Staff Full-Stack Software Engineer, AI & App Experience

Chime Financial, Inc; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 223,000 - 308,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

In-office policy

Health benefits

Parental leave

Wellness stipend

Commuter benefits

Paid time off

Job summary

Chime is seeking a Staff Software Engineer to shape the future of member-facing AI with LLMs at scale. You will set the technical direction for Jade, architect agent systems, and build production‑ready AI capabilities, while mentoring teammates and maintaining high standards across the codebase.

This role blends hands‑on engineering with strategic leadership in a fast‑growing fintech environment. You will work across product, design, data science, and risk teams, perform on‑call duties, and help

Qualifications

• 8+ years of backend or full‑stack software development experience in production environments.
• Deep expertise in system design, distributed systems, and architectural patterns for high‑scale systems.
• Proficiency with Python or comparable frameworks, with the breadth to make sound decisions across the stack.
• AI‑native fluency: you actively build with LLMs, AI code assistants, and generative AI tooling as a daily part of your workflow, not as a side project.
• Hands‑on experience building or shipping LLM‑powered product features (agents, conversation experiences, evals, prompt strategies, or guardrails) at production scale.
• A track record of turning AI into durable leverage: reusing and improving workflows, encoding recurring fixes into evals, rules, and tooling instead of solving the same problem twice, and acting as the first and most critical reviewer of AI‑generated output.

Responsibilities

• Set the technical direction and architecture for how Chime builds with LLMs on Jade: the agent architectures, prompt strategies, and orchestration patterns that shape how Jade reasons and acts, and that other engineers build on
• Design, build, and scale new member‑facing capabilities for Jade, from prototype through production, moving fluidly between product discovery and hands‑on engineering
• Build the eval frameworks, observability, and guardrail systems that let the team ship LLM‑powered features with speed, safety, and confidence
• Develop and harden the backend services and internal tooling behind Jade (model routing, prompt management, agent orchestration, and evaluation pipelines), improving reliability and performance as we scale
• Leverage AI and LLMs natively in your own workflow, using AI‑assisted coding and rapid prototyping, and turn one‑off AI workflows into reusable systems (agent loops, evals, custom tooling) that compound the whole team’s output
• Champion AI‑native development practices across the team: set the quality gates that keep AI‑assisted output production‑ready, encode recurring failure modes into shared evals and guardrails, and push the team to work at the frontier of what AI tooling makes possible
• Exercise judgment about where and how AI is applied, deciding which problems get an AI‑generated first pass and which need human judgment, and calibrating model autonomy to the stakes and reversibility of each decision
• Drive experimentation and rapid iteration: design A/B tests, analyze results, and make data‑informed decisions about what to scale, pivot, or kill
• Partner cross‑functionally with product, design, data science, and risk to understand member pain points and deliver secure, scalable solutions
• Contribute to technical design and uphold high standards across the codebase through code reviews and mentorship, multiplying the impact of the engineers around you
• Participate in on‑call rotation; being on call may include responding to incidents outside of regular working hours when necessary

Skills

Python

LLMs

Distributed systems

Backend development

Code reviews

Mentorship

Product mindset

On-call readiness

Tools

Postgres

Redis

Job description

About the Role

Chime is looking for a Staff Software Engineer to help shape the future of member-facing AI. You’ll set the technical direction for how we build with LLMs, architecting the agent systems, evaluation frameworks, and guardrails that enable us to deliver AI experiences that are reliable, safe, and scalable to millions of members. You’ll stay deeply hands‑on, designing new agent capabilities and conversational experiences, rapidly prototyping and shipping production code, and raising the technical bar across the team. You’ll bring strong engineering fundamentals and a product mindset, owning capabilities from problem definition through measurement and iteration.

You’ll join the AI & App Experience (AAX) organization and help build Jade, Chime’s AI-powered financial assistant. AAX is creating the next generation of the Chime member experience, with Jade at the center, helping millions of members better understand their finances, manage spending and subscriptions, and make progress toward their financial goals through experiences that feel natural, useful, and trustworthy.

The AI landscape evolves rapidly, so does Chime. You’ll need to learn quickly, adapt to shifting priorities, and proactively identify what’s needed next, whether that’s a new financial capability, a better way to evaluate conversations, or a system to keep quality high as we scale. If you’re excited by the unique challenges of building LLM‑powered products at scale, this is the role for you.

The base salary offered for this role and level of experience will begin at $223,000.00 and up to $308,000.00. Full‑time employees are also eligible for a bonus, competitive equity package, and benefits. The actual base salary offered may be higher, depending on your location, skills, qualifications, and experience.

In this role, you can expect to

• Set the technical direction and architecture for how Chime builds with LLMs on Jade: the agent architectures, prompt strategies, and orchestration patterns that shape how Jade reasons and acts, and that other engineers build on
• Design, build, and scale new member‑facing capabilities for Jade, from prototype through production, moving fluidly between product discovery and hands‑on engineering
• Build the eval frameworks, observability, and guardrail systems that let the team ship LLM‑powered features with speed, safety, and confidence
• Develop and harden the backend services and internal tooling behind Jade (model routing, prompt management, agent orchestration, and evaluation pipelines), improving reliability and performance as we scale
• Leverage AI and LLMs natively in your own workflow, using AI‑assisted coding and rapid prototyping, and turn one‑off AI workflows into reusable systems (agent loops, evals, custom tooling) that compound the whole team’s output
• Champion AI‑native development practices across the team: set the quality gates that keep AI‑assisted output production‑ready, encode recurring failure modes into shared evals and guardrails, and push the team to work at the frontier of what AI tooling makes possible
• Exercise judgment about where and how AI is applied, deciding which problems get an AI‑generated first pass and which need human judgment, and calibrating model autonomy to the stakes and reversibility of each decision
• Drive experimentation and rapid iteration: design A/B tests, analyze results, and make data‑informed decisions about what to scale, pivot, or kill
• Partner cross‑functionally with product, design, data science, and risk to understand member pain points and deliver secure, scalable solutions
• Contribute to technical design and uphold high standards across the codebase through code reviews and mentorship, multiplying the impact of the engineers around you
• Participate in on‑call rotation; being on call may include responding to incidents outside of regular working hours when necessary

