AI-guided mineral exploration, remote-first, with a $2 billion copper mine now under construction in Zambia.
KoBold Metals has raised more than $1.1 billion. A $192.5 million Series B closed in February 2022, followed by a $195 million round in June 2023 led by T. Rowe Price at a $1.15 billion valuation, with Andreessen Horowitz, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Bond, Standard Investments, Equinor Ventures, BHP Ventures, Mitsubishi, Earthshot Ventures and the July Fund. The $537 million Series C closed in January 2025 at a $2.96 billion valuation, co-led by Durable Capital Partners and two T. Rowe Price funds, with Andreessen Horowitz Growth, BOND, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Earthshot, Equinor, the July Fund, Mitsubishi, Standard Investments, StepStone and WCM Investment Management participating; the final close was $10 million above target. An SEC filing in November 2025 disclosed a further $200 million offering with $163.4 million already sold. Other named investors include CPP Investments, Sam Altman's Apollo Projects and BHP.
KoBold Metals is a mineral exploration and mine development company that uses AI models and its own sensors to find copper, lithium, nickel and cobalt deposits. Founded in 2018, it runs exploration programs in eight countries across a portfolio of more than 60 projects, and describes itself as the largest independent mineral exploration company and the largest exploration technology developer. Its data scientists and software engineers co-lead exploration programs with geologists: the science teams form hypotheses, quantify uncertainty about the subsurface, and design field programs to reduce it. Hardware built in-house includes the Hyperpod, a magnetic-field sensor flown under helicopters and small aircraft to produce 3D geological data, alongside software platforms named TerraShed and Machine Prospector.
Its first discovery is Mingomba, a copper deposit in Zambia's Copperbelt with ore grades around 5%, roughly ten times the global average, found for materially less than the industry's average exploration spend. KoBold and ZCCM-IH broke ground on the mine on 29 April 2026; it is expected to cost more than $2 billion, produce about 300,000 tonnes of copper a year and start output in the early 2030s. In 2026 the company also opened an office in Lubumbashi, launched a $50 million lithium exploration campaign in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and signed an agreement to digitize Burundi's geological data. Team members had made nearly 20 discoveries before joining, and postings put headcount at over 300 people across 12 countries.
Kurt House, CEO and co-founder. Founded C12 Energy in 2008, an enhanced oil recovery business using industrial CO2 that acquired properties with over 60 million barrels of tertiary reserves, and in 2015 co-founded Phase Change Resources, a natural gas investment platform built on a physics-based production forecasting tool. Earlier a Bain & Company consultant, a KAUST research fellow at MIT and an adjunct professor of energy resources engineering at Stanford. BA in Physics from Claremont McKenna College and PhD in Earth and Planetary Sciences from Harvard, where he met Josh Goldman.
Josh Goldman, President and co-founder. Private equity investor in upstream oil and gas who wrote software to find undervalued assets in large datasets, and before that a McKinsey consultant on strategy and analytics for energy and materials companies. BA in Physics from Cornell, Master's in Applied Mathematics from Cambridge as a Marshall Scholar, Master's in History of Science from Imperial College London, and PhD in Physics from Harvard, researching quantum computing.
Jeff Jurinak, Co-founder and former COO, now retired. A 35-plus year petroleum exploration and production professional with a reservoir engineering foundation, most of it at Conoco and ConocoPhillips managing engineering and technology groups of 100-plus people. Vice President of Development at QGC, part of BG Group, in Brisbane from 2011 to 2014, then co-founder and principal of Phase Change Resources with Kurt House from 2015 to 2017. Holds a PhD.
KoBold Metals is a remote-first company headquartered at 2021 Shattuck Avenue in Berkeley, California, that hires remotely in eleven countries across North America, Europe, Africa and Australia. Most roles are open to the United States and Canada, several global science and finance roles accept any of the eleven countries, and there are United Kingdom-specific software and data science postings plus Sweden and Finland field roles. Beyond Berkeley it has a project campus at Mingomba in Chililabombwe, Zambia, an office in Lubumbashi in the DRC opened in February 2026, and executives based in London and South Africa.
KoBold Metals allows remote work from these countries:
Describe your next role, cut the noise
Lead 1–3 North American mineral exploration field programs end-to-end; must be legally authorized in US or Canada, English required, extended remote-field work and travel; 12+ years in mining/oil & gas field ops, helicopter-supported exploration, procurement, reclamation, HSE, permitting; bonus: French
Remote US or Canada only; candidates may be located anywhere in the United States or Canada and must be legally authorized there.
