AI-First Staff Software Engineer

Direct Supply, Inc.; Milwaukee (WI); On-site; USD 150,000 - 210,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Generous benefits

Job summary

Direct Supply, Inc. seeks a Staff Software Engineer to shape AI-first engineering practices and set architectural direction across teams. You’ll drive AI augmentation, agentic workflows and autonomous systems, architect scalable AI-powered solutions, and mentor senior engineers.

You will partner with leadership to define AI roadmaps, ensure security and observability, and align technical work with business goals while pushing financial and strategic impact across the organization.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of software engineering experience, incl. 3+ years leading AI-powered development.
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or related field.
• Proven experience developing, deploying, and scaling AI-powered applications (open models or APIs).
• Expertise in AI-first architectures (microservices, event-driven systems, real-time AI workflows).
• Hands-on experience with LLMs, agentic AI models, and autonomous AI workflows.

Responsibilities

• Define and execute the AI engineering strategy embedding AI-first principles across teams.
• Architect and scale AI-enhanced systems with LLMs, agentic workflows, and composable architectures.
• Mentor engineers, sharing expertise in AI-first methodologies and best practices.
• Lead cross-functional AI initiatives, incorporating NLP, computer vision, and generative AI into products.
• Implement AI-powered developer tools to streamline development and boost efficiency.
• Drive experimentation and translate AI research into production-ready applications.
• Partner with leadership to develop AI adoption roadmaps aligned with business objectives.
• Ensure security, scalability, and AI observability across the software lifecycle.
• Make key decisions on technical trade-offs, architecture, and AI tooling.

Skills

AI integration

Innovation leadership

Change leadership

Mentor engineers

AI-first development

LLM deployment

Generative AI

AI observability

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS/CE

Tools

Docker

Kubernetes

Cloud platforms

Job description

Direct Supply, Inc. seeks a Staff Software Engineer to shape AI-first engineering practices and set architectural direction across teams. You’ll drive AI augmentation, agentic workflows and autonomous systems, architect scalable AI-powered solutions, and mentor senior engineers.

You will partner with leadership to define AI roadmaps, ensure security and observability, and align technical work with business goals while pushing financial and strategic impact across the organization.