Software Engineer

People In AI

San Francisco (CA)

Hybrid

USD 170,000 - 310,000

Full time

14 days+

Get more replies from employers

Send a job-specific resume in minutes.

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive compensation

Meaningful equity

Hybrid work environment

Job summary

A VC-backed SaaS company in San Francisco is seeking an AI Software Engineer to design and build AI-powered features for their core product. The ideal candidate has strong software engineering fundamentals, experience in integrating APIs, and is comfortable taking ownership of full feature lifecycles. This role emphasizes real-world impact with a competitive compensation and a hybrid work environment.

Qualifications

Strong software engineering fundamentals and experience shipping production systems.
Hands-on experience integrating external APIs, ideally LLM APIs.
Comfort working across the full lifecycle of a feature, from prototype to production.

Responsibilities

Build and ship AI-powered features embedded directly into the core product.
Integrate LLM APIs into backend systems for document understanding.
Design and operate retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) pipelines.

Skills

Software engineering fundamentals

Building backend services

Integrating external APIs

Ownership mindset

Experience with LLM APIs

Job description

This range is provided by People In AI. Your actual pay will be based on your skills and experience — talk with your recruiter to learn more.

Base pay range

$170,000.00/yr – $300,000.00/yr

Direct message the job poster from People In AI

Compensation: $170,000–$310,000 base + equity

(compensation varies on level of experience)

We are partnering with a fast‑growing, VC‑backed SaaS company that is rebuilding a core product around AI. This is a software engineering role for someone who wants to work deeply with modern AI systems while staying grounded in strong engineering fundamentals.

The product operates in a complex, document‑heavy, high‑trust domain where correctness, reliability, and explainability matter. AI is not a side project here. It is becoming central to how the product works and how customers get value.

The Role

As an AI Software Engineer, you will build and own AI‑powered product features end to end. This includes designing backend systems that integrate LLMs, retrieval systems, and business logic into reliable, production‑grade workflows used by real customers.

This role is ideal for engineers who:

Think like software engineers first
Are already integrating LLMs via APIs or want to move deeper into applied AI
Care about shipping, reliability, and real‑world impact

What You’ll Work On

Build and ship AI‑powered features embedded directly into the core product
Integrate LLM APIs into backend systems for document understanding, reasoning, and automation
Design and operate retrieval‑augmented generation (RAG) pipelines over proprietary data
Own systems in production, including monitoring, evaluation, and iteration
Work closely with product and design partners to turn real user problems into shipped solutions
Balance fast iteration with long‑term maintainability and system health

What We’re Looking For

Strong software engineering fundamentals and experience shipping production systems
Experience building backend services (APIs, distributed systems, data‑backed applications)
Hands‑on experience integrating external APIs, ideally LLM APIs (OpenAI, Anthropic, Bedrock, etc.)
Comfort working across the full lifecycle of a feature, from prototype to production
An ownership mindset and good product judgment

Nice to have, but not required:

Experience with RAG, embeddings, or vector databases
Working with unstructured data such as PDFs or documents
Exposure to AI evaluation, monitoring, or guardrails
Experience in regulated or high‑trust domains

Why This Role

AI is core to the product, not an experiment
Real customers, real usage, real impact
Strong engineering culture with high ownership
Competitive compensation and meaningful equity
Hybrid environment with a preference for in‑person collaboration in San Francisco

About People in AI

People in AI is a specialized recruiting firm partnering exclusively with high‑growth AI companies. We work closely with engineering leadership to provide candidates with real context on the role, team, and expectations, helping you decide if an opportunity is truly the right fit.

Seniority level