Reports To: CTO
Location: San Francisco, CA

Reinventing Government Interactions for a Sustainable Future

At Symbium, we're on a mission to streamline how citizens interact with local government and cut through the red tape in permitting processes. Imagine a world where homeowners and contractors can effortlessly navigate complex regulations, instantly determine what projects are possible on their property, and secure approvals with the click of a button. Symbium is making that world a reality. By transforming dense rules into user-friendly software, we empower people to get work done without frustration and delay.

Symbium's proprietary computational law (Complaw®) technology – initially developed at Stanford's AI Lab – performs permit compliance checks in real time, enabling instant permit approvals. Symbium is currently partnered with 270+ cities – and growing fast. Our platform accelerates clean energy adoption by simplifying approvals for installations of solar panels, reroofing, and EV chargers to heat pumps and beyond. This streamlined process helps communities transition more quickly to decarbonization and energy independence.

The Opportunity

Symbium is looking for a Software Engineer who is ready to take on ownership across the stack and do work that actually matters. You will write a lot of code, ship features end-to-end, and collaborate with experienced engineers on genuinely hard problems.

This role is designed for someone ready to own meaningful work independently and grow into broader technical responsibility as Symbium scales. You'll work on systems that encode regulations as executable logic: deterministic rule engines that drive compliance checks, eligibility determinations, and permit workflows. A key part of this role is working directly in our computational law systems: reading, writing, and debugging logic programs that translate legal text into structured, verifiable code.

You'll tackle challenging technical problems, collaborate with a passionate team, and expand your engineering skills in a supportive environment. If you love the idea of using technology to disrupt the status quo and make a positive impact on society, you'll thrive in this role.

What you'll do (Responsibilities)

• Build and own features:
• Deliver well-scoped features end-to-end: design, implementation, deployment, and iteration.
• Build workflows, APIs, integrations, and backend systems that power Symbium's permitting platform.
• Contribute to production-grade AI features with real user impact.
• Participate in code reviews and keep documentation current as part of your workflow.
• Codify law into executable workflows:
• Work with domain experts to interpret regulatory text, then translate it into logical statements, bridging the gap between law and code.
• Extend and maintain the schema that underlies Complaw workflows: add new rule structures, extend reasoning capabilities, and keep the model accurate as laws change.
• Debug rule chains by tracing logic from input facts to conclusions. Understand exactly why a compliance check passed or failed, and preserve that explainability at every step.
• Treat precision as a hard requirement. In mission-critical workflows, wrong or unexplainable answers have real consequences for the people and projects depending on it.
• Write logic programs that are efficient to evaluate: understand how the engine resolves queries and structure logic to minimize inference time without sacrificing schema expressiveness.
• Contribute to scaling the law-to-code framework: better tooling, cleaner abstractions, and patterns that make it maintainable and configurable by non-experts.
• Drive implementation decisions:
• Make pragmatic trade-offs when implementing features, balancing speed, correctness, and maintainability.
• Identify edge cases, failure modes, and gaps early, especially in systems where correctness and deterministic behavior are critical.
• Ensure quality and reliability:
• Write tests, instrument your code, and treat observability as a core responsibility.
• Debug and resolve production issues end-to-end, taking ownership through resolution.
• Communicate clearly:
• Write clear proposals, documentation, and async updates that keep the team aligned.
• Explain technical decisions and trade-offs in plain language to engineers and non-engineers.
• Work with stakeholders:
• Translate product and policy requirements into concrete technical tasks and deliverables.
• Surface risks early and communicate clearly about what you are building and why.
• Execute independently:
• Operate with minimal day-to-day guidance within defined scopes.
• Take ambiguous problems and drive them to resolution, seeking input when needed.

Who we're looking for (Qualifications)

We are looking for strong builders who take ownership and prioritize correctness. You might be a great fit if you have:

• 3 – 5 years of hands-on software engineering experience, including shipping and maintaining production systems.
• A track record of owning and delivering features end-to-end, from requirements to production.
• Strong full-stack capabilities across backend services, APIs, and modern front-end development.
• Proficiency in JavaScript/TypeScript and Node.js in production environments, with familiarity with cloud infrastructure such as AWS.
• Demonstrated ability to learn and apply new programming paradigms quickly. Logic programming experience is not required on day one, but you should be able to pick it up and take ownership of rule-based systems as you ramp.
• Strong relational database and SQL skills including schema design, query optimization, and index strategy. You reach for EXPLAIN before you reach for a workaround.
• Experience integrating systems including APIs and third-party services, with a solid understanding of reliability, failure modes, and edge cases.
• Exposure to or interest in AI/ML-driven features and integrating model outputs into production workflows.
• Strong communication skills, with a habit of asking sharp questions, surfacing risks early, and documenting decisions clearly.
• A strong sense of ownership and accountability, following through on commitments and treating production systems seriously.
• A commitment to testing, observability, and debugging as core engineering practices.

Nice-to-Have Skills

• A Master's degree in Computer Science or a related field, particularly with exposure to systems or AI/ML.
• Experience building or integrating AI/ML-driven features into production systems.
• Familiarity with logic, constraint, or declarative programming paradigms (Prolog, Datalog, or similar).
• Experience working in high-ownership or early-stage environments.
• Domain familiarity with government systems, permitting, or electrification.

Our Culture & Why You'll Love Symbium

• Mission with Impact: Your work will directly accelerate the adoption of clean energy and make government services more accessible. Every feature you build can help someone install solar panels, get an EV charger, or improve their home with less hassle. If you've wanted to do good with your coding skills, this is it.
• High-Ownership Environment: We believe in ownership and accountability. On our team, everyone trusts each other to deliver results. You'll have the freedom to innovate, make decisions, and drive projects, with the support of experienced mentors when you need it.
• Tight-Knit & Hands-On: We work side by side every day – C-level executives, engineers, and interns alike – sharing ideas and tackling problems together. You'll find us walking to the Ferry Building for lunch, debating product decisions, and jumping in wherever needed to keep things moving. Everyone has a voice, and we focus on collaboration and execution over titles and hierarchy.
• Competitive Benefits: We offer a competitive startup package, including:
• Competitive salary.
• Stock options in a growing, venture-backed company.
• Attractive 401k and health benefits.
• Working alongside a highly mission-driven, small, supportive team of ambitious, smart creatives in an environment that fosters continuous learning and adaptive problem solving. We turn complex challenges into beautiful, impactful solutions.

How to Apply

If Symbium's mission and team resonate with you, we'd love to hear from you! To apply, please send an email to careers@symbium.com with your resume, LinkedIn information, and a brief note about why you're excited to join Symbium.

Applicants must be currently authorized to work in the United States on a full-time basis and be willing to relocate to California prior to the start of employment. Symbium does not provide visa sponsorships at this time.

Symbium is an equal opportunity employer.