Senior individual contributor reporting to Head of Operations Data; owns production systems end-to-end with minimal oversight from day one across data model, ETL, application, and stakeholder relationships; mentors junior analysts; work split: 45% new data models, ETL/API integrations, and app support, 25% platform maintenance/data quality/production support, 15% governance and technical debt, 15% support for Mingomba operations and cross-functional mentorship; requires 5+ years in data engineering, analytics engineering, or data operations owning production systems independently; must have strong SQL and PostgreSQL data modeling, ETL and API integration, and comfort with AI tools; bonus: dbt, AWS/S3, NetSuite/Tipalti, geospatial data; involves working directly with geologists and learning mineral exploration domain; valid passport and light travel to Mingomba or other exploration sites required
Remote US or Canada only; must be legally authorized to work in the United States or Canada
Senior engineering leadership role as primary technical authority and design authority for development and construction of a major copper mining project in Zambia; owns end-to-end engineering quality, integrity, integration, stage-gate technical case, technical risk register, change control, process safety engineering, engineering data/quality/handover, and EPCM technical direction on the owner's side; builds and leads the owner's engineering team and mentors senior engineers; requires 18+ years in major capital projects in mining/minerals processing/oil & gas/heavy industry, including significant owner-side lead engineering authority experience and at least one project over $700M from FEED to mechanical completion; must be able to challenge multi-discipline designs across civil/structural, mechanical, process, electrical, and instrumentation; preferred: chartered/professional registration, mine processing/infrastructure experience, African or similarly complex operating environments; requires international travel to Zambia 90+ days/year
Remote from Africa, Europe, or North America; Africa or Europe preferred; international travel to Zambia required
Leads commercial strategy, procurement, contracting, supply chain, logistics, insurance/risk transfer, and contractor management for development of a major greenfield copper mine in Zambia; owns commercial pathway from PFS/engineering through tendering, negotiation, award, contract administration, transition to operations, and close-out; major-project scope with expected capex over US$2B; accountable for package strategy, governance, claims/variations control, cost visibility, local content delivery, audit-ready commercial function, and integrity/compliance; must have 15+ years leading commercial functions on multi-billion-dollar mining, oil & gas, infrastructure, or industrial projects; requires major-contract experience across EPC/EPCM/design-build and deep knowledge of FIDIC/NEC and construction risk allocation; Africa experience required, Chinese supplier/contractor experience preferred; recognized qualification in quantity surveying, construction law, business, engineering, supply chain, or related field; international travel to Zambia required, anticipated 90+ days/year
Remote in Africa, Europe, or North America; Africa or Europe preferred.
The role requires extensive experience in physical measurement systems, data analysis, and software engineering practices including Python and SQL. Candidates must demonstrate intellectual rigor, the ability to work with cross-disciplinary teams, and experience in deploying sensors in field environments.
Remote US or Canada only; candidates must be legally authorized to work in the United States or Canada.
Requires at least 5 years of experience in software engineering, data science, or ML engineering with proficiency in Python and array-based packages. Candidates must have a track record of building production-quality data processing solutions and experience working with physical or scientific data.
Remote US or Canada only; candidates must be legally authorized to work in the United States or Canada.
Candidates must have 5-8 years of experience in social performance or community relations within the mining, energy, or infrastructure sectors. Strong skills in stakeholder engagement, social impact assessment, and the ability to work effectively with Indigenous communities are required.
Remote US or Canada only; candidates must be legally authorized to work in the United States or Canada.
Candidates must have at least 12 years of experience in mineral exploration or related industries, with advanced knowledge of construction and logistics in Nordic environments. Proficiency in both Swedish and English is required, along with strong leadership and project management capabilities.
Remote-first in Sweden or Finland; must be legally authorized to work there.
Requires five or more years of HSE experience with a track record of administering enterprise HSE software and building ISO 45001 aligned systems. Must be authorized to work in the US or Canada and be able to travel to remote exploration sites.
Remote North America (US or Canada only); 10–15% global travel for field support.
Requires 5+ years of experience in IT engineering or management with deep expertise in Jamf, Intune, and Okta. Candidates must possess strong scripting skills and a proven ability to lead teams and manage complex vendor relationships in a remote environment.
Remote US or Canada only; authorized to work in US/Canada. CST/EST preferred; player-coach IT ops leadership.
Candidates need 5+ years of experience in HR systems, specifically as a Workday Pro, with advanced data analysis skills in Excel or Python. A first-principles thinking approach and a willingness to travel occasionally to exploration sites are required.
Remote-first; work authorized in United States or Canada only. Travel up to ~1 trip/year; at least one week/year.
