Staff Software Engineer - AI Applications

Staff Software Engineer - AI Applications

Menlo Park, California, United States; Seattle, Washington, United States

About Moloco:

Moloco is an AI-native performance advertising company, bringing the power of AI advertising to the open internet. Founded in 2013 by machine learning engineers who had built AI advertising systems inside the world's largest technology companies, Moloco began from a shared mission: to build that same engine for the open internet.

Today, Moloco is one company with two businesses, built on the same compound AI system. Moloco Ads is our AI-native performance advertising platform, helping mobile app marketers acquire, retain, and re-engage high-value users across the open internet. Moloco Commerce Media is our AI-native retail media platform, enabling retailers and marketplaces to turn their platforms into thriving ad businesses. Both are powered by CARA (Compound Ad Recommendation Architecture) , the AI system behind every Moloco product.

At Moloco, we bring together those who've already solved hard problems and those with the drive to. Here, we work on some of the complex problems in AI advertising, at a scale and level of sophistication very few companies can offer. Come build what's next.

The Impact You'll Be Contributing to Moloco:

Our mission is to change how Moloco operates as a company. AI makes it possible to rebuild how work gets done — not to shave minutes off tasks, but to redesign entire workflows so every Molocan operates with the leverage of a much larger team.

Two principles will guide the team.

• Outcomes first — AI will be a tool, not the goal; teams will pick the best solution for Moloco with the same engineering rigor as any other eng org.
• Shared foundations, not central control — common infrastructure, guardrails, security, and standards that every team will build on autonomously.
• Enable safely. Safe rails for every Molocan — hosting for AI-developed apps, key management, spend caps, permissions and provisioning. With proper guardrails, neither recent incident would have shipped unreviewed or run unbounded.
• Rebuild workflows GenAI-first. Redesign the company’s most critical workflows from the ground up around AI — the customer lifecycle from onboarding to campaign management and upsell, the recruiting pipeline from sourcing to offer, quarterly planning and forecasting.
• Rationalize the stack. Evaluate, consolidate, and selectively replace SaaS where AI-first custom is better — e.g., the BI consolidation and open-weights proposals below.

The Opportunity:

This role is part of the AI Applications team, an extension of Moloco's generative AI initiative. This team sits higher in the AI stack, closer to the user, and focuses on the delivery layer rather than infrastructure. The primary mission is to build AI-powered products and tools that:

• Make Moloco as a company operate more efficiently internally.
• Improve the internal-to-customer experience using generative AI.
• Improve the end customer experience with AI (lighter focus initially).
• Much of the work is greenfield, with only small parts of the foundation currently in place. Engineers will own products end-to-end, from problem identification through launch and ongoing operations.

How Do I Know if the Role is Right For Me?

• 8+ years of professional software engineering experience, with a track record of owning complex, cross-functional systems end-to-end
• Deep hands-on experience architecting LLM-powered applications at production scale — agentic systems, RAG, or tool-using assistants — including the tradeoffs between latency, cost, reliability, and quality
• Experience with agent frameworks/orchestration (e.g., LangGraph, custom agent loops) and multi-step reasoning systems
• Proven experience designing evaluation and monitoring systems for AI products that others on the team adopt and build on
• Strong systems design skills: able to define architecture and technical standards that multiple teams can build on autonomously (shared infra, guardrails, APIs)
• Fluency across the stack (frontend, backend, infra) with the judgment to know where to go deep vs. delegate
• Experience influencing technical direction beyond your own team — e.g., setting engineering standards, mentoring senior engineers, or leading technical strategy for a product area
• History of independently identifying high-leverage problems (not just executing an assigned backlog) and building conviction with stakeholders and leadership

Preferred Skills:

• Experience building or leading the buildout of internal AI platform capabilities: key management, spend caps, permissioning, hosting for AI-developed apps
• Track record of leading a SaaS rationalization or "build vs. buy" effort involving AI-first custom replacements
• Experience redesigning a critical business workflow (not just automating a task) around AI — e.g., recruiting, customer lifecycle, planning/forecasting
• Prior experience in a platform or infra-adjacent role that also required strong product instincts
• Public or internal thought leadership on agent architectures, evals, or applied LLM engineering practices
• Comfortable operating with minimal process, setting technical direction in a greenfield environment, and shaping team practices as they scale

U.S.-based employees have access to medical, dental, and vision insurance, a 401(k) plan with company match, short-term and long-term disability coverage, basic life insurance, and well-being benefits and perks. U.S.-based employees also receive up to 12 scheduled paid holidays per calendar year and one Thrive Day off per quarter. Additionally, all employees have Flexible Time Off (FTO).

The successful candidate may be eligible for a bonus and equity awards. Eligibility and amounts are determined by performance and the terms of the applicable plans.

The location for this role is listed above. For base pay range purposes, location-based compensation is grouped into the following regions. Your region is determined by your assigned work location.

• Region C: All other U.S. locations

Salary Ranges:

Region A:

$220,000 - $275,000 USD

Region B:

$198,000 - $247,500 USD

Region C:

$187,200 - $234,000 USD

Supporting Your Best Work and Your Best Life:

Our benefits are designed to support our people in doing their best work and living well, at work and beyond. Benefits vary by country, employment type, and eligibility. Connect with a recruiter to learn more about benefits in your region.

• Lead with Humility: Everyone’s voice is respected, valued, and heard. We win, lose, and learn together. Accountability and feedback are essential to our success.
• Uncapped Growth Mindset: We see all situations as opportunities to learn, grow, and improve as individuals and as an organization. We seek diverse perspectives, encourage curiosity, and promote experimentation to push the boundaries of what’s possible.
• Create Real Value: We pursue the most impactful opportunities with intensity and rigor. We take intelligent risks and make disciplined trade-offs to maintain deep focus. We help our customers win by delivering durable value.
• Go Further Together: We’re one team working towards one vision. We collaborate proactively and inclusively, involving the right people at the right time and in the right way. We strive to create a more equitable workplace. We won’t let each other fail.

Our interview process is designed to get to know the real you. Unless a round specifically includes AI as part of what's being assessed, we ask that candidates engage without AI assistance. Please review our AI Use in Interviews Policy before your interview to understand what to expect. Failure to comply with this policy may impact your candidacy.