Software Development Engineer 4- AI & Agentic Systems

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

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

Retirement savings plan

Paid time off

Job summary

WEX, Inc. in Washington, D.C. seeks a Software Development Engineer (SDE) Level 4 to lead AI-driven opportunities and architecture of complex autonomous systems. This role requires a visionary approach to cross-platform leadership and the ability to mentor others in the organization.

The ideal candidate will influence global system architecture and implement enterprise-wide standards that maximize AI capabilities across services and domains. The position also includes developing reusable CI/CD tooling and enforcing security compliance across multiple teams.

Qualifications

• Experience in architecting complex autonomous systems.
• Strong leadership skills in cross-team technical environments.
• Ability to mentor and guide senior engineers.

Responsibilities

• Architect complex autonomous systems and workflows.
• Lead integration of advanced AI in enterprise processes.
• Define and ensure security standards across teams.

Skills

Autonomous System Architecture

AI Integration

Cross-Platform Leadership

Education

Relevant technical degree

Tools

CI/CD Tools

Cloud Infrastructure

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. You will 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.

The base pay range represents the anticipated low and high end of the pay range for this position. Actual pay rates will vary and will be based on various factors, such as your qualifications, skills, competencies, and proficiency for the role. Base pay is one component of WEX's total compensation package. Most sales positions are eligible for commission under the terms of an applicable plan. Non-sales roles are typically eligible for a quarterly or annual bonus based on their role and applicable plan. WEX's comprehensive and market competitive benefits are designed to support your personal and professional well-being. Benefits include health, dental and vision insurances, 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.

Pay Range: $140,600.00 - $173,100.00