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Junior Software Engineer Jobs in California (NOW HIRING)

Each task is a self-contained software engineering challenge with a prompt, an environment, and an automated grader. You own the full lifecycle: coming up with the idea, implementing the grading ...

Each task is a self-contained software engineering challenge with a prompt, an environment, and an automated grader. You own the full lifecycle: coming up with the idea, implementing the grading ...

Each task is a self-contained software engineering challenge with a prompt, an environment, and an automated grader. You own the full lifecycle: coming up with the idea, implementing the grading ...

Each task is a self-contained software engineering challenge with a prompt, an environment, and an automated grader. You own the full lifecycle: coming up with the idea, implementing the grading ...

Each task is a self-contained software engineering challenge with a prompt, an environment, and an automated grader. You own the full lifecycle: coming up with the idea, implementing the grading ...

Each task is a self-contained software engineering challenge with a prompt, an environment, and an automated grader. You own the full lifecycle: coming up with the idea, implementing the grading ...

Each task is a self-contained software engineering challenge with a prompt, an environment, and an automated grader. You own the full lifecycle: coming up with the idea, implementing the grading ...

Each task is a self-contained software engineering challenge with a prompt, an environment, and an automated grader. You own the full lifecycle: coming up with the idea, implementing the grading ...

Each task is a self-contained software engineering challenge with a prompt, an environment, and an automated grader. You own the full lifecycle: coming up with the idea, implementing the grading ...

Each task is a self-contained software engineering challenge with a prompt, an environment, and an automated grader. You own the full lifecycle: coming up with the idea, implementing the grading ...

Each task is a self-contained software engineering challenge with a prompt, an environment, and an automated grader. You own the full lifecycle: coming up with the idea, implementing the grading ...

Each task is a self-contained software engineering challenge with a prompt, an environment, and an automated grader. You own the full lifecycle: coming up with the idea, implementing the grading ...

Each task is a self-contained software engineering challenge with a prompt, an environment, and an automated grader. You own the full lifecycle: coming up with the idea, implementing the grading ...

Each task is a self-contained software engineering challenge with a prompt, an environment, and an automated grader. You own the full lifecycle: coming up with the idea, implementing the grading ...

Each task is a self-contained software engineering challenge with a prompt, an environment, and an automated grader. You own the full lifecycle: coming up with the idea, implementing the grading ...

Each task is a self-contained software engineering challenge with a prompt, an environment, and an automated grader. You own the full lifecycle: coming up with the idea, implementing the grading ...

Showing results 41-60

Junior Software Engineer information

See California salary details

$45.9K

$93.3K

$140.1K

How much do junior software engineer jobs pay per year?

As of Aug 23, 2026, the average yearly pay for junior software engineer in California is $93,304.00, according to ZipRecruiter salary data. Most workers in this role earn between $72,000.00 and $94,200.00 per year, depending on experience, location, and employer.

What is a junior software engineer?

A junior software engineer works on a team with more senior engineers to help design and develop applications, write code, and otherwise maintain or update a business's database. As a junior software engineer, your duties and responsibilities may vary based on what company you work for. Overall, your job is to learn from senior engineers and developers on how to be a software engineer and in what ways you can develop and utilize the technologies of the business to do so. Many junior software engineers have a little bit of knowledge about a lot of technologies but also stay up-to-date on the most current technologies.

How does a junior software engineer typically collaborate with other team members on projects?

Junior Software Engineers usually work closely with senior developers, QA testers, and product managers as part of a cross-functional team. Collaboration often involves participating in daily stand-up meetings, code reviews, and pair programming sessions. Juniors are encouraged to ask questions and seek feedback, which helps them learn best practices and improve their coding skills. Effective communication and a willingness to learn from more experienced colleagues are key to thriving in this collaborative environment.

What are the key skills and qualifications needed to thrive as a junior software engineer, and why are they important?

To thrive as a Junior Software Engineer, you need a solid understanding of programming fundamentals, algorithms, and commonly used languages such as Java, Python, or JavaScript, typically backed by a degree in computer science or related field. Familiarity with version control systems like Git, basic knowledge of databases, and experience with development environments and frameworks are usually expected. Strong problem-solving skills, eagerness to learn, and effective teamwork and communication abilities help set you apart. These skills and qualities are crucial for contributing effectively to projects, adapting to evolving technologies, and collaborating within development teams.

What are the most commonly searched types of Software Engineer jobs in California?

The most popular types of Software Engineer jobs in California are:

What cities in California are hiring for Junior Software Engineer jobs?

Cities in California with the most Junior Software Engineer job openings:

What are popular job titles related to Junior Software Engineer jobs in CA?

For Junior Software Engineer jobs in CA, the most frequently searched job titles are:

Infographic showing various Junior Software Engineer job openings in California as of August 2026, with employment types broken down into 1% As Needed, 90% Full Time, 6% Part Time, and 3% Contract. Highlights an 87% Physical, 4% Hybrid, and 9% Remote job distribution, with an average salary of $93,304 per year, or $44.9 per hour.

Junior Software Engineer

Mechanize

San Bruno, CA

$144.23/hr

Full-time

Medical, Dental, Vision, Life

Re-posted 4 days ago


Job description

About Mechanize

Mechanize builds reinforcement learning environments that frontier AI labs use to train and evaluate their coding models. Learn more at mechanize.work.

Why the work matters

AI models have gotten good at narrow coding tasks but still fail at the complex, judgment-heavy parts of software engineering. We build the environments that expose those failures and help models improve.

What you'll do

You'll design, build, and refine RL tasks. Each task is a self-contained software engineering challenge with a prompt, an environment, and an automated grader. You own the full lifecycle: coming up with the idea, implementing the grading infrastructure, running frontier models against the task, analyzing where and why they fail, and iterating until the task is rigorous and fair.

Coming up with good task ideas requires being clever: finding situations where a frontier model will fail in interesting ways, which means seeing gaps that the model itself doesn't see. You will use coding agents heavily, and a large part of the job is directing them well, evaluating their output, and knowing when they are failing in subtle ways.

What makes someone good at this

Strong technical fundamentals combined with an intuition for AI model behavior. You need to anticipate where a model will take shortcuts, distinguish genuine capability gaps from grader issues, and understand how a model will interpret a prompt. Most engineers significantly underestimate what frontier coding agents can already do; candidates who have spent significant time working with them will have a real head start.

Good fit if you:

  • Have just graduated or are about to graduate

  • Can code in Python

  • Are confident working independently

  • Are motivated by problems that require both technical skill and creative cleverness

  • No prior ML or AI experience required

We're happy to hire candidates who are very capable, even if they have no prior professional software experience.

Probably not a good fit if you:

  • Want a product engineering role building features for end users

  • Prefer a highly collaborative team environment with shared ownership

  • Want extensive structured mentorship

This is independent, high-ownership work. You own your tasks from start to finish, with regular check-ins and feedback. Strong performers are recognized and promoted quickly. Benefits include health, dental, vision, and life insurance. Applying takes less than one minute.

Interview process: https://www.mechanize.work/how-our-interview-process-works

Learn more about the work: https://www.mechanize.work/what-working-here-is-like

About Mechanize. ~20 person team in San Francisco. Backed by Patrick Collison, Nat Friedman, Daniel Gross, Jeff Dean, Dwarkesh Patel, and Sholto Douglas. Featured in the New York Times, the Dwarkesh Podcast and Hard Fork.