Senior Staff Engineer, AI San Francisco

Asana, Inc.; San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; USD 297,000 - 350,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Mental health & wellness

Career coaching

Family building benefits

Long-term savings/retirement plans

In-office dining options

Job summary

Asana, Inc. seeks a Senior Staff Software Engineer to set the technical direction for the AI organization and tackle the hardest cross-team problems. You will shape architecture and influence product strategy as AI features scale across the Work Graph.

Based in San Francisco with an office-centric hybrid schedule, you will mentor engineers and lead initiatives on agent runtime, memory, evaluation, and reliable inference at enterprise scale.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of production software experience across multiple teams.
• 3+ years building production systems with LLMs or ML.
• Proven track record leading architecture across org boundaries.
• Strong communication across engineers to executives and strategy.
• Experience with multi-tenant enterprise SaaS and security is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Define the AI org technical vision and architecture with leadership.
• Partner with Product, Design, Data Science, Security, and Legal to mature AI features for enterprise.
• Lead cross-team initiatives such as agent runtime, orchestration, context/memory for agents, and enterprise-scale inference.
• Set AI quality metrics through offline/online evaluation, monitoring, and feedback loops.
• Make and guide high-stakes decisions on model and vendor strategy, build vs. buy.
• Mentor staff and senior engineers, grow tech leads, and raise architectural standards.
• Represent Asana's AI engineering work externally through talks, writing, and the technical community.

Skills

Production software leadership

LLM/ML systems

Architectural leadership

Distributed systems

Executive communication

Tools

Agent frameworks

LLM inference infrastructure

Job description

The AI organization at Asana builds the platform and products that bring AI into how the world's teams work. That includes AI Teammates that take on work alongside people, the orchestration layer that lets agents plan and act across the Work Graph, and the AI platform that every AI feature at Asana runs on. The platform covers model access, retrieval, context, evaluation, and production quality.

We are looking for a Senior Staff Software Engineer to set technical direction across this organization. You will lead the hardest cross-team problems in AI at Asana, make architectural calls that hold up as models and the industry shift underneath us, and help senior leadership shape where AI takes the product next. The scope spans multiple engineering teams across San Francisco, New York, Vancouver, and Warsaw.

This role is based in our San Francisco office with an office-centric hybrid schedule. The standard in-office days are Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday. Most Asanas have the option to work from home on Wednesdays. Working from home on Fridays depends on the type of work you do and the teams with which you partner. If you're interviewing for this role, your recruiter will share more about the in-office requirements.

What you’ll achieve

• Define the technical vision and architecture for Asana's AI Org that includes AI platform, Agent systems and Studio in partnership with engineering and product leadership
• Partner with Product, Design, Data Science, Security, and Legal to take ambitious AI products from prototype to reliable, trusted enterprise features
• Lead strategic initiatives that span multiple teams, such as agent runtime and orchestration, context and memory for agents grounded in the Work Graph, and reliable, cost-efficient LLM inference at enterprise scale
• Set the bar for how Asana measures AI quality, including offline and online evaluation, production monitoring, and the feedback loops that turn real usage into better agents
• Make and guide high-stakes technical decisions on model and vendor strategy, build versus buy, and shared platform abstractions, and make sure those decisions age well
• Influence R&D-wide AI strategy by bringing a grounded view of the model and agent landscape to senior leadership
• Mentor staff and senior engineers, grow tech leads across the AI organization, and raise the bar for design and architecture reviews
• Represent Asana's AI engineering work externally through talks, writing, and the technical community, and help attract senior talent

About you

• 10+ years of experience building production software, including significant time as a technical lead whose work spanned multiple teams
• 3+ years building production systems with LLMs or machine learning, such as agents, retrieval, evaluation, or inference infrastructure
• Track record of leading architecture and initiatives across organizational boundaries, with decisions that proved right over time
• Hands-on fluency with the current AI landscape, including foundation models, agent frameworks, tool use, and evaluation methods, with opinions strong enough to set direction and flexible enough to change with new evidence
• Deep experience with distributed systems and the reliability, latency, and cost challenges of running them at scale
• Able to communicate clearly at every level, from design reviews with engineers to strategy discussions with executives, and to bridge product, business, and technical language
• Passionate about coaching and mentoring engineers, including senior and staff-level engineers
• Experience with multi-tenant enterprise SaaS, and with security, privacy, and data governance for AI systems, is a plus
• Deep care for collaboration and an ability to foster an inclusive culture where everyone can bring their full selves to work and thrive
• Demonstrates curiosity about AI tools and emerging technologies, with a willingness to learn and leverage them to enhance productivity, collaboration, or decision-making

At Asana, we're committed to building teams that include a variety of backgrounds, perspectives, and skills, as this is critical to helping us achieve our mission. If you're interested in this role and don't meet every listed requirement, we still encourage you to apply.

What we'll offer

Our comprehensive compensation package plays a big part in how we recognize you for the impact you have on our path to achieving our mission. We believe that compensation should be reflective of the value you create relative to the market value of your role. To ensure pay is fair and not impacted by biases, we're committed to looking at market value which is why we check ourselves and conduct a yearly pay equity audit.

For this role, the estimated base salary range is between $297,000 - $350,000. The actual base salary will vary based on various factors, including market and individual qualifications objectively assessed during the interview process. The listed range above is a guideline, and the base salary range for this role may be modified.

In addition to base salary, your compensation package may include additional components such as equity, sales incentive pay (for most sales roles), and benefits. If you're interviewing for this role, speak with your recruiter to learn more about the total compensation and benefits for this role.

We strive to provide equitable and competitive benefits packages that support our employees worldwide and include:

• Mental health, wellness & fitness benefits
• Career coaching & support
• Inclusive family building benefits
• Long-term savings or retirement plans
• In-office culinary options to cater to your dietary preferences

These are just some of the benefits we offer, and benefits may vary based on role, country, and local regulations. If you're interviewing for this role, speak with your recruiter to learn more about the total compensation and benefits for this role.

About us

Asana is a leading platform for human + AI collaboration. Millions of teams around the world rely on Asana to achieve their most important goals, faster. Asana has been named to Fortune's Best Workplaces for 7+ years and recognized by Fast Company, Forbes, and Gartner for excellence in workplace culture and innovation. We offer an exceptional office-centric culture while adopting the best elements of hybrid models to ensure that every one of our global team members can work together effortlessly. With 13+ offices all over the world, we are always looking for individuals who care about building technology that drives positive change in the world and a culture where everyone feels that they belong.

We believe in supporting people to do their best work and thrive. Our goal is to ensure that Asana upholds an environment where all people feel that they are respected and valued, whether they are applying for an open position or working at the company. We provide equal employment opportunities to all applicants 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 law.

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