Staff AI Engineer

Careers at Drata; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 150,000 - 200,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Stock equity

100% employer-paid health premiums

401(k) plan

Generous leave policies

Job summary

A tech company is seeking a Staff AI Software Engineer to define the architecture of AI systems integral to compliance workflows. This role involves end-to-end ownership of AI implementations, working collaboratively with product, platform, and security teams. Candidates should have 10+ years of software engineering experience and strong skills in Python and ML/AI systems. The position can be hybrid from the San Francisco office or fully remote across the U.S. Competitive salary and benefits are offered.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of software engineering experience, including 3+ years on ML/AI systems.
• Experience designing evaluation frameworks for system performance.
• Deep experience with RAG, embeddings, and vector databases.

Responsibilities

• Design and own production AI systems end-to-end.
• Build tooling to measure retrieval quality and performance.
• Analyze production outputs for failure patterns.

Skills

Software engineering experience

ML/AI systems experience

Python programming

LLM systems ownership

Data analysis

Tools

Pinecone

FAISS

Chroma

Job description

# Staff AI Software EngineerRemote - US**Our Mission & Values:** At Drata, we help companies earn and keep the trust of their users, customers, partners, and prospects. We’re the proof layer that shows great companies deserve the trust they aim to build.We live our values every day. Built on Trust means consistency is everything. Act with Integrity by always doing the right thing. Being Customer-Obsessed keeps the people we serve at the center of our work. Competitive Fire drives us to push ourselves harder than anyone else. Diversity brings unique perspectives that lead to better solutions. Automation First ensures we save time and money by making efficiency a priority.**Our Culture & Work Style **At Drata, we’re not just building software - we’re building a mindset. Everything we do springs from:* **Be a Driver (Owner‐Operator Mentality):** Own your work. Improve relentlessly. Deliver results.* **Move at Drata Speed (Precision & Velocity):** Fast decisions. Quick learning. Immediate impact.* **Stay Mission-Driven (Customer‐Obsessed):** Challenge assumptions. Deliver value. Stay hungry.If you thrive when you’re empowered, energized, and working with smart, mission-driven people where you’ll feel at home here.The best way to understand the Driver’s Mindset is to see it in action. We’re an award-winning, mission-driven team of **600+ people worldwide**, united by a culture that values trust, speed, and continuous growth.* Watch our CEO, Adam Markowitz, discuss the hyper-growth journey, from $0 to $100M ARR in just four years* : Explore our "Life at Drata" page for employee testimonials on our collaborative and the growth opportunities available.* : See why we are consistently recognized on Fortune's Best Workplaces lists.* Connect with Us on Socials: - follow us for company updates, employee stories, and career news.**While we’re ideally looking for someone who can join us in a hybrid capacity from our San Francisco office, we know great talent isn’t limited by zip code. We’ll consider remote candidates across the U.S. who are a strong match for the role.****Job Summary:**At Drata, we’re rethinking how compliance gets done, and AI is a core part of that. We’re looking for a **Staff AI Engineer** to help shape how intelligent systems power trust-critical enterprise workflows.This isn’t a “build a feature and move on” role. You’ll help define how AI is architected across the company. You’ll make foundational decisions about what we build, how we measure quality, and where we invest. From early research to production deployment, you’ll own systems end-to-end, and your judgment will directly influence our technical direction.You’ll work at the intersection of LLMs, retrieval systems, agentic workflows, and real-world compliance challenges, partnering closely with product, platform, and security teams to build AI that’s powerful, reliable, and responsible.**What you’ll Do:**### Shape the Architecture* Design and own production AI systems end-to-end (LLM pipelines, RAG, reranking, vector stores, orchestration).* Make thoughtful build/don’t-build decisions based on real data.* Evolve our AI stack over time, from model infrastructure to workflow orchestration to evaluation tooling.### Raise the Quality Bar* Design evaluation systems that measure retrieval quality, reasoning accuracy, end-to-end performance.* Build tooling that helps the team iterate confidently and catch regressions early.* Define how we measure success across the platform.### Investigate Deeply & Decide with Evidence* Analyze production outputs to identify failure patterns and root causes.* Turn complex findings into clear technical recommendations.* Know when to push forward and when to pause based on data.### Lead Across Teams* Be the go-to technical voice for AI architecture decisions.* Influence standards for how LLM systems are built, tested, deployed, and monitored.* Mentor senior engineers through design reviews and hands-on collaboration.* Partner with product and compliance teams to translate domain complexity into clean technical solutions.### Build Responsible, Production-Ready AI* Ship systems optimized for latency, cost, reliability, and auditability.* Embed safety guardrails, confidence thresholds, and human-in-the-loop workflows.* Ensure outputs are traceable and explainable.**What you’ll bring:*** 10+ years of software engineering experience, including 3+ years working directly on ML/AI systems.* Real ownership of production LLM systems.* Deep experience with RAG, embeddings, reranking, vector databases (Pinecone, FAISS, Chroma, etc.), and agentic workflows.* Experience designing evaluation frameworks and using quantitative analysis to improve system performance.* Strong Python skills (TypeScript is a plus).* A track record of making architectural decisions that shape team direction.* Experience operating AI systems in production - observability, reliability, cost tradeoffs.* The ability to break down ambiguous, high-stakes problems into structured investigations.* Clear communication skills and comfort working cross-functionally.**Nice to have:*** Experience in compliance, security, or other regulated domains.* Familiarity with enterprise data platforms or Snowflake-based analytics.* Experience with orchestration systems like Temporal or Airflow.* Experience building or using LLM evaluation platforms (e.g., Braintrust).* Contributions to technical communities or published work.**Why this role matters:**You won’t just ship features - you’ll help define how AI is built at Drata.Your work will:* Set the architectural foundation for our AI systems.* Establish the quality bar that lets us move fast with confidence.* Ensure our technical investments are grounded in evidence.* Raise the technical bar across the AI organization.**How we support you:**At Drata, our people are our strongest advantage—and we prove it with support that exceeds industry standards. Our total rewards package is designed to power your well-being, accelerate your growth, and keep your work-life balance thriving.Explore how we invest in your .* **Shared Success**: We provide stock equity to ensure that as the company grows, you share directly in that success. Equity gives every employee a sense of ownership and the opportunity to celebrate our wins together—because your contributions don’t just support our progress; they help drive our collective success.* **Health & Wellness:** Up to **100% employer-paid premiums** for medical, dental, and vision coverage for employees *and their dependents*, along with comprehensive wellness benefits and healthcare concierge services designed to support your needs beyond traditional insurance.* **Financial Well-being:** A comprehensive suite of financial benefits, including a **401(k) plan**, company-paid **life and disability insurance**, **tax-advantaged spending accounts**, and a range of **discounted voluntary offerings** to help you customize and strengthen your overall financial position.* **Family Support:** We want to support you in life's most important moments, so we offer a paid Parental Leave policy, after six months of employment. Employees also receive access to **Kindbody fertility and family-building benefits** and dedicated leave specialists who help guide you through the entire process.* **Growth & Development:** Generous annual stipends for both professional and personal development, empowering you to invest in your continued growth. You’ll also have access to a wide range of internal learning opportunities, ensuring you can build new skills, deepen your expertise, and advance your career with confidence.* **Time Off & Flexibility:** We believe that to do your best work, you should get the time you need for rest, rejuvenation and recovery. Drata offers a flexible vacation policy, paid holidays, and other perks to recharge.*This role will receive