Remote Lead AI Software Engineer – Email Applications

Next Step Systems; San Francisco (CA); Remote; USD 175,000 - 195,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical insurance

Dental

Vision

Savings plan options

PTO

Job summary

Next Step Systems is seeking a Lead Software Engineer for AI Email Applications, a fully remote role in the United States. You will own the engineering layer turning AI capabilities into a reliable product, shaping architecture across backend, APIs, and client applications, and leading a small senior team.

The role requires hands-on leadership, strong AI experience, and the ability to balance latency, reliability, cost, and UX while partnering with ML leadership to deliver robust product

Qualifications

• AI experience is required.
• Significant experience leading application or product engineering for complex systems.
• Strong hands-on background building and shipping backend systems used in production.
• Experience building AI-powered products or systems that integrate with modern ML/LLM capabilities.
• Strong technical judgment and the ability to make decisions with incomplete information.
• Comfortable working across backend and client platforms, with deep expertise in at least one.

Responsibilities

• Own the application engineering strategy and execution across backend, mobile, and desktop.
• Design reliable systems for AI-powered workflows, including state, orchestration, tool use, retries, fallbacks, and failure handling.
• Build the APIs and abstractions that connect AI systems to real-world product experiences.
• Lead a small, senior engineering team and raise the technical bar through design reviews, code reviews, and hands-on mentorship.
• Make high-impact trade-offs across latency, reliability, cost, security, and user experience.
• Establish strong production foundations: observability, monitoring, testing, and operational excellence.
• Partner closely with ML leadership to turn model capabilities into robust, shippable product experiences.
• Move quickly while keeping the architecture simple, maintainable, and ready to scale.

Skills

AI experience

Leadership

Backend engineering

APIs

LLM integration

Code reviews

Job description

Next Step Systems is seeking a Lead Software Engineer for AI Email Applications, a fully remote role in the United States. You will own the engineering layer turning AI capabilities into a reliable product, shaping architecture across backend, APIs, and client applications, and leading a small senior team.

The role requires hands-on leadership, strong AI experience, and the ability to balance latency, reliability, cost, and UX while partnering with ML leadership to deliver robust product