PVR Cinemas is seeking an Applied AI Engineer / Staff Agent Engineer to design, build, and scale AI agents supporting the industrial supply chain and staffing industry. The role includes end-to-end ownership of AI agent product features and the supporting platform engineering across backend, orchestration, evaluation, and production monitoring.
Location
San Francisco, CA (onsite)
Compensation
USD 200,000 - 300,000 per year (annual base salary)
Role Responsibilities
- Design and implement AI-powered agents to automate staffing and workforce management workflows.
- Build systems for worker sourcing, screening, verification, matching, and shift placement.
- Architect and develop scalable backend services, APIs, and distributed systems.
- Develop real-time matching and automated vetting pipelines using machine learning and AI agents.
- Own AI agent product features end-to-end, from problem discovery and technical design to deployment and optimization.
- Improve platform performance, reliability, scalability, and operational efficiency.
- Collaborate with product, engineering, and operations teams to deliver measurable business outcomes.
- Architect and develop end-to-end AI agent platforms, including orchestration runtimes, tool integrations, and execution frameworks.
- Design model strategies, prompt systems, retrieval mechanisms, memory architectures, and agent evaluation frameworks.
- Build evaluation datasets, automated graders, regression suites, and experimentation tools to measure agent quality.
- Implement monitoring, observability, and reliability mechanisms for production AI systems.
- Integrate AI agents with internal and customer enterprise systems, including Warehouse Management Systems (WMS), Transportation Management Systems (TMS), and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) platforms.
- Establish best practices for AI-assisted software development and production deployment.
- Work directly with customers and operational teams to identify problems and convert insights into scalable product capabilities.
- Contribute to technical strategy, architectural decisions, and long‑term platform development.
- Mentor engineers and support the growth of the engineering team.
Required Qualifications
- 5–10 years of professional software engineering experience, preferably in early‑stage or high‑growth startups.
- Proven experience building and launching 0-to-1 AI agent products in production environments.
- Demonstrated ownership of products or features from conception through deployment, with measurable business impact.
- Strong hands‑on expertise in Python and/or TypeScript/Node.js.
- Experience designing distributed systems, backend services, APIs, and scalable data models.
- Strong proficiency with PostgreSQL and event‑driven technologies such as Kafka, RabbitMQ, or similar messaging systems.
- Practical experience with AI agent orchestration, production deployment, evaluation, and observability.
- Strong understanding of trade‑offs between prompting, fine‑tuning, retrieval‑augmented generation (RAG), and conventional software logic.
- Experience implementing testing, monitoring, regression evaluation, and reliability practices for AI applications.
- Strong product mindset, problem‑solving ability, and end‑to‑end technical ownership.
- Ability to operate effectively in a fast‑paced, ambiguous startup environment.
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or a related technical field, preferably from a highly regarded university.
- Willingness to work on‑site five days per week in New York City or San Francisco.
Technology Stack
Python, TypeScript, Node.js, PostgreSQL, Kafka, RabbitMQ
Benefits
- Annual base salary of $200,000–$300,000 USD.
- Competitive equity package.
- Relocation assistance available for eligible candidates moving to New York.
- Opportunity to build foundational AI technology with significant product and architectural ownership.
- Direct collaboration with senior leadership and cross‑functional teams.
- Opportunity to influence the future of AI‑powered staffing and industrial operations.
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience with AI‑native marketplaces, staffing platforms, or multi‑sided marketplace products.
- Background in matching algorithms, recommendation systems, workforce optimization, or credential verification.
- Experience building products for logistics, supply chain, manufacturing, healthcare, or other traditional industries.
- Familiarity with React, React Native, and modern full‑stack development.
- Experience integrating AI agents with enterprise platforms and third‑party APIs.
- Experience working directly with customers to understand operational challenges and translate them into technical solutions.
- Experience mentoring engineers and influencing technical architecture in a growing startup.
Visa / Work Authorization
- Eligible visa transfers are considered, including qualifying H‑1B transfers and OPT candidates where applicable.
- New H‑1B sponsorship through the lottery is not available.
- Candidates should confirm their current work authorization status during initial screening.
Interview Process
- Recruiter screening.
- Hiring manager interview.
- Technical assessment and team interviews.
- Technical deep dives and cross‑functional discussions.
- Final leadership interview.