Software Engineer (AI-First), Fleet Operations

Job Description

Who We Are

SWTCH is pioneering EV charging solutions for multifamily and commercial properties across North America. Since 2016, our team of entrepreneurs, energy professionals, and technologists has been focused on unlocking the social, economic, and environmental benefits of widespread EV adoption. Today, our solutions are deployed in tens of thousands of locations —many of which are low-to-moderate income housing—helping to make clean mobility accessible for all.

With an expanding footprint across Canada and the U.S., we’re scaling quickly and looking for mission-driven talent to help accelerate our growth.

The Role

We're building a new fleet management product, and we want to find out what an AI-first way of working actually looks like in practice. Not as a productivity boost layered on top of regular engineering. As the way the work gets done. You'd be the engineer on it, working with a dedicated PM. Our Director of Engineering will be close enough to help with bigger architecture and tradeoff calls without sitting in your day-to-day.

This is a permanent role. We're running an experiment in how we build, not on whether to keep you. If we learn the approach has limits, that's still useful, and there's plenty of other engineering work to grow into.

You'd own the work end-to-end. The stack is Python, FastAPI and Postgres on the backend, with Next.js on the front. That said, the stack isn't a test. We care more about how you learn than what you've already used.

What you'll be doing

• Designing and shipping the first version of our fleet operations product
• Owning the work end-to-end: APIs, UI, deployment, monitoring, the on-call rotation
• Actually using AI tools as your main way of working. Not just code completion. Architecture exploration, testing, debugging, writing docs, all of it
• Being open about what works and what doesn't, so the rest of the team can learn from what you're finding
• Working closely with your PM, with customer outcomes in front of every decision

Who this is for

We're hiring at the mid or senior level. Roughly 3 to 6 years of professional experience, though we're not strict about the number. The work and the compensation will scale with what you bring.

A note on the tech stack listed above: it's what we're building with, not a checklist of requirements. We've all used different tools at different points, and we're more interested in how you learn than what you've already touched.

You'll probably do well here if:

• You've shipped backend services in production. We work in Python. If your background is mostly elsewhere (Go, Ruby, Java, Node, you name it), strong fundamentals and a history of picking up new stacks is what we're looking for.
• You've worked with a modern JS/TS framework: Next.js, React, Vue, Svelte. We're not looking for specialists.
• You can tell us about a time you picked up something unfamiliar and shipped real work with it.
• You use AI tools as part of how you actually work, and you can talk about it specifically. What's your workflow? Where does it shine? Where does it fall down? What have you stopped doing because of it? What have you started?
• You take the unglamorous stuff seriously: logging, testing, docs, deployment hygiene. Not because someone made you, but because you've felt the cost of cutting corners on it.
• You've owned something end-to-end before, somewhere. At a job, on the side, on a contract. You know what it's like to be the one responsible for the whole thing.
• You write clearly. You'll be running an experiment as much as building a product, and what you document matters.

A few signs this isn't the right role:

• You prefer to have well-defined tickets handed to you.
• You think of AI tools as a shortcut, not a craft with its own skills.
• You ship best when there's a senior engineer reviewing every call.
• You're attached to one stack and not interested in stretching outside it.

What we're testing, and why it matters to you

Honestly, we're not sure AI-first will work the way we think it will. That's the whole reason for running this. What that means for you:

• Your job isn't to prove AI-first works. It's to figure out what's actually true
• We'll measure you on customer outcomes and code quality, not lines of AI-generated code
• The patterns you set up (for prompting, for review, for testing what AI helps you build) become part of how SWTCH does engineering
• If you find this approach has limits, please tell us clearly. That finding is as valuable as the product itself
• Whatever this project becomes, you'll keep growing as an engineer here

What we're like to work with

We try hard to be a place where people can do their best work and have a real life outside it. Some things that means in practice:

• Kind, not nice. Feedback is direct and specific, given early. We don't store things up to deliver at review time
• Decisions live close to the work. You'll own your tradeoffs, and you'll have support making them
• Bad news travels fast. If something isn't working, whether it's the approach, the tools or the role, we'd rather hear about it while it's still cheap to fix
• Life outside work is real. We don't celebrate burnout, and on-call is shared and reasonable
• We assume good faith. When something looks off, we ask what the situation is before drawing conclusions about the person

If you don't usually see yourself in engineering job postings, we'd particularly like to hear from you. And honestly, if you've read this far and you're interested but not sure whether you "count," please apply. We'd rather figure that out together than miss meeting you.

No CS degree required, and we're happy to talk through any accommodations you'd need at any point in the process.

Signals we'd love to see in your application

• Work you're proud of. From a job, a side project, school, paid or unpaid. We care more about what you've done than where you did it
• A short note on how you actually use AI in your work, and where you've found it doesn't quite work
• A quick story about a time you learned something new and shipped real work with it
• Writing, talks, open source, anything that shows us how you think

Logistics

• Location: Toronto hybrid preferred; Canada remote considered
• Employment: Permanent, full-time
• Reporting: To the Director of Engineering, working alongside a dedicated PM

Benefits

• Business Impact - As a core member of the team, you have the opportunity to take a supporting role and make a significant impact on the culture and values of the company.
• Environmental Impact - We are a clean energy company with a mission to reduce carbon emissions globally to ensure a clean and sustainable future.
• Diversity - People develop their talents and skills in different ways. We value different paths and experiences. If you think you meet the qualifications we are seeking, take a chance and express your interest here.

SWTCH does not offer employment to prospects without first ensuring that qualified candidates speak directly with the hiring manager and a member of our P&C team. All qualifications will be done face-to-face, whether that is in person or over Google Meet. SWTCH does not send out offers of employment without meeting candidates and does not offer employment via text. If you are contacted for any personal information via test and/or without having met a member of our hiring team in person, please disregard.

SWTCH Energy is an equal opportunity employer, all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, race, color, religion, sex including sexual orientation and gender identity, national origin, disability, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable laws. Accommodations are available on request for candidates taking part in all aspects of the selection process.