Senior AI Systems Engineer

Karbon; City of Melbourne; On-site; AUD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Flexible working environment

4 weeks annual leave + 5 Karbon Days

Generous parental leave

Global team experience

Job summary

Karbon is at the cutting edge of AI-powered practice management software. We seek an engineer to shape the AI architecture in a distributed production environment and design safe, isolated environments for AI to operate within.

The role requires designing AI systems, scaling the agent platform, and ensuring observability and governance, while collaborating with AI and full-stack engineers, PMs, and designers in a fast-growing, globally distributed team.

Qualifications

• Minimum 5+ years in software, platforms, or ML engineering.
• Proficient with OCI specs and secure, isolated container runtimes.
• Experience architecting distributed, event-driven production apps.
• Strong Python skills; C# and React are a plus.
• Bachelor’s degree in CS/AI/Statistics or equivalent.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and deploy AI systems that solve customer problems and drive outcomes.
• Productionise AI by contributing to the agent platform for scalability and efficiency.
• Evaluate AI and observability metrics for reliability.
• Make sound technical decisions on design, latency, cost, safety, and governance.
• Collaborate with AI engineers, full-stack engineers, product managers and designers.

Skills

Python

Software engineering

Distributed systems

Stakeholder communication

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science / AI / Statistics

Tools

OCI specifications

OpenAI SDK

LangChain

Google ADK

Container runtimes (isolated)

Job description

About Karbon

Karbon is the global leader in AI-powered practice management software for accounting firms. We provide an award-winning cloud platform that helps tens of thousands of accounting professionals work more efficiently and collaboratively every day. With customers in 40 countries, we have grown into a globally distributed team across the US, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the Philippines. We are well-funded, ranked #1 on G2, growing rapidly, and have a people-first culture that is recognized with Great Place To Work® certification and on Fortune magazine's Best Small Workplaces™ List.

About Karbon

Karbon is the global leader in AI-powered practice management software for accounting firms. We provide an award-winning cloud platform that helps tens of thousands of accounting professionals work more efficiently and collaboratively every day. With customers in 40 countries, we have grown into a globally distributed team across the US, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the Philippines. We are well-funded, ranked #1 on G2, growing rapidly, and have a people-first culture that is recognized with Great Place To Work® certification and on Fortune magazine's Best Small Workplaces™ List.

About The Role

Karbon is at the cutting edge of AI and data products, and this role puts you at the centre of that progress. You'll have a direct hand in shaping the platform that underpins our AI products. The ideal candidate will be confident in contributing to Karbon's AI architecture in a distributed production environment, and equally skilled at designing safe, isolated environments for AI to operate within.

What you will own:

• Designing AI systems - Design, build, and deploy AI systems that solve important customer problems and produce measurable business outcomes.
• Productionise AI - You will contribute to building our agent platform, ensuring scalability and operational efficiency.
• AI evaluation and observability - You consider metrics that measure the efficiency and reliability of our AI platform.
• Technical Decisions - Make sound technical decisions, specifically related to systems design, reliability, observability, latency, cost, safety, security, and governance.
• Collaboration - You can work in a cross-functional team with AI engineers, full stack engineers, product managers and designers.

What Sets You Apart

• Minimum 5+ years of experience in a software engineering, platforms engineering, or machine learning engineering
• Proven expertise in OCI specifications alongside hands‑on background managing secure, isolated container runtimes
• Demonstrated hands‑on experience architectural design and deployment of distributed, event-driven applications in production environments (familiarity with LangChain, OpenAI SDK, or Google ADK preferred)
• Highly proficient in Python and comfortable in multi-language systems. Experience in C# & React is highly advantageous.
• Strong stakeholder engagement and communication skills, with the ability to translate strategic objectives into practical technical direction and execution.
• A Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, Statistics, or equivalent experience is needed.

