Director of Software Engineering

Position Description

Fervo is hiring a Director of Software Engineering to build and lead the software organization responsible for our internal application layer. Reporting directly to the CTO, this leader will own the architecture, roadmap, and delivery model for software products that support Fervo’s rapidly scaling business.

This is an opportunity to build production software at the intersection of energy infrastructure, industrial operations, data, and AI. The systems you build will help teams across Fervo improve workflows, connect information, and make more informed decisions as the company grows.

Responsibilities

• Own the internal application architecture. Define and maintain the architecture for Fervo-built applications, including application patterns, service boundaries, integrations, deployment models, observability, and application-level security. Partner closely with data, IT, cybersecurity, and business stakeholders to ensure Fervo’s software ecosystem is scalable, secure, maintainable, and built to evolve with the company.

• Build business-facing software products. Lead the development of internal applications that translate data and operational context into clearer workflows, better visibility, and more effective decision-making. These may include workflow tools, reporting systems, dashboards, automation capabilities, and AI-enabled applications.

• Work forward-deployed with operational teams. Embed directly with drilling engineers, wellfield operators, power plant technicians, and commercial leads to understand their workflows and pain points. Rapidly prototype and ship MVPs into live production environments, iterate with real users, and bring operational learnings back to the core engineering and data platform teams.

• Lead a product-oriented engineering model. Build a software team that works closely with stakeholders across the business to translate ambiguous needs into deployed software. Balance embedded discovery with centralized architecture and engineering discipline so that Fervo’s software ecosystem compounds over time.

• Build and lead the software engineering team. Hire, manage, and grow a team of full-stack engineers, backend engineers, and product managers. Establish engineering culture, delivery practices, technical standards, and operating rhythms that allow a small, high-leverage team to move quickly while building durable systems.

• Advance Fervo’s use of AI-enabled applications. Partner with technical and business leaders to identify, prioritize, and deliver practical AI-enabled software capabilities. Focus on production-grade tools that improve workflows, reduce manual effort, and support better decision-making.

• Establish engineering standards for the application stack. Set the practices that support high-quality software delivery, including CI/CD, testing, code review, documentation, observability, incident response, and application security. Partner with IT and cybersecurity on identity, access management, infrastructure standards, and enterprise security requirements.

• Manage vendor and integration relationships. Own technical relationships for software vendors and integration partners that support Fervo’s internal application ecosystem.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of software engineering experience, including at least 3 years in a technical leadership or engineering management role

• Experience building and deploying production full-stack or backend applications in cloud environments

• Strong backend engineering fundamentals, including modern programming languages, API design, authentication and authorization patterns, and production-grade integration design

• Hands-on experience integrating applications with modern data platforms or enterprise systems

• Experience deploying AI, machine learning, or automation-enabled features into production environments

• Demonstrated ability to lead engineering teams, manage technical roadmaps, and make prioritization tradeoffs across competing business needs

• Strong product judgment, with a track record of scoping and shipping the simplest useful solution to a real business problem

• Ability to work with non-technical stakeholders, understand complex workflows, and translate ambiguous needs into software requirements and deployed systems

Strongly Preferred

• Experience building applications on ontology-based or semantic data platforms — Palantir Foundry, Microsoft Fabric semantic models, custom ontology frameworks, or similar systems where application logic is expressed against real-world object models rather than raw tables

• Energy, industrial operations, or infrastructure sector experience — oil & gas, power generation, mining, or utilities

• Production experience building and deploying full-stack applications on Azure (App Service, Functions, AKS, or equivalent)

• Familiarity with operational technology data: SCADA, time-series telemetry, or industrial IoT systems

• Experience with Enverus or equivalent energy data platforms (OpenInvoice, Quorum, Aucerna)

• Startup or high-growth company background where you have built production systems under resource and time constraints

• Experience with geospatial data, permitting workflows, or subsurface data management