Requires 8+ years of FP&A or corporate finance experience, preferably in capital-intensive industries like mining or energy. Candidates must possess advanced Excel skills, experience managing teams in high-growth environments, and a willingness to engage with technical operations.
Remote-first; candidates must be legally authorized to work in the US or Canada. Travel to project sites required.
Requires a degree in Mechanical, Petroleum, Civil, Geological, or Electrical engineering with over 7 years of experience in drilling engineering. Must be proficient in hole design software and have a strong commitment to health and safety standards in remote environments.
Remote. Preference for authorized work in US, Canada, Australia, South Africa, UK, or Zambia; includes remote field/global travel.
Candidates need extensive technical skills in Python, software engineering practices, cloud computing, and building/evaluating predictive models, alongside knowledge of applied statistics and machine learning algorithms. A minimum of 4 years post-PhD or 8 years post-MS experience is required, ideally leading technical teams applying novel scientific approaches.
Remote-first; must be legally authorized for US, Canada, Australia, South Africa, UK, Zambia, DRC, Namibia, Finland, Sweden, or Botswana.
Candidates must possess extensive technical skills in Python data science packages, software engineering practices like Git and CICD, and cloud computing resources, alongside strong knowledge of applied statistics and machine learning algorithms. Required experience includes an advanced degree in a quantitative field and a minimum of 4 years post-PhD or 8 years post-MS experience, ideally leading technical teams applying novel scientific approaches.
Remote-first; must be legally authorized in listed countries (US/UK/CA/Australia/South Africa/Zambia/DRC/Namibia/Finland/Sweden/Botswana).
Candidates must have a bachelor's degree in accounting and at least 5 years of accounting experience, preferably with knowledge of NetSuite or similar software. Strong organizational skills and the ability to work independently are essential, along with an interest in mineral exploration.
Remote US or Canada only; must be legally authorized to work in the US or Canada.
Candidates should have at least 4 years of software engineering experience, ideally with production cloud data systems, and proficiency in Python. They should also demonstrate ownership of projects and possess strong communication skills to collaborate with domain experts.
Remote-first; can work from US or Canada (also requires legal authorization in listed countries). Full-time software engineering.
Candidates must hold an advanced degree in physical sciences, engineering, computer science, or mathematics with at least 4-8 years of relevant work experience. Proficiency in Python, machine learning, Bayesian inference, and cloud computing is required, along with the ability to work in a cross-functional, collaborative environment.
Remote-first; candidates must be legally authorized in US, Canada, Australia, South Africa, UK, Zambia, DRC, Namibia, Finland, Sweden, or Botswana.
Requires 7+ years of experience supporting senior executives in fast-paced environments and must be based in London. Candidates must demonstrate exceptional organizational skills, discretion, and proficiency with real-time communication tools.
Remote but must be London-based (GMT); supports London-based CIO and VPs.
Requires a minimum of 8 years of tax experience with a preference for CPA, JD, or LLM qualifications. Candidates must possess strong knowledge of U.S. and international tax regimes and be willing to travel occasionally to exploration sites.
Remote-first in US, Canada, Australia, South Africa, UK, Zambia, DRC, Namibia, Finland, Sweden, Botswana; must be legally authorized in listed countries.
Requires a Bachelor's degree in Accounting or 5+ years of progressive experience in treasury or accounting roles. Must have hands-on experience with global banking, multi-currency environments, and proficiency in Excel or Google Sheets.
Remote US or Canada only; must be legally authorized to work in US/Canada.
Candidates must possess strong technical knowledge in ore deposit types, excellent generative analysis skills, and good field experience across various project stages, including significant drilling campaigns. A minimum of 10 years of experience in mineral exploration is required, along with strong leadership and coaching abilities in interdisciplinary teams.
Remote-first; legally authorized work required in specified countries (US, CA, UK, EU, AU, ZA, Zambia/DRC/Namibia/Botswana).
Candidates must have 8+ years of experience building production software systems and 3+ years in an engineering leadership role with direct reports, including experience with robust distributed cloud data systems. Essential qualities include intellectual curiosity about mineral exploration, strong communication skills, and the ability to thrive in a fast-growing, dynamic early-stage company environment.
Remote in the United States or Canada only; must be legally authorized to work in US or Canada.
KoBold is one of the few places where a software engineer or data scientist's model gets tested by drilling a hole. Postings say engineers embed directly with exploration teams, whose users are their own colleagues. Past Data Systems projects include a structured ingest pipeline, on-demand curated DataKits and retrieval-augmented generation over unstructured exploration data. Kurt House put the thesis in one line to Berkeleyside: "We don't drill for metals, we drill for information."
