AI Transformation Engineer

Sauce; New York (NY); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity

Health Insurance

Paid Parental Leave

Flexible Work Environment

PTO

Job summary

Sauce, a premier restaurant technology platform headquartered in NYC, seeks a builder-architect to lead AI-first transformation in our operations team. This is not a traditional dev role; you act as a technical founder, own scope from problem to production, and drive architecture and delivery across the company.

You will work across teams, translate business needs into robust AI solutions, and ship measurable results without PM layers or sprint ceremonies.

Qualifications

• Understand operational pain and define scalable AI solutions.
• Own scoping, solution design, delivery and adoption.

Responsibilities

• Own operations problems end-to-end.
• Drive AI transformation across the company.
• Design and deploy agentic systems.
• Cross boundaries across teams and domains.
• Work directly with business stakeholders.
• Report to VP, R&D and set priorities with leadership.

Skills

PM Architect Engineer

Technical founder mindset

Software architecture

AI-native development

Transformation driver

Multi-domain adaptability

Tools

Node.js

React

PostgreSQL

Azure/AWS/GCP

Cursor/Claude Code

n8n

Job description

Sauce is a premier restaurant technology platform that helps businesses grow with our Commission-Free Delivery & Pickup structure and proprietary delivery optimization technology. We are serving a 105 billion dollar US local restaurant business. Headquartered in NYC and Tel-Aviv, Sauce wants restaurants to fulfill their highest potential, this means giving local establishments everything they need to connect directly with their customers. The Sauce team pools together decades of restaurant tech experience, along with seasoned tech, sales, marketing, product and operations executives who produce an industry-changing delivery system for successful local restaurants and chains.

About The Role:

We're hiring a builder-architect to lead AI-first transformation at Sauce, starting with our operations department. Not a fullstack dev who "uses AI" — someone closer to a technical founder: you take an operational business problem end-to-end, act as your own PM, design the architecture, and build until it's solved. You'll operate across teams and codebases in an R&D org built on legacy practices — and drag it into the AI-first era. This is a 10X-accelerator role. You get a problem, not a ticket. No PM layer, no sprint ceremonies — you own scoping, solution design, delivery, and adoption.

What You'll Do:

• Own operations problems end-to-end — Understand the operational pain, define the solution, be its PM, architect it, build it, ship it, and iterate until it actually works in production
• Drive AI transformation across the company — introduce AI-first practices into an R&D org with legacy habits; champion new tooling and prove it with shipped results
• Design and deploy agentic systems — AI agents, human-in-the-loop workflows, operational UIs, CRM integrations, n8n/orchestration pipelines that automate ops end-to-end
• Cross boundaries freely — get into other teams' code, other domains, other stacks; no "not my area"
• Work directly with business stakeholders — translate vague operational feedback into precise, well-architected solutions
• Reports to VP, R&D; works directly with business and ops leadership — you set priorities with them, not receive them

What You Bring:

• Almost a technical founder — you've built products or companies (or operated like you did), and you still love to build
• PM + Architect + Engineer in one — you don't need requirements written for you; you write them, then execute
• A strong software architect — you build proper, extensible systems, not duct-tape automations; you extend cleanly and never break what exists
• AI-native — deep, current, hands-on experience with LLMs, agents, and AI-assisted development; you know what's possible this month, not last year
• Relentless — energy to push until the problem is solved; "no matter what" is your operating mode
• Multi-domain — comfortable in unfamiliar codebases, stacks, and business areas
• A transformation driver — you've changed how a team or company works, not just shipped features into it

Technical Experience

• AI agents in production — tool use, structured outputs, multi-step orchestration, evals, human-in-the-loop design
• Ops automation — n8n or similar workflow platforms, operational UIs, CRM integrations (HubSpot a plus)
• AI-first development — expert with Cursor / Claude Code / equivalent as primary build tools
• Full-stack — Node.js + React or equivalent; PostgreSQL or similar
• Architecture — API design, third-party integrations, cloud deployment (Azure / AWS / GCP)
• Security awareness — move fast with emerging tech while keeping systems secure

Nice to Have

• Founder / Founding-engineer experience
• HubSpot API
• MongoDBPlaywright / Browser automation
• Chrome extensions
• Restaurant or logistics domain knowledge

What We Offer

• Strong & Competitive Compensation Package, Including Equity
• Company-Sponsored Insurance Package (Health, Dental, Vision, Mental Health)
• Paid Parental Leave
• Flexible Work Environment
• Responsible Paid Time Off Policy

Sauce is an equal opportunity workplace and an affirmative action employer. We welcome all qualified applicants regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex (including pregnancy and related conditions), national origin, sexual orientation, age, marital status, disability (physical or mental), gender identity, gender expression, genetic information, veteran status, citizenship, immigration status, or any other classification, category or characteristic protected by applicable federal, state or local laws. We understand the importance of creating a more diverse and inclusive workplace and celebrate our employees for their differences. We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process, such as reviewing applications, analyzing resumes, or assessing responses and identifying potential inconsistencies or verification signals in application materials based on available information. These tools assist our recruitment team but do not replace human judgment. Final hiring decisions are ultimately made by humans. If you would like more information about how your data is processed, please contact us.