To thrive in this role, you have

• 8+ years of backend or full‑stack software development experience in production environments
• Deep expertise in system design, distributed systems, and architectural patterns for high‑scale systems
• Proficiency with Python or comparable frameworks, with the breadth to make sound decisions across the stack
• AI‑native fluency: you actively build with LLMs, AI code assistants, and generative AI tooling as a daily part of your workflow, not as a side project
• Hands‑on experience building or shipping LLM‑powered product features (agents, conversation experiences, evals, prompt strategies, or guardrails) at production scale
• A track record of turning AI into durable leverage: reusing and improving workflows, encoding recurring fixes into evals, rules, and tooling instead of solving the same problem twice, and acting as the first and most critical reviewer of AI‑generated output
• Sound judgment about where and how to apply AI, calibrating verification effort and model autonomy to the stakes, reversibility, and cost of each task
• Experience with transactional databases (e.g., Postgres) and caching systems (e.g., Redis), and a strong focus on writing maintainable, well‑tested code
• Demonstrated technical leadership across teams: setting direction, driving architectural decisions, and aligning cross‑functional stakeholders without relying on positional authority
• A track record of mentoring engineers and raising the technical bar
• A product mindset with a bias toward action: you ship v1 fast, learn from real usage, and iterate, letting data settle debates
• Bonus: experience with agent development, fintech, or startup environments

#LI-AC1 #LI-Onsite

A little about us

At Chime, we believe that everyone can achieve financial progress. We created Chime—a financial technology company, not a bank*—on the premise that core banking services should be helpful, easy, and free. Through our user‑friendly tools and intuitive platforms, we empower our members to take control of their finances and work towards their goals. Whether it’s starting a savings account, purchasing a first car or home, launching a business, or pursuing higher education, we’re proud to have helped millions unlock their financial potential.

We’re a team of problem solvers, dreamers, and builders with one shared obsession: our members. From day one, Chimers have worked tirelessly to out‑hustle and out‑execute competitors to bring our mission to life. Their grit and determination inspire us to work harder every day to deliver the very best experience possible. We each bring an owner’s mindset to our work, refusing to be outdone and holding ourselves accountable to meet and exceed the highest bars for our teams, our company, and our members.

We believe in being bold, dreaming big, and taking risks, while also working together, embracing our diverse perspectives, and giving each other honest feedback. Our culture remains deeply entrepreneurial, encouraging every Chimer to see themselves as stewards of our mission to help everyday Americans unlock their financial progress.

We know that to achieve our mission, we must earn and keep people’s trust—so we hold ourselves to the highest standards of integrity in everything we do. These aren’t just words on a wall—our values are embedded in every aspect of our business, serving as a north star that guides us as we work to help millions achieve their financial potential.

Because if we don’t—who will?

*Chime is a financial technology company, not a bank. Banking services provided by The Bancorp Bank, N.A. or Stride Bank, N.A., Members FDIC.

What we offer for our full‑time, regular employees

• Our in‑office work policy is designed to keep you connected - with four days a week in the office and Fridays from home for those near one of our offices, plus team and company‑wide events depending on location. Whether you’re coming in regularly or are part of our fully remote program, you’ll stay engaged with your work and teammates.
• Benefits that support your work and life, including backup child, elder, and pet care and subsidized commuter benefits for eligible employees.
• Comprehensive health, financial, and wellbeing benefits designed to support you at every stage of life.
• Generous vacation policy and company‑wide paid days off
• 1% of your time off to support local community organizations of your choice
• Annual wellness stipend to use towards eligible wellness related expenses
• Up to 22 weeks of paid parental leave for birthing parents and 12 weeks of paid parental leave for non‑birthing parents
• Access to family planning reimbursement
• A challenging and fulfilling opportunity to join one of the most experienced teams in FinTech and help millions unlock financial progress

We know that great work can’t be done without a diverse team and inclusive environment. That’s why we specifically look for individuals of varying strengths, skills, backgrounds, and ideas to join our team. We believe this gives us a competitive advantage to better serve our members and helps us all grow as Chimers and individuals.

Chime is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer. We consider qualified applicants without regard to race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, marital or family status, disability, genetic information, veteran status, or any other legally protected basis under provincial, federal, state, and local laws, regulations, and ordinances. We will also consider qualified applicants with criminal histories in a manner consistent with the requirements of state and local laws, including the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, Cook County Ordinance, NYC Fair Chance Act, and the LA City Fair Chance Ordinance, and consistent with Canadian provincial and federal laws. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation during any stage of the application process, please contact: [e-mail].

To learn more about how Chime collects and uses your personal information during the application process, please see Chime Applicant Privacy Notice.