Software Engineer, Agent Harness

Cursor; California (MO); On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Cursor is seeking a Software Engineer to join the Agent Harness team. You will build core agent behavior and capabilities powering experiences across Cursor products, including orchestration, tools, guardrails, and tuning.

You will help define the default Auto agent experience with smart model choices under real-world constraints. You may have built complex agentic products or infrastructure, and you bring strong software engineering fundamentals.

Qualifications

• Built complex agentic products or infrastructure.
• Strong software engineering fundamentals and production systems.
• Taste and opinions on model and agent behaviors; stay up-to-date with research.
• Weigh data, user experience and product taste when there isn't a single right answer.
• Experience building eval datasets or frameworks is a plus.
• Experience building tools used by other engineers is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Develop core agent behavior and capabilities powering experiences across Cursor products.
• Define the default Cursor agent experience (Auto) with model choices under real-world constraints.
• Advance the agent harness, tools, prompts, and execution environment across Cursor projects.
• Collaborate with research and model providers on integration, evaluation and rollout.

Skills

Agent Harness

Production systems

Multi-agent coordination

Model behavior tuning

Job description

Our mission is to automate coding. The first step in our journey is to build the best tool for professional programmers, using a combination of inventive research, design, and engineering. Our organization is very flat, and our team is small and talent dense. We particularly like people who are truth-seeking, passionate, and creative. We enjoy spirited debate, crazy ideas, and shipping code.

About the Role

As a Software Engineer on the Agent Harness team at Cursor, you’ll build the core agent behavior and capabilities that power agent experiences across Cursor products. This spans agent orchestration, tools, guardrails, and model behavior tuning—designed as a platform that Cursor engineers can extend and depend on.

Your work will also define the default Cursor agent experience (”Auto”), where users trust us to make the right model choices under real-world constraints.

Example projects include:

• Advancing the agent harness (agent loop, tools, prompts, execution environment, capabilities) used across Cursor products. This would shape and empower experiences like multi-agent coordination.

• Improving the default Cursor agent experience (the “Auto” model setting): making smart model choices based on user needs, model capabilities, and cost appetite.

• Shaping the default Cursor agent’s personality.

• Launching new models on Cursor end-to-end — partnering with foundational model providers and our research team on integration, evaluation, and rollout.

You may be a fit if

• You have built complex agentic products or infrastructure.

• You have strong software engineering fundamentals and enjoy shipping production systems.

• You have taste and strong opinions on model and agent behaviors. You stay up-to-date and informed on emerging research and industry trends.

• You make good calls in the gray area: weighing data, user experience, and product taste when there isn’t a single “right” answer.

• Experience building eval datasets or frameworks to understand and improve the performance of AI systems is a plus.

• Experience building products or tools used by other engineers is a plus.