with strong understanding of how technologies work together (e.g., middleware, pub/sub architectures, web services, and ML pipelines). You do not need to write the C++ on the robot, but you must understand edge compute, latency, and hardware-in-the-loop testing. PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS
• Field robotics: Experience in construction, agriculture, mining, defense, logistics, or autonomous vehicles operating off-pavement (e.g., Waymo, Cruise, Bedrock Automation).