Staff Software Engineer

Staff Software EngineerInterface.ai is building the infrastructure layer for AI-powered financial services. Our agentic AI platform enables credit unions and community banks to deliver intelligent, real-time member experiences at scale — the kind of service that was previously inaccessible to most Americans. We're Series A ($30M), cash-flow positive, and past the point where engineering is about survival. Now it's about building something that lasts.The Staff Software Engineer role at interface.ai is for someone who has already proven they can build — and is now ready to define how we build. You'll set the architectural direction for our core platform, operate as a technical authority across multiple engineering workstreams, and work in close partnership with our VP of Engineering, CTO and Co-Founder Bruce Kim, and CEO Srinivas Njay.You won't have a manager hovering over your next decision. You'll be making the decisions — and owning the outcomes. This role has outsized influence on the company's technical trajectory, product velocity, and the careers of the engineers around you.What You'll Work OnDefine and own the technical architecture of interface.ai's platform — multi-modal APIs, real-time event systems, AI orchestration layers, and data infrastructureLead cross-functional technical initiatives: decompose ambiguous product bets into engineering roadmaps, mitigate systemic risks before they materialize, and drive resolution when they doArchitect scalable, production-grade agentic AI and conversational AI systems — including LLM integration layers, retrieval pipelines, tool-use orchestration, and evaluation frameworksEstablish the engineering standards that will hold as we scale from 30 to 300 engineers: service contracts, data models, deployment patterns, observability, and reliability targetsServe as the technical bridge between product vision and engineering reality — you translate ambition into architecture, and architecture into shipped systemsDeeply embed AI-native development (Claude Code, Cursor) into engineering practice and help your peers build faster with itMentor and elevate senior engineers — your job is to make the team around you better, faster, and more autonomousOperate in-person, in SF, 5 days a week — influence happens in rooms, on whiteboards, and in code reviews, not async threadsWhat We're Looking For8+ years of software engineering, with the last several in roles where you set technical direction — not just executed itA clear record of architectural wins: systems you designed that scaled, survived production, and that others still rely onExpert-level proficiency in TypeScript and Python; strong JavaScript for full-stack contributions; comfort working across the stack when the problem demands itDeep platform engineering expertise: distributed system design, event-driven architectures, cloud-native infrastructure, multi-tenancy, and horizontal scaleAI engineering depth: you understand the internals of LLM-based systems — context management, tool-use patterns, latency/cost trade-offs, evaluation strategy, and the emerging architecture of agentic AIThe ability to design for uncertainty — you build systems that can evolve as requirements change, not systems that assume stabilityBS/BA in Computer Science required; MS or PhD in CS, AI, or a related field is a meaningful plusRadical ownership: problems don't sit on your desk — they get solved, delegated, or escalated within 24 hoursFull-time SF presence — you're a force multiplier in the roomBonus PointsArchitected production conversational AI systems, voice AI, or real-time NLP pipelinesDeep domain experience in fintech, payments, core banking, or financial data infrastructureExperience as a founding or early-stage engineer at a startup that shipped at scalePublished work, open-source contributions, or recognized technical writing in AI systems or platform engineeringWhat This Role Is — And Isn'tThis is not a principal-in-title-only role. You'll write code, review systems, and make judgment calls that affect the entire company. You'll partner directly with leadership — not through layers of management — and your architectural decisions will ship to production in weeks, not quarters. If you want to work at a place where your decisions can be felt, this is it.Benefits100% paid health, dental & vision care401(k) & financial wellness perksDiscretionary PTO + paid parental leaveMental health, wellness & family benefitsA mission-driven team shaping the future of bankingWhy Interface.aiWe're cash-flow positive with $30M in Series A funding, which means we have the runway to build right and the discipline not to waste it. Our mission — democratizing financial wellness through AI — is real, measurable, and winning. We offer top-of-market comp, meaningful equity at Series A prices, full benefits, and a culture built around engineers who take ownership and deliver. The team is small enough that your fingerprints will be on everything. The ambition is large enough that what you build will matter for a long time.