Staff Machine Learning Engineer

honeycomb.io; United States; Remote; USD 205,000 - 255,000; Full time

Job summary

Honeycomb is seeking a Senior AI Engineer II to lead impactful AI development projects in a remote-first environment. The role involves building innovative AI features that enhance user experience and collaborating with cross-functional teams. Ideal candidates will have over 5 years in software engineering, with a focus on machine learning and AI solutions.

Benefits

Generous equity with employee-friendly stock program

Unlimited PTO and paid sabbatical

Home office, co-working, and internet stipend

Comprehensive health benefits

Up to 16 weeks of paid parental leave

Annual development allowance

Qualifications

• 5+ years of software engineering experience.
• 2+ years building ML/AI-powered features in production.
• Deep expertise in LLMs and prompt engineering.

Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end implementation of AI-powered product features.
• Collaborate with product and design partners.
• Iterate through fast feedback loops and improve UX.

Skills

Software engineering

ML/AI implementation

Prompt engineering

Backend development

Collaboration

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related field

Job description

Honeycomb is a service for the near and present future, defining observability and raising expectations of what developer tools can do! We’re working with well known companies like HelloFresh, Slack, LaunchDarkly, and Vanguard and more across a range of industries. This is an exciting time in our trajectory, we’ve closed Series D funding, scaled past the 200-person mark, and were named to Forbes’ America’s Best Startups of 2022 and 2023!

We come for the impact, and stay for the culture! We’re a talented, opinionated, passionate, fiercely inclusive, and responsible group of bees. We have conviction and we strive to liveour values every day. We want our people to do what they truly love amongst a team of highly talented (but humble) peers.

How We Work

We are a remote-first company, which means we believe it is not where you sit, but how you deliver that matters most. We invest in our people and care about how you orient to our culture and processes. At the same time we imbue a lot of trust, autonomy, and accountability from Day 1. #LI-Remote

2025: The Year of AI at Honeycomb

We’re scaling our dedicated AI Team—a group of builders shaping the future of developer tools with AI at the core. This isn’t just about building cool demos—it’s about shipping reliable, innovative AI-powered features that make our users faster, smarter, and more effective. As a Senior AI Engineer II, you’ll lead high-impact projects, mentor teammates, and help define what great AI at Honeycomb looks like.

We’ve already shipped major AI capabilities like Natural Language Querying and shared our learnings along the way in posts like So we shipped an AI Product, did it work? . Now we’re investing even more deeply. Want to help write the next chapter?

Little more about the team:

The AI team is dedicated to building user-facing AI features that transform how engineers explore and understand their software systems. You’ll join a cross-functional team reshaping Honeycomb into an AI-native platform for observability. If you’re excited about owning high-impact, greenfield projects and helping define what “great AI” looks like in production, we’d love to meet you.

What you’ll do in the role:

• Own end-to-end implementation of AI-powered product features, from prototypes to production.
• Handle prompt engineering, model tuning, and evaluation strategies to improve reliability and UX.
• Collaborate with product and design partners in defining and scoping AI-driven experiences.
• Teach best practices for working with LLMs, including prompt design and evaluation methodologies.
• Learn deeply about Honeycomb’s workflows and user problems to build truly helpful AI features.
• Iterate through fast feedback loops, experimentation, and sharing both wins and failures.

What you’ll bring to the role:

• 5+ years of software engineering experience, with 2+ years building ML/AI-powered features in production.
• Deep expertise in LLMs, prompt engineering, retrieval-augmented generation, and evaluation methods.
• Proficiency in backend development using Python, Go, Ruby, TypeScript or a similar language.
• Strong cross-functional skills and a track record of collaborating closely with PMs and designers.
• Comfort navigating ambiguity and driving clarity in fast-paced environments.
• Bonus: Experience with observability tools, production infrastructure, or public contributions to the AI community.

We may have flexibility in base compensation range. Your recruiter will ask you for feedback on our range and your compensation expectations in the first call.

Base Salary based on level of experience

$205,000 - $255,000 USD

What you'll get when you join the Hive:

• A stake in our success - generous equity with employee-friendly stock program
• It’s not about how strong of a negotiator you are - our pay is based on transparent levels relative to experience
• Time to recharge - Unlimited PTO and paid sabbatical
• A remote-first mindset and culture (really!)
• Home office, co-working, and internet stipend
• 100% employee/75% for dependents coverage for all benefits
• Up to 16 weeks of paid parental leave, regardless of path to parenthood
• Annual development allowance
• And much more...

Please note we cannot currently sponsor or support visa transfers at this time. Additionally, in compliance with applicable law, all persons hired will be required to verify identity and eligibility to work.

Diversity & Accommodations:

We're committed to building a diverse, inclusive, and equitable workplace—where people of all backgrounds, identities, experiences, and abilities are welcomed, valued, and supported. We recognize that there is no single path to success and embrace nontraditional career journeys and diverse perspectives as key to building stronger, more innovative teams.

We strive to ensure an inclusive experience throughout every stage of our hiring process and are happy to provide reasonable accommodations as needed. If you require accommodations or accessible formats at any point during our hiring process, please let your recruiter know.

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If you do not want us to retain your information for consideration for other roles, or want us to update it, please [e-mail] . Please note, however, that we may retain some information if required by law or as necessary to protect ourselves from legal claims.

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