Lead Software Engineer - Bee AI

Bumble; Austin (TX); Hybrid; USD 225,000 - 255,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical/dental/vision insurance

Unlimited PTO + company-wide week off

401(k) with company match

Paid life and disability insurance

Maternity and fertility benefits

Job summary

Bumble is seeking a Lead Software Engineer in Austin, Texas to guide the development of AI-powered connection experiences. In this role, you will lead the design and architecture of Python services while ensuring high-quality AI interactions. Candidates should have 8–10 years of experience, ideally with cloud infrastructure and a strong understanding of responsible AI. The position offers $225,000 to $255,000 per year and includes benefits like unlimited PTO and medical insurance.

Qualifications

• 8–10 years of experience in software engineering, preferably in production systems.
• Experience with AI agents, prompt design, and context orchestration.
• Hands-on experience with cloud infrastructure on GCP for designing resilient systems.

Responsibilities

• Lead the design and build of AI agent systems for curating member interactions.
• Architect Python-based services focused on reliability and maintainability.
• Define end-to-end processes including prompt management and evaluation approaches.

Skills

Python expertise

AI and ML product experience

Cloud infrastructure knowledge (GCP)

System design and delivery

Observability and operational clarity

Job description

At Bumble, we’re on a mission to create a world where all relationships are healthy and equitable. The Bee AI team is reimagining how people meet by introducing an intelligent, AI-powered product that sits alongside Bumble Date – helping members connect in more curated, thoughtful, and human ways, while preserving the magic of matching and conversation at the core of the Bumble experience.

As a Lead Software Engineer, you’ll play a pivotal role in shaping this next generation of connection. Bee is already live and evolving quickly. Explore a recent preview here: https://www.instagram.com/p/DVwmOw_jKUf/, we’re now scaling both the ambition and the systems behind it – building intelligent agents that guide interactions, enhance matchmaking, and continuously learn from member behaviour. You’ll help define how AI shows up responsibly and meaningfully in people’s experiences, role‑modeling our values of curiosity and courage as you explore new frontiers.

What You’ll Do

• Lead the design, build, and extension of production AI agent systems for Bee, creating more curated ways for members to meet within a distinct AI‑driven product experience
• Architect and evolve Python‑based services and agent workflows using PydanticAI and GCP, with a strong focus on reliability, extensibility, and maintainability
• Define and improve how we build agents end to end, including prompt management, context handling, response schemas, fallback logic, and versioning practices
• Establish robust evaluation approaches for agent quality, including offline and online evaluations, experimentation frameworks, telemetry, and clear success criteria for agent behaviour
• Build repeatable patterns for monitoring, debugging, and managing agents in production, including observability, performance analysis, and continuous improvement loops
• Partner closely with product, design, and data within the Bee AI team to turn ambiguous opportunities into shipped features, while collaborating effectively with adjacent teams where integration is required
• Apply strong technical judgment to responsible AI development by assessing outputs for quality, bias, safety, and transparency, ensuring human oversight where it matters most
• Act as a technical leader by setting a high bar for code quality, system design, and delivery, collaborating with purpose, taking ownership, and demonstrating an agile mindset in line with our values of courage, respect, and excellence

About You

• Typically requires 8–10 years of experience, though we welcome candidates with alternative backgrounds that demonstrate equivalent skills.
• You bring deep software engineering experience in production systems, with strong Python expertise and a track record of building scalable backend services
• You have hands‑on experience building or guiding AI and ML‑powered product experiences, especially around AI agents, prompt design, context orchestration, and evaluation strategies
• You are comfortable designing schema‑validated LLM interactions, managing prompts and response structures, and creating deterministic fallbacks and safeguards for production use
• You have experience with cloud infrastructure on GCP and know how to design systems with strong observability, resilience, and operational clarity
• You are skilled at defining technical approaches for ambiguous, high‑impact problems, using independent judgment while influencing across teams and creating alignment
• You know how to build evaluation and feedback loops for AI systems, including instrumentation, experimentation, monitoring, and iterative improvement of agent behaviour over time
• You collaborate effectively across disciplines, take ownership of outcomes, and adapt quickly as priorities evolve, demonstrating an agile mindset and working with purpose
• You use AI thoughtfully in your own work to improve speed, quality, and learning, while ensuring responsible, inclusive, and human‑centred application

Location

• This role is based in Austin, and we ask that you’re within a commutable distance to this office, so that you’re able to come onsite regularly to collaborate across engineering teams.
• We have a hybrid environment that requires you to be in the office Monday‑Wednesday.
• Please note: We are unable to offer visa sponsorship at this time.

Compensation

225,000 – 255,000 USD per year.

Benefits & Perks

• Insurance: Medical/dental/vision, 30‑day eligibility.
• Unlimited PTO + 1 company‑wide week off + Focus Fridays every week.
• Fully paid life and long‑term disability insurance.
• 401(k) with 4% company match if you contribute 6%, 90‑day eligibility.
• Monthly wellness benefit and access to Noom, Unmind, and Your Money Line.
• Maternity and fertility benefit + 26‑week paid parental leave.
• Premium app access.

Inclusion at Bumble Inc.

Bumble Inc. is an equal opportunity employer and we strongly encourage people of all ages, colour, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and non‑binary people, veterans, parents, people with disabilities, and neurodivergent people to apply. We’re happy to make any reasonable adjustments that will help you feel more confident throughout the process. In your application, please feel free to note which pronouns you use.