The scale is unusual for a startup: a mine costing more than $2 billion in construction, exploration on five continents, and a team that mixes Silicon Valley engineers with exploration geologists who have made discoveries before. Josh Goldman told Berkeleyside the founders left oil and gas because "we decided we wanted to start working on the materials of the future."
Three principles are written on the careers page. "We are Bayesians": KoBold states its hypotheses as priors, makes predictions and designs experiments to test them, in business operations as well as exploration. "We are all owners": people are expected to understand context beyond their own team, speak up about concerns and share work early. And a truth-seeking norm: "We think deeply, engage in open dialogue, and embrace being wrong." Field postings repeat it under What We Value: "offering ideas freely and being willing to be wrong" and "receiving constructive and critical feedback well".
The team is deliberately mixed. Berkeleyside reports the founders hired data scientists and software engineers from Google, Apple and Meta to work alongside geoscientists, and postings describe exploration programs co-led by both. Glassdoor reviewers, as surfaced in search highlights, describe "the caliber of people here is exceptionally high across every discipline" and "smart, kind, and modest colleagues with low ego; people are generous with their time and quick to give credit". An Executive Assistant posting describes the working style plainly: a Slack-first culture where things change quickly, executives who work across evenings and weekends when necessary, and an expectation of high ownership and responsiveness.
KoBold's process is designed to be slow. An Executive Assistant posting says: "We take hiring seriously, because we're building a team, not just filling a seat," and lays out a timed written assessment testing judgment and communication under pressure, then interviews with the team and finally with the executives the role supports, adding that "the process takes time by design." For software engineers, Dataford's guide built from 12 interview reports describes an hour-long introduction with an engineering lead, three one-hour technical and behavioral interviews, a conversation with an executive, and a take-home architecture question that ends in a written technical design document.
Postings screen for the same things across roles: intellectual curiosity about geology and mineral exploration, ownership from problem definition through delivery, comfort in ambiguous problem spaces, and the ability to explain technical work to domain experts who are not developers. Every candidate needs a valid passport and willingness to travel to Mingomba or another exploration site. Software Engineer postings are level-agnostic but written for engineers with 4-plus years owning production systems; data science roles ask for four years post-PhD or eight post-Master's.
KoBold Metals publishes a US base range on every posting, in USD even for United Kingdom roles. As of September 2026: Software Engineer (All Levels) $150,000 to $240,000; Frontend Software Engineer $160,000 to $240,000; Senior Software Engineer, Scientific Computing $170,000 to $215,000; Engineering Manager, Data Systems $200,000 to $240,000; Data Scientist (Senior to Senior Staff) $140,000 to $260,000; Staff Applied Scientist $125,000 to $235,000; Senior Exploration Geologist $110,000 to $170,000; Senior Drilling Engineer $160,000 to $190,000; Field Operations Lead $125,000 to $150,000; HSE Lead $125,000 to $170,000; Senior Manager, Finance $175,000 to $210,000; International Tax Senior Manager $160,000 to $200,000; Senior Corporate Accountant $90,000 to $115,000; Vice President of Business Development $250,000 to $350,000. The United Kingdom Software Engineer posting pays $120,000 to $210,000 USD.
KoBold Metals postings do not mention visa sponsorship or relocation. Every posting requires candidates to already be legally authorized to work in the country they apply from, and most United States and Canada roles state that authorization in one of those two countries is mandatory. The Senior Underground Mine Engineer posting is the one exception that says candidates in other locations may also be considered.
KoBold Metals' Data Systems stack is primarily Python, with React on the front end, geospatial data and map-based interfaces, and containers on Docker, AWS ECS or Kubernetes. Applied science roles cover scientific computing, geostatistics, image processing and distributed machine learning, and hardware roles build the company's own sensors. Internal tooling named in postings includes Slack, Google Workspace, Workday, CrowdStrike, Datadog, the MacAdmins open source ecosystem, Retool and Airtable.
Not at the moment. There are no internship or entry-level listings on KoBold's board, and field roles ask for first aid certification and experience running drilling, geophysical and camp logistics.
Yes, in a limited set of countries. KoBold Metals posts United Kingdom-specific Software Engineer and Data Scientist roles, an Executive Assistant role on GMT, and a Field Operations Lead for Sweden and Finland that is a full-time contract position. Its global science, drilling, tax and mine engineering roles also accept candidates in the United Kingdom, Finland and Sweden, but EU countries outside those two are not on the eligibility list.
Want remote roles like these in your inbox? Tell us what you are looking for.
Describe your next role, cut the noise