Staff Engineer, AI

present of AI; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 160,000 - 230,000; Full time

Job summary

LiteLLM in San Francisco is seeking a hands-on Senior Lead to own provider integrations and gateway rollouts from start to finish. You will review code, handle open source issues, and mentor engineers while still writing production Python.

Expect to maintain a unified API across multiple providers and navigate API differences with deep technical judgment. This role sits at the crossroads of fast-moving model providers and real applications.

Qualifications

• Solid Python skills.
• Ability to lead engineers while coding.
• Experience reviewing code and handling open source issues/PRs.
• Built or maintained a unified API across multiple providers.
• Knowledge of provider API differences in detail.

Responsibilities

• Own new provider and endpoint rollouts end-to-end.
• Review code and manage open source issues and PRs.
• Lead engineers while continuing to write production-grade Python.
• Maintain a unified API interface across many providers and models.

Skills

Python

Leadership

Code review

Open source contributions

Unified API

LLM API expertise

Job description

AI & Data · San Francisco · FullTime · Senior level

This is a hands on lead job for the team that keeps a gateway working across many model providers. The person owns new provider and endpoint rollouts from start to finish, reviews code, and handles open source issues and outside pull requests. A strong candidate has built or maintained a unified API in front of many providers, knows the differences between provider APIs in detail, has solid Python skills, and can lead engineers while still writing code.

How it fits the AI era

The work sits at the point where fast moving model providers meet real applications, so the role is about absorbing constant change and keeping one interface steady. Much of the routine translation and review can be sped up with AI tools, but judging what a provider change means for users and deciding what to build next stays with people. The posting also expects a high bar for code quality even when that code is written with AI.

How it builds AI experience

The role builds deep familiarity with how many providers structure their APIs and where they differ, which is hard to learn outside this kind of work. A candidate can prepare by using the gateway in production, contributing to open source LLM tooling, and building evals for models. Writing about or building a small unified API would also show the judgment the team needs.

Worth showing

• Unified API experience
• LLM API expertise
• Open source contributions

This is our own read, written from the employer's posting and the company's Spotlight. The employer's posting is the source of truth for the role.

About LiteLLM

An open-source gateway that, the company says, lets developers call more than 100 AI model providers through one OpenAI-style interface, with spend tracking and access controls.