Staff Engineer - AI

Wonder Group, INC; New York (NY); Hybrid; USD 180,000 - 220,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity

401(k)

Medical/Dental/Vision

Paid time off

Discounted meals

Job summary

Wonder is seeking a Staff Engineer in its AI and Robotics org to build a personalized meal planning and ordering agent. You will drive architecture, ship code daily, and shape technical strategy for scalable AI features.

The role requires 8+ years in software, deep distributed systems, and startup-level leadership, with hybrid work in New York and an attractive compensation package including equity.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of software engineering experience, 3+ years shipping AI/ML systems in production.
• Deep distributed systems expertise for high-throughput, low-latency workloads.
• Hands-on experience with AI agents, LLM-powered features, or agentic workflows.
• Founder/early-stage technical leader experience at a startup.
• Proficiency in Python, TypeScript, and modern ML tooling.

Responsibilities

• Define and drive the technical roadmap for the AI food agent.
• Architect and scale distributed infrastructure for real-time retrieval and LLM orchestration.
• Serve as technical decision-maker for product-wide architectural choices.
• Establish evals, benchmarks, and A/B pipelines to improve AI performance.

Skills

AI/ML in prod

Distributed systems

Backend development

Python

TypeScript

Model evaluation

Retrieval pipelines

Embeddings

LLM orchestration

Founder experience

Education

CS/Data Science degree

Job description

About WonderEverything’s on the menu at Wonder. Except compromise.Wonder is the mealtime platform built to feed every craving in one order. With Wonder, you can mix and match hundreds of dishes from 20+ exclusive restaurants in a single order, so everyone gets exactly what they’re craving. Enjoy everything from tacos to Thai with $0 delivery fees, plus dine-in or pick up at a Wonder location near you. Each dish is made to order on-site by our culinary team and served hot.Behind the scenes, Wonder owns and operates every step of the dining experience, from recipe development to the technology that powers our experience, allowing us to deliver quality, variety, and consistency at scale.Join us as we work to make great food more accessible.About The OpportunityAs a Staff Engineer in our AI and Robotics org, you will build a food agent, a personalized meal planning and nutrition product that blends LLM-driven recommendations, health-aligned goal setting, and agentic ordering. You'll shape technical strategy, make key architectural calls, and personally drive high-complexity work from design through production. This role is for someone who has built AI agents and LLM-powered products before, ideally as a founder, founding engineer, or early-stage technical leader, and who is deeply curious about how these systems actually behave at scale. This is not a planning role: you'll write code, review code, and ship code every day.The Impact You Will MakeDefine and drive the technical roadmap for our AI food agent, spanning recommendation, personalization, agentic ordering, and health-aligned meal planningArchitect and scale distributed infrastructure for real-time retrieval, vector search, multi-modal inference, and LLM orchestration.Serve as technical decision-maker for architectural choices with product-wide scope: data pipelines, model serving, prompt orchestration, RAG, fallback logic, and evaluation frameworksEstablish evaluation and experimentation infrastructure: evals, benchmarks, scoring criteria, A/B testing pipelines, and feedback loops that make the AI measurably better over timeWhat You Bring to the Table8+ years of professional software engineering experience, with at least 3 years building and shipping AI or ML-driven systems in productionDeep distributed systems expertise. You've architected infrastructure that handles high-throughput, low-latency workloads at scaleHands-on experience building AI agents, LLM-powered features, or agentic workflows in production. You've worked with retrieval pipelines, prompt orchestration, embedding-based systems, and model evaluationPrior experience as a founder, founding engineer, or early-stage technical leader at a startup. You know what it takes to build from zero with limited resourcesProficiency with backend development frameworks and cloud infrastructure. Familiarity with Python, TypeScript, and modern ML toolingStrong system design skills with a track record of shipping scalable, production-grade software under real constraintsA degree in Computer Science, Data Science, or a related technical field (or equivalent experience)Our hybrid model requires 3 days a week in the office. That said, many team members choose to come in more often to take advantage of in-person collaboration and connection. You're welcome—and encouraged—to be in the office up to 5 days a week if it works for you.#LI-HybridNew York: $225,000 per year.Wonder uses geographic-specific salary structures, which means the salary offered may vary depending on where the job is located. The final salary offer will take into account various factors, such as the candidate's skills, education, training, credentials, and experience.BenefitsThe benefits applicable to this role include a competitive compensation package with equity and a 401(k). We also offer a choice of medical, dental, and vision plans, company paid short and long term disability coverage, paid time off including flexible time off for exempt employees, paid vacation for non-exempt employees, and paid sick leave in compliance with applicable law in addition to paid parental leave, discounted meals and exclusive perks across the Wonder family of brands.Eligibility, effective dates, and available plan options vary by employment classification and location. To learn more about benefits for this role, visit our Careers page here.A Final NoteAt Wonder, we build the best teams by hiring with an objective lens — evaluating people for their potential while championing diversity, equity, and inclusion. We do not discriminate based on race, color, religion, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, age, military service eligibility, veteran status, marital status, disability, or any other protected class. As part of our commitment to fair and compliant hiring practices, Wonder participates in the federal government's E-Verify program to confirm employment eligibility. If you need an accommodation during the interview process, please let your recruiter know.We look forward to hearing from you! We'll contact you via email or text to schedule interviews and share information about your candidacy.