Staff Software Architect: AI‑Driven SaaS & Systems

Appfolio; Atlanta (GA); On-site; USD 167,000 - 230,000; Full time

Job summary

AppFolio seeks a Staff Software Engineer to drive architectural evolution for the Leasing Engineering Domain and lead the technical direction of next‑generation agentic AI products. This hands‑on, full‑stack leadership role demands deep distributed systems expertise to deliver scalable SaaS infrastructure in a high-ambiguity environment.

You will bridge ML engineering, product, and UX to turn strategic AI visions into reliable, production‑grade systems.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience developing and scaling web-based applications.
• Experience leading architectural discussions and defining system design.
• Experience integrating AI/ML technologies into production-grade applications.
• Pragmatic approach to technology and balance between innovation and reliability.
• Commitment to clean architecture and continuous refactoring.
• Ability to collaborate across Product, Design, and ML teams.

Responsibilities

• Set the Leasing tech vision and architecture aligned with business goals.
• Design and build distributed systems powering agentic AI with reliability and security.
• Lead engineering quality through hands-on design and coding.
• Coach engineers to foster autonomous, high-trust teams.
• Collaborate with Product, Design, and ML to turn AI vision into value.
• Own the full lifecycle from discovery to production.
• Explore new technologies to improve systems and delivery.

Skills

Web app development

Project leadership

Architecture leadership

AI/ML integration

Pragmatic engineering

Clean architecture

Work-life balance

Education

Bachelor’s/Master’s/Ph.D. in Computer Science or related field

Tools

Ruby on Rails

React

AWS

Service-oriented architectures

Job description

AppFolio seeks a Staff Software Engineer to drive architectural evolution for the Leasing Engineering Domain and lead the technical direction of next‑generation agentic AI products. This hands‑on, full‑stack leadership role demands deep distributed systems expertise to deliver scalable SaaS infrastructure in a high-ambiguity environment.

You will bridge ML engineering, product, and UX to turn strategic AI visions into reliable, production‑grade systems.