Staff Software Engineer, AI

Quicken is the leading solution for personal finance management software. For over 30 years we have helped millions of people lead healthy financial lives. The way people interact with money is changing, and we are working toward an exciting future, redefining the way our customers approach personal finance. This is an opportunity to work in a customer-driven company with a collaborative team that values technical excellence, innovation and creativity while being good to each other and having fun!

We’re looking for an experienced Staff Software Engineer to be a key contributor in developing the backend services that power generative AI functionality across the Quicken family of products. You will design and implement cloud-based AI service infrastructure for conversational experiences, retrieval-augmented generation, tool orchestration, MCP services, memory and persistence systems, and model integration. This role requires strong backend engineering judgment, strong JVM backend experience, preferably with Kotlin and Java, and the ability to turn fast-moving AI capabilities into secure, scalable, observable, production-ready services.

Come make an impact on the technical future of Quicken!

Responsibilities:

Staff Software Engineer is a technical hands-on role, with responsibilities ranging from being at the vanguard of solving technical problems to venturing into uncharted areas of technologies to solve complex problems.

Directly responsible for consistently delivering high-quality, scalable, production-ready backend/server code in Kotlin and Java for Quicken Cloud Services by implementing best practices in software engineering, including coding standards, testing and deployment procedures.

Partner closely with a cross-functional team of key stakeholders (Engineers, Architects, Product Managers, QA, Operations, and Business Partners) to translate AI product concepts into robust backend systems.

Build and evolve APIs that allow product teams to safely integrate AI functionality across web, mobile, and desktop experiences.

Design and implement tool-calling and MCP services that support reliable multi-step workflows, secure execution, and permissioned access to user data from AI-powered product experiences.

Build production-grade AI infrastructure with strong attention to latency, cost, observability, failure handling, privacy, and security.

Display a passion for high quality, continuous learning, and experimenting and applying cutting-edge technology, software paradigms, and engineering process improvements, while fostering this culture across the team.

Mentor junior developers using expertise in software development methodology and frameworks, in areas such as quality, security, and scalability.

Effectively leverage AI coding assistants (Claude, Codex, etc.) to accelerate implementation, code review, and testing, while applying strong engineering judgment to validate the correctness, security, and maintainability of AI-generated code.

Qualifications:

8+ years of software engineering experience, including a successful track record developing customer-facing SaaS/PaaS products.

5+ years of working experience in Java or Kotlin, Spring Framework and AWS.

3+ years of working experience within microservice architecture, specifically utilizing REST services and JSON.

Experience with reactive programming on the JVM, such as Project Reactor, Spring WebFlux, RxJava, Kotlin coroutines, or Kotlin Flow.

Hands-on experience building or integrating LLM-backed product functionality, including streaming response patterns such as SSE, cancellation, timeouts, and fallback handling.

Experience with conversation state management, persistence models, memory systems, prompt orchestration, and tool/function calling.

Experience with RAG patterns, embeddings, vector databases, retrieval quality, grounding, and evaluation.

Familiarity with model customization techniques, including fine-tuning, prompt/version management, structured outputs, and model evaluation.

Strong understanding of privacy, security, and data-handling concerns for sensitive customer data.

Excellent understanding of O/R mapping concepts and tools (Hibernate, JPA).

Capable of handling ambiguous business requirements with excellent prioritization and time management abilities.

Strong experience as a leader, driving toward solutions for the short and long term in collaboration with internal and external partners.

Fluent in Databases/SQL (MySQL experience preferred).

Excellent programming discipline: data structures, complexity analysis, object-oriented principles, design patterns, and unit testing.

Excellent knowledge of the development challenges inherent with highly scalable and available web/mobile applications.

Experience with API development and integration with 3rd-party services is preferred.

Hands-on experience integrating AI coding tools (e.g., Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, Codex) into the SDLC — comfortable using them for scaffolding, refactoring, and test generation, and skilled at critically reviewing their output rather than accepting it blindly.

Ability to work well with others in a geographically distributed team.

Team player with can-do attitude to independently own and drive projects.

Experience mentoring junior engineers.

Exceptional verbal and written communication skills.

BS/MS in Computer Science/Engineering or equivalent.

What we offer

Competitive salary and performance bonus

401(k) with 5% employer match

Exceptional health insurance benefits with minimal out of pocket expenses

Fantastic culture, strong believers in Autonomy/Mastery/Purpose

Customer-driven, we make money by building the best products for our users. No confusion about how to win – create amazing products!

Ability to work with and lead incredible talent

Build products that make a huge difference in people’s lives

Work on a highly recognizable brand that defines the personal finance category

Quicken is committed to fair and equitable compensation practices. The actual salary offered is determined by factors unique to each candidate, including but not limited to years and depth of experience, relevant skills, and work location. This position's expected base pay range is $180,000 - $195,000.

Quicken is building a team of innovative and talented individuals passionate about helping people improve their financial lives. We care about our employees' well-being and pride ourselves on offering a fabulous range of benefits and perks. From comprehensive healthcare coverage, a 401(k) plan with a generous 5% match, fitness subsidies, education reimbursement, and onsite lunches, to name a few - we've got you covered! At Quicken, we believe happy employees are successful employees, so we're committed to creating a fun and supportive work environment that encourages personal and professional growth, recognizing that a thriving workforce is essential to our collective success! (Benefits and perks may vary based on location.)

Quicken is proud to be an equal opportunity employer and considers qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, ancestry, age, genetic information, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital or family status, veteran status, medical condition or disability.