Who you are
We are seeking a Software Engineer to support Copia's fast-growing AI vertical. You're passionate about solving problems through collaboration, experimentation, and ownership, and are happy to pair on tough issues and test your assumptions. You have experience building AI tooling, not just using AI tooling. Bonus points for experience with controls engineering/PLCs and hardware. In this role, you will be building AI-based tooling for industrial automation engineers. You will use cutting-edge AI tooling to enable engineering workflows for Copia's user base. Your product taste will help set the direction for integrating AI tooling into existing Copia Source Control & Backup products. The industrial automation space has lots of information most software engineers are not familiar with. In your day-to-day, you will learn about a wide variety of industrial automation topics. You’ll join a team that encourages ownership and values pragmatic solutions: weighing short-term needs and long-term goals. You’re interested in Copia’s mission (rebuilding manufacturing), you enjoy interacting with customers, and driving impact in a foundational industry. We’re looking for a strong contributor to the overall trajectory of the company. Finally, you're optimistic. At Copia, we celebrate successes, support each other through unexpected challenges, and approach problems with a positive attitude.
About us
Copia Automation provides best-in-class disaster and recovery technology for industrial automation.
Our product brings modern developer tools to the OT space through our novel Git-based source control for automation professionals, with multiple delivery methods including self-hosted and fully hosted options. We are a well-funded startup with a growing list of happy customers throughout the industrial space.
As a Copia employee, you’ll solve challenging, unique, and meaningful problems alongside passionate coworkers, while we change the way everything gets built.
Why industrial automation?
Manufacturing is powered by industrial automation—computerized systems and robotics running on PLCs. This ecosystem uses a unique graphical language that doesn’t work with typical developer tools like GitLab or GitHub. Instead, automation professionals rely on physical storage devices, incompatible tools, and incomplete solutions. When minutes of downtime can cost tens of thousands of dollars, better development tools are urgently needed.
Engineering at Copia
The Copia engineering team solves problems through collaboration, experimentation, and ownership. We pair on tough issues and look for ways to test our assumptions. You’ll join a team that encourages ownership and values pragmatic solutions, weighing short-term needs and long-term goals.
Finally, we’re optimistic. We celebrate successes, support each other through unexpected challenges, and approach problems with a positive attitude.
What you'll do:
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Ship full-stack features end to end, handling everything from the backend data models to the final user experience.
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Make AI coding agents a central part of how you work to increase your velocity while maintaining high standards.
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Drive the technical direction of your projects, including architectural decisions and technical specs.
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Collaborate with Product and Design to scope out work, balancing quick wins with long-term stability.
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Write code that is easy to scale and maintain, and help raise the quality of the codebase through thoughtful reviews and testing.
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Teach the team how to better leverage AI tools by sharing what you have learned and setting best practices.
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Write clear documentation for both technical and non-technical audiences.
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Guide and mentor other engineers, helping them improve their skills and ship code with confidence.
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Talk directly with customers and executives to turn complex industrial challenges into clear engineering tasks.
What you'll need:
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5+ years of professional software engineering experience shipping production software on a team using standard best practices (code review, CI/CD, testing).
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A strong full-stack background, with the ability to build polished frontends and robust backend services.
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Daily experience with AI coding tools like Cursor, Claude Code, or Copilot, and a good sense of their strengths and weaknesses.
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Deep knowledge of at least one statically-typed language. We use Go, TypeScript, and C#, but we care more about your engineering depth than the specific language.
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A history of delivering complex projects on time and the ability to explain the technical choices you made along the way.
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Great instincts for prioritization and the ability to take an ambiguous problem and find a clear solution.
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Comfort making architectural decisions and providing technical guidance to other engineers.
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Excellent communication skills, with the ability to explain technical details to both engineers and non-technical stakeholders.
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Eagerness to dig into a complex domain. You don't need to know PLCs on day one, but you should be excited to learn how factories actually run.
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Previous experience adding AI-powered features into a product
Nice to haves:
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Experience at a growth-stage, venture-backed startup, scaling tools from small betas to thousands or millions of users.
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Experience with our stack or adjacent technologies: TypeScript / Node.js, React, Go, C#, Python, PostgreSQL, AWS.
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Experience building developer tools or working on Git internals, CI/CD, or DevOps platforms.
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Background in industrial automation, OT/IT, manufacturing software, IoT, or developer tooling.
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Interest in manufacturing and hardware innovation.