Who are we?

Sidewalk Labs is an urban innovation company working to make cities more sustainable and affordable for all. We create products, invest in new companies, and help plan innovative places around the world. Since our founding in 2015, we’ve grown into an organization of over 100 employees based primarily in New York City. Our cross-disciplinary team consists of experts from real estate, urban planning, government, finance, technology, and engineering, among other backgrounds.

We’ve launched innovative companies addressing urban mobility, next-generation infrastructure, and community-based healthcare, and invested in startups working on everything from robotic furniture to digital electricity. We continue to work internally on projects such as factory-made mass timber construction that can improve housing affordability and sustainability, a digital master-planning tool designed to help developers and communities achieve shared objectives, and a new approach to all-electric neighborhoods.

With the potential to catalyze and scale new models for sustainable and affordable growth, our work is both exciting and complex. We are working to achieve something unprecedented — help us build it!

What is the role?

The role is for a software engineer for Pebble, a low-cost, low-infrastructure, privacy-preserving sensor product that Sidewalk Labs is developing. The product is a vehicle detection system with two main components: (1) small, durable, low-power sensors that can be installed easily and at low cost, and (2) a wireless, solar-powered communications gateway. Pebble can provide parking operators, real estate developers, municipal agencies, and other managers of parking or curb space with the real-time data they need for better day-to-day operations and long-term planning.

As a software engineer, you will work across the organization and use technology to inform our decisions and bring this vision to life. We must create innovative products that will push the boundaries of traditional thinking in urban environments while protecting user privacy and security. This will involve solving complex computational problems, dealing with messy sources of data, and building systems which scale. 

Our software engineers are utility players who will support different product areas. You will collaborate with hardware engineers, UX designers, product managers, and mobility experts to deliver products to unlock the true potential of a place. 

To learn more about our vision for Pebble, please check out this podcast episode.

We encourage engineers of all experience levels to apply, and will determine your level within Sidewalk Labs based on interview performance. 

Note: We are currently working remotely, and we expect to eventually re-open our offices when it is safe to return, in 2021. After re-opening, candidates will be expected to come into the New York office.

What you have to achieve:

• Within your first month, you will build a deep understanding of our current initiatives and technology infrastructure (Python, React, TypeScript and Go running on the Google Cloud Platform/Kubernetes), coding style and standards, and have contributed code to the repository.
• By the end of month 3, you will assume ownership of a feature, taking it through product definition, engineering investigation, implementation, and release
• From there your role will continue to evolve – we’re still a small team. The types of problems we are trying to solve could include:
• Visualizing occupancy data to help city planners understand their cities and make equitable decisions  in a privacy preserving way
• Scaling  our APIs to serve real-time data from thousands of sensors with an eye on performance
• Build a unified software product that serves disparate user needs (some users include facilities planners, operators,  technicians, and drivers)

What we expect:

• Know your software engineering.
  • Have a strong CS background in order to choose the right algorithms, systems approaches and patterns to solve problems, without reinventing the wheel.
  • Candidates need to be able to hit the ground running. Therefore, we look for 2+ years of full-time industry experience.
  • Experience with a modern Frontend framework (we use React with TypeScript) OR experience with Python and at least one systems programming language (C++, Java, or Go). Experience with Google Cloud Platform and/or Kubernetes a plus.
• Act as a technologist.
  • Bias towards action and shipping. Once you’ve sketched out an idea, you find the fastest path to prove the concept.
  • You write production code that is well-tested, scalable, extendable, and gives consideration for future team members.
  • You are obsessed with privacy and constantly ask how we can build privacy into product design.
  • You always consider how our technology will affect customers and the communities they serve. 
  • Be comfortable with a range of languages and open source tools and frameworks, and make good decisions about which to use to solve a particular problem. You are excited to learn something new when the need arises. 
  • Be creative: you’ll come up with new ideas based on your broad understanding of technological possibilities and city domain knowledge.
• Solve problems, together.
  • Come up with novel solutions, working well with technologists and non-technologists alike.
  • Ask hard questions and challenge assumptions to ensure that we’re solving the right problems.
  • Have flexibility to work on the team’s most pressing problems.
• Care. 
  • About cities, solving hard problems, and our team’s success.
  • You are committed to creating more equitable and inclusive outcomes both in the workplace and in the work you do.

Sidewalk Labs is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We actively seek applicants from underrepresented communities. Even if you are not 100% sure you are right for the role, please apply and we will be happy to consider your application. All employment is based on merit and business need, and we respond to each application we receive.

Are you a software engineer interested in Sidewalk Labs, but are not sure this is the right role for you? No worries, please apply to our generalist position here. All applicants will be considered for any open position on our teams.