It would be advantageous if you have:

• Strong understanding of how to evaluate AI systems systematically using representative data, graders, production signals, and human judgment.
• Examples of Agentic AI products you have developed and have launched to customers

Ideal for engineers who thrive in structured environments, complex domain systems, and enterprise-scale reliability challenges.

Our Core Technology Stack

We build modern, scalable software on a thoughtfully designed stack:

• Frontend: TypeScript and JavaScript across Ember (today), React, and React Native.
• Backend: .NET / C# (Web API, .NET Core) powering distributed services.
• AI Microservices: Python (FastAPI/Google ADK, FastMCP) powering our AI agents
• Data: Postgres, SQL Server with performance and integrity at scale.
• Cloud: Microsoft Azure, Vercel.
• Observability: Metrics, logging, alerting, and dashboards in Datadog — because we believe you can’t improve what you don’t measure.

Our architecture continues to evolve as we scale. We invest in event-driven systems, well-defined microservices, and containerized deployments to build resilient, decoupled, and high-performing software.

If you care about clean service boundaries, reliable systems, and shipping with confidence — you’ll feel right at home here.

Why Work at Karbon?

• Gain global experience across the USA, Australia, New Zealand, UK, Canada and the Philippines
• 4 weeks annual leave plus 5 extra "Karbon Days" off a year
• Flexible working environment
• Work with (and learn from) an experienced, high-performing team
• Be part of a fast-growing company that firmly believes in promoting high performers from within
• A collaborative, team-oriented culture that embraces diversity, invests in development, and provides consistent feedback
• Generous parental leave

Balance Speed and Quality

Engineers are expected to balance delivery speed with a strong commitment to quality, meeting agreed timelines while producing reliable, maintainable, and well-tested solutions. Sound judgment in making trade-offs between velocity and long-term sustainability is essential.

Collaborate Effectively

Engineering is collaborative by default. Team members are expected to contribute constructively in design discussions, reviews, and planning, communicate clearly about progress and risks, and support shared team outcomes in both hybrid and distributed environments.

Build and Maintain Systems

Engineers are responsible for building new capabilities while maintaining and improving existing systems. This includes designing scalable solutions, reducing technical debt, supporting operational stability, and contributing to continuous improvement.

Operate with Autonomy

A high degree of autonomy is expected. Given clear objectives, engineers should independently translate problems into actionable technical approaches, proactively identify improvements, and continuously expand relevant technical expertise.

Ownership and Accountability

Ownership is fundamental. Engineers are accountable for the quality, performance, and customer impact of their work from design through post‑release support, and are expected to follow through on commitments.

AI-Enabled Engineering

AI is reshaping how software is built, and we are committed to leveraging it as a force multiplier for creativity, impact, and capability. Engineers are expected to confidently apply strong technical fundamentals while embracing AI tools and approaches to enhance productivity, problem-solving, and innovation. Curiosity, adaptability, and enthusiasm for integrating AI into meaningful product development are essential.

Contribute to Team Culture

Engineers contribute positively to a culture of professionalism, transparency, low bureaucracy, and mutual respect, strengthening team performance through authenticity, curiosity, and collaboration.

Please be aware that Karbon will only contact you via email from our domain, karbonhq.com. If you receive an email from any other domain, please do not click any of those links.

Karbon embraces diversity and inclusion, aligning with our values as a business. Research has shown that women and underrepresented groups are less likely to apply to jobs unless they meet every single criteria. If you've made it this far in the job description but your past experience doesn't perfectly align, we do encourage you to still apply. You could still be the right person for the role!

We recruit and reward people based on capability and performance. We don’t discriminate based on race, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, lifestyle, age, educational background, national origin, religion, physical or cognitive ability, and other diversity dimensions that may hinder inclusion in the organization.

Generally, if you are a good person, we want to talk to you.

If there are any adjustments or accommodations that we can make to assist you during the recruitment process, and your journey at Karbon, contact us at [e-mail] for a confidential discussion.