Staff Software Engineer, AI Agents

Staff Software Engineer, AI Agents

$200,000–$270,000 base + equity (indicative range; varies by opportunity)

New York City – On-site

Multiple opportunities with ambitious NYC-based technology companies building AI-native products and sophisticated software infrastructure.

People in AI is partnering with several high-growth technology companies in New York City looking for exceptional Staff-level Software Engineers to build the next generation of AI-powered software.

These teams are tackling complex, real-world problems through agentic AI, intelligent automation and high-performance software systems. They're looking for engineers who can go beyond LLM integrations to build reliable, scalable products that deliver genuine business value.

We're looking for software engineers first, with proven experience building AI agents.

You'll need exceptional engineering fundamentals, strong architectural judgment and the ability to own technically challenging problems end to end. This isn't a role focused purely on prompt engineering or AI experimentation. It's about building serious production software with AI agents at its core.

What You'll Do

• Build production-grade AI agents capable of reasoning, using tools and executing complex, multi-step workflows autonomously.
• Own engineering end to end , from system architecture and technical decisions through development, deployment and production performance.
• Design and scale backend systems , including distributed services, APIs, data pipelines and workflow orchestration infrastructure.
• Develop sophisticated agent architectures incorporating tool calling, context management, retrieval, memory, evaluation and failure recovery.
• Solve difficult engineering challenges involving concurrency, latency, scalability, data integrity and system reliability.
• Drive technical direction , influencing architecture, engineering standards and critical technology decisions across teams.
• Collaborate directly with founders, engineering leaders and product teams to turn ambiguous problems into robust, commercially valuable software.

What You'll Bring

• Exceptional software engineering fundamentals. Deep knowledge of computer science, algorithms, data structures, system design, databases and distributed systems.
• Hands-on experience building AI agents. You've designed and implemented LLM-powered applications or agentic systems that perform meaningful tasks, ideally deployed in production.
• Staff-level engineering capability. A track record of architecting complex systems, making independent technical decisions and owning significant engineering initiatives.
• Strong backend engineering expertise. You're comfortable designing APIs, scalable services, asynchronous systems and robust data infrastructure.
• A genuine builder mentality. You enjoy writing production code, debugging difficult problems and staying close to implementation while shaping broader technical direction.
• Ownership and product judgment. You can navigate ambiguity, challenge assumptions and take accountability for outcomes rather than simply delivering tickets.
• Experience in fast-moving environments. You thrive in teams where technical excellence, speed of execution and individual initiative matter.

Tech Stack

• Languages: Python, TypeScript, JavaScript, SQL
• AI & Agents: LLMs, tool calling, agent orchestration, RAG, context management, evaluation and observability
• Backend: Distributed systems, APIs, microservices and asynchronous processing
• Infrastructure: AWS, cloud-native architecture, containers and production deployment
• Data: PostgreSQL, relational databases, queues and data pipelines
• Frontend: React and modern web frameworks where relevant

We're more interested in engineers with outstanding fundamentals and the ability to learn new technologies than those who have worked with a particular framework.

Why Join?

Build AI systems that actually matter. Work on agents and intelligent software solving complex, high-value problems in real production environments, rather than building another LLM wrapper.

Genuine Staff-level ownership. Shape technical architecture, make important engineering decisions and own challenging problems from concept to production.

Work alongside exceptional engineers. Join ambitious New York teams where engineering quality, technical curiosity and strong execution are central to the culture.

High-impact opportunities. Contribute to foundational technology and core product capabilities, with meaningful scope to influence how products and engineering teams evolve.

Competitive compensation. Attractive base salary packages and equity opportunities, depending on the company and position.

About People in AI

People in AI is a specialist recruitment partner connecting exceptional AI, machine learning, data and software engineering talent with some of the most ambitious technology companies in the world.

We partner closely with founders and technical leaders to identify opportunities offering meaningful technical challenges, genuine ownership and long-term career growth.