OXMAN
OXMAN is a nature-based research and design company based in Manhattan. We incubate ventures and technologies that reimagine the relationship between humanity and the natural world. Working across disciplines - from architecture and ecology to computation and materials science - we develop nature-centric solutions to critical environmental challenges.
EDEN
Existing environmental tools for site planning and development sit on either side of a gap: remote sensing observes what is already on the ground, and traditional simulations evaluate fixed plans someone has already drawn. EDEN is building a generative ecosystem digital twin that works from target outcomes, such as carbon sequestration, stormwater retention, microclimate cooling, biodiversity and the cost of site development, to discover the optimal earthworks, planting and management sequence that achieves them.
Our methods already work on real sites. Over the past several years we have embedded with developers, landowners and operators, designing and engineering their sites in closer harmony with the ecosystems around them, and building the tools we needed along the way. Those tools now generate road networks and lot layouts, minimize earthworks, classify the vegetation a site can support, simulate how an ecosystem performs over multi-year horizons, and optimize a design against cost and ecological outcomes. AI agents adapt these design processes to each client’s brief, and numerical optimizers search them for the designs that perform best.
Today, our own team operates those tools through a working prototype of a web application. The next step is a product that our clients operate themselves, and we are seeking a Senior Full-Stack Software Engineer to build it.
ROLE OVERVIEW
OXMAN is seeking a Senior Full-Stack Software Engineer to join the EDEN team and turn a working research prototype into a reliable web product, owning both the web interface and the API services behind it.
This role sits at the intersection of web engineering, spatial data and applied AI. The engineer will help build a platform where a client picks a site, writes a brief in plain language, follows a live search as AI agents and optimizers propose and score designs, and explores results on maps and in 3D. They will work closely with EDEN’s System Architect, UX / UI Designer, computational designers and data scientists. The role is hands-on: the engineer builds the first production version themselves and makes the decisions about web stack, APIs and deployment that are expensive to change later.
Most web products show data that already exists. This one shows a search as it happens: designs arrive over tens of minutes, each with maps, 3D scenes and a record of the reasoning behind it, and a client has to trust the result enough to build on real land. The ideal candidate cares as much about whether a long-running system is reliable and legible as whether it looks good, and the product they build will decide whether a technology that works in EDEN’s hands works in its clients’ hands.
This role is based on-site in the EDEN office in New York City.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
- Build the interface: Design and build the web app, from choosing a site and writing a brief to following a live search and exploring its results. Make complex output legible, including search trees, scored design alternatives, trade-offs and reports.
- Show sites and designs in maps and 3D: Render terrain, rasters, vegetation, water and design geometry in the browser, for example with deck.gl http://deck.gl, MapLibre or Three.js, and keep it fast on large sites and many designs.
- Build the backend: Design the APIs, services and job system that run long, compute-heavy searches reliably for many clients at once, locally and in the cloud.
- Build the geospatial data layer: Design and implement robust backend endpoints to ingest, query and serve complex spatiotemporal (geospatial and temporal) data.
- Modularize design processes as services: With EDEN’s computational designers, turn procedural graphs into versioned modules that are reusable across graphs and composable within them, so new design processes and sites plug into the product without changes to the core.
- Integrate AI agents: Build the parts of the product that call language models, such as reading a brief, answering questions about a result, and showing what an agent did and why. Handle cost, latency, failures and refusals.
- Ship it properly: Set up authentication, deployment, monitoring, testing and CI, and keep a clear line between prototype code and production code.
KEY GOALS & OUTCOMES
- First 90 days:
- Learn the current prototype end to end, including how a brief becomes a search, how runs are recorded and how results reach the screen.
- Write a short plan for the production web stack, APIs and deployment, and agree it with the System Architect.
- Put the app online for a first group of client users, with sign-in, run history and the existing graphs.
- Ship one improvement that clients ask for, such as comparing runs side by side or sharing a result.
- A reliable production web product that EDEN’s clients operate themselves, in place of the research prototype.
- A live search that clients can follow and trust, with each design’s maps, 3D scenes and reasoning presented clearly.
- Backend APIs, services and a job system that run long, compute-heavy searches reliably for many clients at once, locally and in the cloud.
- Design processes packaged as versioned, reusable modules, so new processes and sites plug in without changes to the core.
- Production engineering practices in place, including authentication, deployment, monitoring, testing, CI and a clear line between prototype and production code.
REQUIRED EXPERIENCE
- 6+ years building and shipping web products, including owning substantial parts end to end.
- Strong Python on the backend (for example FastAPI or Django), and TypeScript with a modern front-end framework such as Vue.
- Experience with long-running or compute-heavy work behind a web app, including job queues, background workers, progress streaming and failure handling.
- Strong data modeling and SQL, ideally Postgres, and experience with object storage.
- Cloud deployment, containers and CI, and the judgment to keep infrastructure as simple as the product allows.
- Care for interface design and the ability to turn complex, technical results into something a client understands.
- Clear writing and communication with designers, scientists and engineers.
PREFERRED EXPERIENCE
- Web mapping and 3D, such as deck.gl http://deck.gl, MapLibre, Mapbox, Cesium or Three.js, and map tiles for large rasters.
- Geospatial data tools such as GDAL, rasterio, shapely or PostGIS.
- Building products on large language model APIs, including streaming, tool use and cost control.
- Orchestrating scientific or simulation workloads, including on GPUs or render farms.
- Durable job queues and workflow engines, for example Temporal, Celery or a Postgres-backed queue.
- Integrations with design tools such as Rhino, Houdini or GIS software.
- An interest in ecology, climate or environmental design.
TECHNICAL SKILLS
- Python on the backend, for example FastAPI or Django.
- TypeScript with a modern front-end framework such as Vue.
- Job queues, background workers, progress streaming and failure handling for long-running, compute-heavy work.
- Data modeling, SQL (ideally Postgres) and object storage.
- Cloud deployment, containers, CI, authentication and monitoring.
- Web mapping and 3D rendering, for example with deck.gl http://deck.gl, MapLibre or Three.js (preferred).
- Ingesting, querying and serving geospatial and temporal data, with tools such as GDAL, rasterio, shapely or PostGIS (preferred).
- Language model APIs, including streaming, tool use and cost control (preferred).
ESSENTIAL QUALITIES
- Reliability-minded: cares as much about whether a long-running system is reliable and legible as whether it looks good.
- Hands-on builder: builds the first production version personally and owns the foundational decisions about web stack, APIs and deployment.
- Pragmatic: keeps infrastructure as simple as the product allows.
- Client-focused: turns complex, technical results into something a client understands and trusts enough to build on real land.
- Clear communicator: writes and communicates clearly with designers, scientists and engineers.
- Collaborative: works closely with the System Architect, UX / UI Designer, computational designers and data scientists.
