Senior Software Engineer, AI Systems

Zello; Austin, Northern (TX, KY); Hybrid; USD 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Zello is seeking an experienced software engineer to join the AI & Data team, building agent systems that power frontline workers.

You will design eval suites, ship end-to-end ML-enabled features, review PRs, monitor production, and coach teammates to raise engineering standards. This IC role emphasizes impact over titles, with focus on robust, testable systems and practical solutions. You'll collaborate across product and platform teams, triage failures, and ensure code quality and reliability.

Qualifications

• You learned to program properly and can reason about code you did not write.
• You build things nobody asked you to build.
• You treat tests and evals as part of shipping, not cleanup afterward.
• You give code review feedback people act on and coach rather than direct.
• You connect engineering standards to outcomes rather than to taste.
• You hold a high bar without making people feel small.
• You have operated production systems that others depended on.

Responsibilities

• Build LLM-backed systems end to end and put them in front of people who are not engineers.
• Design eval suites and monitoring before shipping, not after something breaks.
• Review agent pull requests and explain why a design will or will not hold up.
• Operate what you ship: triage drift, chase down silent failures, fix root causes.
• Set engineering conventions the team actually adopts - testing, structure, error handling.
• Pair with and coach teammates who are strong analysts and newer to software craft.
• Tell us when AI is the wrong tool for a problem, before we build it.

Job description

About Zello

Zello is a voice-first communication platform, powered by our industry-leading push-to-talk technology, to improve collaboration and productivity for desk-less workers. With over 175+ million users, we’re the #1 rated push-to-talk app in the world, delivering 9 billion (yes, with a B) messages a month.

At Zello, our company values are at the heart of what we do everyday. We’re proud to serve the frontline, we’re privileged to connect people in times of crisis across the globe, and we’re honored to support first responders.

And this is where you come in.

Zello is the push-to-talk platform that connects millions of frontline workers, and the AI & Data team builds the agent systems that run the business behind it. We have more high-value AI work than we have capacity to build, and we need someone who can both ship it and hold a real engineering standard around it. You would be the person who makes our agent work genuinely engineered - tested, reviewed, monitored - and who raises how everyone here builds.

After a successful first year, you will

Shipped and operated production agent systems that people across Zello use every day

Made evals-driven development the team's default, so every agent ships with an eval suite and monitoring

Owned the code review bar for agent work and raised the standard it is held to

Measurably levelled up teammates' engineering craft through review, pairing and coaching

Cut the time it takes to move an agent from prototype to production

What you'll do

Build LLM-backed systems end to end and put them in front of people who are not engineers

Design eval suites and monitoring before shipping, not after something breaks

Review agent pull requests and explain why a design will or will not hold up

Operate what you ship: triage drift, chase down silent failures, fix root causes

Set engineering conventions the team actually adopts - testing, structure, error handling

Pair with and coach teammates who are strong analysts and newer to software craft

Tell us when AI is the wrong tool for a problem, before we build it

Who you are

You learned to program properly, and you can reason about code you did not write

You build things nobody asked you to build

You treat tests and evals as part of shipping, not as cleanup afterwards

You give code review feedback people act on, and you coach rather than direct

You connect engineering standards to outcomes rather than to taste

You hold a high bar without making people feel small about it

You have operated production systems that other people depended on

This Role Is Not

Not a research role. No papers, no training models from scratch

Not a front-end or product design role. The interfaces here are internal and functional

Not a management track. This is an individual contributor seat with real influence over how the team builds

Not a prompt-engineering role. This is software engineering applied to AI systems

We hire for potential, passion for our mission, and a knack for solving difficult problems over checking every qualification box. We have competitive pay, equity with significant upside, and intentionally design our benefits to encourage healthy and well-balanced employees, flexible schedules and time off. We even offer a sabbatical after every five years of service so you’re able to pursue and enjoy what matters most to you. And of course, we wouldn’t be a technology company without a ping-pong table and free snacks in our break room. Join us!

Zello provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws.
All Zello personnel are required to comply with defined security, privacy, and compliance requirements applicable to their role along with requirements that are applicable to all Zello personnel.