Software Development Engineer 4- AI & Agentic Systems

WEX; Washington (District of Columbia); On-site; USD 140,600 - 173,100; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

Retirement savings plan

Tuition reimbursement

Paid time off

Job summary

WEX is seeking a Software Development Engineer (SDE) Level 4 to provide strategic leadership in AI-driven projects. The role focuses on architecting complex systems, mentoring engineers, and leading cross-team efforts.

You will be responsible for designing multi-agent workflows, ensuring security standards, managing dependencies, and advocating for best practices across the organization. A strong background in CI/CD and advanced AI methods is essential. Competitive pay and comprehensive benefits are part of WEX's total compensation package.

Qualifications

• Proven experience in architecting complex systems and defining orchestration logic.
• Ability to mentor senior engineers and advocate for AI adoption.
• Experience in cross-team collaboration and managing architectural requirements.

Responsibilities

• Provide cross-platform strategic leadership and foster AI-driven opportunities.
• Architect complex autonomous systems and design multi-agent workflows.
• Lead threat modeling sessions and ensure security across multiple teams.
• Manage roadmap dependencies and identify critical path risks.

Skills

Cross-platform strategic leadership

Advanced AI leverage and mentorship

Architect complex autonomous systems

Security by Design

Tools

CI/CD tools

Helm Charts

Argo Workflows

Job description

About The Role

At WEX, a Software Development Engineer (SDE) Level 4 is a recognized Staff/Lead technical expert who provides cross-platform strategic leadership. You will influence global system architecture, help define enterprise-wide standards, and actively participate in the functional design/redesign of business processes to maximize AI and automation. In this role, you will act as a visionary builder and strategic anchor for WEX’s AI-driven opportunities, architect complex autonomous systems, champion enterprise-wide AI adoption, and define the orchestration logic that enables next-generation agentic AI to scale securely and efficiently across multiple domains and services.

How you\'ll make an impact

• AI & Agentic Engineering
  • Autonomous System Architecture: Architect complex autonomous systems and design multi-agent workflows, defining orchestration logic across multiple domains and services while handling advanced state management, memory persistence, and tool interactions.
  • Advanced AI Leverage & Mentorship: Champion the secure integration of LLMs into enterprise process workflows. Mentor senior engineers across the organization on advanced AI leverage and agentic design patterns.
  • Strategic AI Adoption: Filter industry AI trends through rigorous cost-benefit analysis. Build prototypes and "Golden Paths" that enable other teams to adopt high-value, cutting-edge technologies safely and rapidly.

Architecture & System Design

• Cross-Platform Leadership: Solve architectural bottlenecks that cross team boundaries. Review designs from other teams to ensure consistency and define the "Golden Path" for how disparate services should communicate.
• Security by Design: Lead Threat Modeling sessions to ensure security across multiple teams. Participate in the definition of security and compliance standards for enterprise AI adoption.
• Enterprise Quality Standards: Demonstrate high standards for Code and Configuration Quality. Define style guides, documentation templates, and configuration guardrails, and build shared custom components or configuration frameworks.

Cloud Infrastructure, Reliability & CI/CD

• Reusable Tooling & CI/CD: Create reusable CI/CD templates (e.g., Helm Charts, Argo Workflows), deployment modules, and automated sandbox-seeding scripts that standardize how other teams deploy and enforce privacy compliance.
• Reliability & Chaos Engineering: Define the standard SLIs/SLOs that teams must monitor and drive chaos testing initiatives across the engineering organization.
• Operational Excellence & Self-Service: Lead the Post-Mortem Corrective of Errors (COE) process, enforcing action items to prevent recurrence. Build "Self-Service" platform capabilities that allow business units to self-solve data issues without logging support tickets.

Product Partnership & Technical Leadership

• Cross-Team Requirements & KPIs: Elicit requirements for initiatives that span multiple teams, identifying data model conflicts early. Validate all technical requirements against broader business KPIs (e.g., Retention, CAC, Time-to-first-dollar).
• Roadmap & Dependency Management: Manage dependencies on the quarterly roadmap, identifying "Critical Path" risks weeks in advance. Ensure the architecture supports the future roadmap, not just the current sprint, and negotiate timelines seamlessly with other teams.
• Stakeholder Alignment & Translation: Organize and lead technical workshops (e.g., Event Storming, Architecture Reviews). Translate complex architectural risks into "Business Language" for stakeholders, explaining why refactoring matters in terms of revenue or customer experience.
• Friction Management & Trust Building: Identify friction between teams (e.g., API conflicts, mismatched release cadences) and mediate solutions (e.g., implementing Contract Testing). Build trust across organizational boundaries and de-escalate complex technical disputes.
• Career Advocacy & Polyglot Leadership: Act as a "polyglot" leader who moves across disparate stacks to unblock teams. Coach senior peers on "learning how to learn" and institutionalize feedback loops. Spot high-potential SDE 2s and 3s, giving them visibility and actively advocating for their career advancement.

Pay Range: $140,600.00 - $173,100.00. Base pay is one component of WEX\'s total compensation package. Most sales positions are eligible for commission. Non-sales roles are typically eligible for a quarterly or annual bonus based on role and applicable plan. WEX\'s comprehensive benefits include health, dental and vision insurance, retirement savings plan, paid time off, health savings account, flexible spending accounts, life insurance, disability insurance, tuition reimbursement, and more. For more information, check out the "About Us" section.