Contract New Grad Software Engineer Jobs in Santa Ana, CA

About the company 

General Matter enriches uranium.

We are designing, building, and operating the world's lowest-cost enrichment services, here in the US.  

In the process, we are restoring America's ability to produce nuclear fuel to power AI, advanced manufacturing and critical industries our country relies on to remain competitive. 

Fuel drives the cost of advanced reactor electricity production, and enrichment drives the cost of the fuel that advanced reactors consume.  Reliable, low-cost enrichment is the catalyst for the nuclear Renaissance now under way.

Our mission is to make nuclear not only the cleanest and safest source of baseload power, but also the most affordable.  We believe abundant nuclear energy will lead to a post-scarcity society. 

We were incubated inside Founders Fund, like Anduril and Palantir before us, and are backed by over a dozen of the world's top venture capital firms.  

Our lean, world-class team of engineers and operators is applying a first-principles approach to solving the problem of nuclear fuel production. 

We are a mission-driven company with a culture of urgency, accountability, and transparency. 

Help us build a high-energy society by making the cleanest, safest form of baseload energy the most affordable.

About the Role

We're looking for an early-career Software Engineer who is excited to build software that directly enables advanced enrichment technology and the systems used to develop, test, and operate it.

As a Software Engineer at General Matter, you'll work alongside electrical, mechanical, test, and other engineering teams to develop software for real-world technical systems. Your work may span data acquisition and analysis, hardware interfaces, automation, internal engineering tools, test infrastructure, and production systems.

You'll have the opportunity to own meaningful projects from design through deployment, work closely with the hardware your software supports, and see the impact of your work firsthand. This is a strong opportunity for a recent graduate who enjoys solving challenging problems, learning across disciplines, and building reliable software in a fast-moving engineering environment.

Responsibilities

• Design, develop, test, deploy, and maintain software supporting engineering, test, and operational systems.
• Build tools and applications that interface with hardware, instrumentation, controls, and data acquisition systems.
• Develop software to automate testing, experiments, data collection, analysis, and engineering workflows.
• Collaborate closely with engineers across software, electrical, mechanical, controls, test, and other technical disciplines.
• Translate engineering requirements into reliable, maintainable software solutions.
• Debug problems across software and hardware boundaries and help identify root causes.
• Develop tests, monitoring, and tooling to improve software and system reliability.
• Participate in design reviews, code reviews, testing, and technical documentation.
• Take ownership of projects and drive them from initial concept through implementation and deployment.
• Learn new technologies and technical domains quickly as project needs evolve.

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a related technical field completed by the start date.
• Experience programming in one or more general-purpose languages such as Python, C++, C, Rust, Go, or Java through coursework, internships, research, student teams, or personal projects.
• Strong understanding of fundamental software engineering concepts, including data structures, algorithms, debugging, testing, and version control.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to work effectively in a highly collaborative, interdisciplinary engineering environment.
• Interest in working hands-on with software that interacts with physical systems and hardware.
• Evidence of exceptional ability (prior projects, portfolio of work, completed products, etc).

Preferred Qualifications

• Internship, research, student project, or other hands-on software engineering experience.
• Experience with Python and/or C++.
• Experience developing software that interfaces with hardware, sensors, instrumentation, embedded systems, or laboratory equipment.
• Familiarity with Linux development environments and command-line tools.
• Experience with Git, automated testing, continuous integration, or modern software development workflows.
• Experience with data acquisition, data processing, visualization, or scientific computing.
• Familiarity with networking, databases, distributed systems, embedded software, or control systems.
• Experience working on robotics, Formula SAE, rocketry, research laboratories, maker projects, or other multidisciplinary technical teams.
• Demonstrated ability to independently build and complete technical projects.
• Excitement to work in a fast-paced environment on challenging, high-impact engineering problems.

Additional Requirements

• Ability to work extended hours and weekends as necessary.

Equal Opportunity Employer

General Matter is an Equal Opportunity Employer; employment with General Matter is governed on the basis of merit, competence and qualifications and will not be influenced in any manner by race, color, religion, gender, national origin/ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, mental or physical disability or any other legally protected status.

Compensation and Benefits

The base salary range for this role is $125,000-$135,000 annually. 

Compensation bands are determined by role, level, location, and alignment with market data. Individual level and base pay is determined on a case-by-case basis and may vary based on job-related skills, education, experience, technical capabilities and internal equity. Please note that the stated salary range is an estimate and may be adjusted based on market conditions, business needs, or other factors. In addition to base salary, for full-time hires, you may also be eligible for long-term incentives, in the form of stock options, and access to medical, vision & dental coverage as well as access to a 401(k) retirement plan.