AI Engineering Manager (Core AI Platform) (San Francisco)

Front is the customer operations platform built for B2B complexity, keeping every team, tool, and customer conversation in sync so companies can scale without losing connection. Others handle simple interactions. Front handles the coordination and context behind complex B2B customer relationships. Over 9,000 companies, including Uber Freight, Navan, and Stripe, rely on Front because it's the only one that can run the operational layer that makes customer-facing work actually succeed.Backed by Sequoia Capital and Salesforce Ventures, Front has raised $204M from leading venture capital firms and independent investors including top executives at Atlassian, Okta, Qualtrics, Zoom, and PagerDuty. Front has received numerous Great Place to Work accolades, including Built In's 100 Best Midsize Places to Work in SF 2025, Top Places to Work by USA Today 2025, Y Combinator's list of Top Companies in 2023, #4 on Fortune’s Best Workplaces in the Bay Area ,Inc. Magazine's 2022 Best Workplaces list, and Forbes Best Startup Employers 2022 List.Over 9,000 companies rely on Front to run their customer operations. AI is reshaping what's possible in this space, and Front is building the platform to deliver on that promise. At the center of this effort is our Core AI Platform team - a group of our strongest applied AI and engineering talent whose work underpins every AI-powered experience across the product. We're looking for an engineering leader to own this team and its outsized impact on Front's product and customers.The Core AI Platform team is responsible for three things:Building and maintaining the foundational AI infrastructure (LLM integrations, RAG pipelines, evaluation systems) that all product teams at Front rely onEnabling product feature teams to ship AI-powered experiences quickly and reliably by providing well-abstracted, production-grade AI capabilitiesPushing the frontier on AI techniques and tooling so Front stays ahead of the rapid pace of change in AI/MLTo be successful in this role, you will manage a team of senior AI engineers - both applied AI and full-stack AI specialists - to deliver on an ambitious technical roadmap. You will guide strategic AI investments by evaluating emerging techniques and directing effort toward the highest-impact bets. You will lean in on technical design and architecture, scale the team by attracting top AI talent, and drive the processes that let a platform team serve many product teams effectively. This is a highly collaborative role where you will partner closely with product managers, other engineering managers, and engineers across the organization.What will you be doing?Own the technical roadmap for Front's AI platform, guiding strategic investments in AI by evaluating emerging techniques, making build-vs-buy decisions, and partnering with product and engineering leadership to prioritize the highest-leverage capabilitiesDrive architectural decisions on AI infrastructure - LLM orchestration, RAG systems, model evaluation, prompt management - ensuring reliability, scalability, and developer ergonomicsManage and grow a team of senior engineers, providing mentorship and career development while maintaining a high talent barDefine and improve the interfaces between the AI platform and product feature teams, enabling autonomous and efficient execution across the organizationContribute to engineering-wide initiatives as a member of Front's engineering management teamWhat skills and experience do you need?Must have - Deep technical fluency in AI/ML systems, particularly LLM-based applications, with the ability to evaluate trade-offs and guide architectural decisions alongside senior engineersTrack record of managing and scaling a team of senior/staff engineers through ambiguous, fast-moving problem spacesProven ability to guide strategic AI investments - evaluating emerging techniques, making build-vs-buy decisions, and directing team effort toward the highest-impact bets in a rapidly evolving spaceShould have - Strong cross-functional partnership skills to align AI platform capabilities with product needs across multiple teamsAbility to attract, develop, and retain top AI engineering talent in a competitive marketExperience building and operating AI/ML infrastructure or platform services in production at scaleNice to have - Founded or built a new team/function/capability from early stagesExperience at a B2B SaaS company applying AI to enterprise workflowsBackground in developer experience or internal platform work that accelerated other engineering teamsFront operates on a hybrid model — we come together in the office each Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday to collaborate and stay connected.What we offerCompetitive salaryEquity (we are post-series D & backed by some of the best VCs in the US)Private health insurance, including plan options at no cost to employeesPaid parental leaveFlexible time off policyFlexibility to work from home Monday and Friday, unless posted as a fully remote roleMental health support with Workplace OptionsFamily planning support with Maven$100 per month Lifestyle Stipend to spend on fitness, health and wellness, and other activitiesWellness Days - Fronteers get an additional day off on months with no holidaysWinter Break - Our offices are closed from Christmas to New Year's Day!Front provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age or disability. By applying, you acknowledge and agree that you have read and understand the California Recruiting Privacy Notice & EU Privacy NoticeCompensation Range: $220K - $300KLocationSan Francisco, CAEmployment TypeFull timeDepartmentEPDCompensationEstimated Base Salary $220K – $300K • Offers EquityIndividual compensation packages are based on factors unique to each candidate, including job-related skills, experience, qualifications, work location, training, and market conditions. At Front, we take a market-based approach to pay. In addition to cash compensation (base salary, which may include commissions or overtime pay where applicable), Fronteers are eligible to receive equity in the company. This resource will provide additional information on our location zone designations. If you have questions, please contact a member of our recruiting team for additional information.