Software Engineer, Agent

Uses AI-assisted coding tools (Claude Code, Codex, Cursor) and explicitly builds "vibe direct" agent-driven creative workflows.

About the Role

Build the agent layer and infrastructure for OpenArt's AI-native creative products, implementing agent harnesses, MCP servers, CLI tooling, and polished frontend experiences to enable scalable, reliable agent-driven storytelling and visual creation for millions of users.

Job Description

Role

OpenArt is hiring a Software Engineer to build the agent layer for next-generation creative products. This product-and-systems role focuses on implementing and extending the agent harness (tool use, context/memory management, multi-step planning, sub-agent orchestration), MCP servers and CLI tooling, and frontend experiences to deliver reliable, production-quality agent workflows.

Key Responsibilities

• Build and extend the agent harness that powers conversational and autonomous creative workflows: tool use, context/memory management, multi-step planning, and sub-agent orchestration.
• Build and maintain MCP servers and CLI-based agent tooling that connect agents to internal services, external model vendors, and creative asset pipelines.
• Author reusable Agent Skills and structured workflows for complex, multi-step creative tasks (scene planning, storyboarding, asset generation, revision loops).
• Contribute to evaluation frameworks and observability to detect regressions and measure agent performance.
• Ship polished, production frontend experiences (React/Next.js) for agent-driven products, end to end.
• Make pragmatic trade-offs between speed, correctness, and scalability and communicate them clearly.
• Partner closely with product, design, and GTM to translate user needs into technical solutions.
• Track the agent ecosystem (MCP, Agent Skills, orchestration frameworks) and integrate relevant advances into the stack.

Requirements

Core Requirements

• 2+ years of full-stack engineering experience shipping production software.
• Hands-on experience building LLM-powered agents or applications used by real users (beyond prototypes).
• Working familiarity with agent harness concepts: tool use, context/memory management, multi-step planning, or sub-agent orchestration.
• Solid data modeling and schema design skills for real product use cases.
• Strong AI-assisted coding practice (experience using tools like Claude Code, Codex, or Cursor as core development tools).
• Product sense for creating trustworthy and delightful agent experiences.
• Clear communication skills to explain agent behavior and technical trade-offs to non-engineers.

Nice to Have

• Experience authoring reusable Agent Skills or structured agent workflows.
• Practical experience building MCP servers or CLI tooling for agents.
• Exposure to agent orchestration frameworks (Claude Agent SDK, LangGraph) or LLM evaluation/observability tooling.
• Hands-on experience with image/video generation models.
• Startup experience or building projects from 0 to 1.

Compensation

• $300,000+ total compensation (base, bonus, equity). Equity and meaningful ownership are included.

Work Setup

• Bay Area preferred (hybrid available). Visa sponsorship available.

What Success Looks Like (3-6 months)

• Ship a production agent workflow used by real users.
• Improve a part of the harness, agent skills, or eval loop with measurable impact.
• Own a component of the agent stack end to end and act as the go-to person.
• Maintain a tight feedback loop with design, founders, and users and proactively propose improvements.

Skills

Full-stack Development Agent Architecture Data Modeling System Design Frontend Development CLI Tooling Observability Evaluation & Metrics Product Sense Communication Ownership Collaboration AI-assisted Coding Multi-step Planning