Lead AI Software Engineer

Bigcommerce; Austin (TX); Remote; USD 182,000 - 259,000; Full time

Job summary

BigCommerce is seeking a highly accountable AI Lead Software Engineer to drive the design and execution of agentic AI solutions across product use-cases. You will collaborate with senior Product and Engineering leaders to implement scalable AI architectures and deliver measurable outcomes.

You will mentor teams, craft high- and low-level designs, and prioritize rapid experimentation while ensuring reliability and ROI across the business.

Qualifications

• Proven experience shipping Agentic AI systems in production.
• Strong server-side engineering in Python/Go/Java.
• Experience with LLMs and GenAI product solutions.
• Familiarity with e-commerce data pipelines and taxonomies.

Responsibilities

• Lead design and implementation of AI-based product solutions.
• Collaborate with leadership to shape AI strategy.
• Develop low-level designs from high-level concepts.
• Build scalable, secure, cost-effective systems at large scale.
• Mentor and evangelize AI capabilities across the organization.

Skills

Python

Go

Java

GenAI/LLMs

API Architecture

Cloud platforms

SQL

Education

Bachelor's degree

Tools

Angular

React

Vector databases

Model orchestration tools

Inference frameworks

Job description

Welcome to the Agentic Commerce Era

At Commerce, our mission is to empower businesses to innovate, grow, and thrive with our open, AI-driven commerce ecosystem. As the parent company of BigCommerce , Feedonomics , and Makeswift , we connect the tools and systems that power growth, enabling businesses to unlock the full potential of their data, deliver seamless and personalized experiences across every channel, and adapt swiftly to an ever-changing market. We believe in harnessing AI responsibly to unlock new possibilities, and we're looking for individuals who use it intentionally to solve problems, accelerate outcomes, and expand what's possible in their role. Our purpose is to help businesses confidently solve complex commerce challenges so they can build smarter, adapt faster, and grow on their own terms. If you want to be part of a team of bold builders, sharp thinkers, and technical trailblazers who shape the future of commerce, this is the place for you.

We're seeking a highly accountable, and impact-driven AI Lead Software Engineer to play a pivotal role in shaping and executing our AI vision. As a key member of technical staff, you'll collaborate closely with senior Product and Engineering leaders to drive strategic initiatives and deliver results through cutting-edge AI technologies.

In this role, you'll lead the design and implementation of multiple AI-based product solutions, enabling rapid experimentation and implementation for a variety of product use-cases across the business. Success will require exceptional written and verbal communication skills, an ability to contribute to high level designs and translate into low level designs, a strong bias for action, a focus on measurable outcomes, and a commitment to continuously improving the capabilities of the organization through mentorship, coaching and evangelization.

BigCommerce part of the Commerce brand family, helps merchants increase sales at every stage of their growth. From small startups to mid-market businesses and large enterprises, we provide the leading e-commerce platform. Our customers can then concentrate on what's most important: growing their businesses. We enable our customers to build, innovate, and grow, collectively reshaping the e-commerce industry

What You’ll Do

• Interface with team members across one or more domains, executives and stakeholders across the business to provide context, direction setting and technical guidance.
• Collaboratively contribute to and/or author high level designs and partner with key leaders to ensure strategic alignment.
• Serve as lead engineer for major initiatives, working across teams to develop and implement low level designs.
• Facilitate quick-turnaround solutions to address urgent business needs, striking the right balance between delivery speed, scalability, and reliability.
• Collaborate with Product & Engineering leadership to help shape the AI strategy.
• Assess technology options to establish fit for purpose and make selections to optimize ROI for the business.
• Build scalable solutions and systems that are secure, cost-effective and performant at very large scale.
• Deep understanding of and experience with RAG pipelines, MCP, AI agents, multimodal LLMs, prompt orchestration, LLM telemetry and inspection, etc.
• Upskill the organization by evangelizing technologies and identifying opportunities for experimentation and education.

Who Are You

• Significant experience architecting and shipping Agentic AI systems in production, not just prototypes or proofs of concept.
• Strong server-side engineering in Python, Go, Java, or similar, with the judgment that comes from having maintained what you built
• Experience building product solutions with LLMs and GenAI technologies
• Experience working with product data pipelines and familiarity with e-commerce taxonomies, schemas, is highly preferred
• Familiarity with modern AI infrastructure (e.g., vector databases, model orchestration tools, inference frameworks, cloud-native ML workflows) is preferred
• Demonstrated technical leadership across cross-functional teams (engineering, product, and other stakeholders), driving both vision and execution without relying on formal authority.
• Expertise in cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, or Azure), API architecture, and modern MLOps practices.
• Solid experience with SQL, in-memory storage and similar data storage solutions
• Familiarity with Angular, React and other similar Frontend frameworks
• Preferred minimum Bachelor's degree in CS, EE, SW, CE, MIS; or equivalent experience

#LI-REMOTE

#LI-MP2

(Pay Transparency Range: $182,000.00 - $259,000.00)

Compensation Transparency

The national base salary range for this role is posted above in this job post.

Final compensation will be determined based on factors such as relevant experience, skills, qualifications and geographic location. We also consider internal equity to help ensure fair and consistent pay practices across our teams.

Where applicable, this role may also be eligibl