Staff Software Engineer - AI-Driven, Production-Focused

Pearson; City of Albany (NY); On-site; USD 150,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Annual incentive program

Job summary

Pearson is seeking a forward deployed engineer to operate where the work happens, embedding with business lines to ship production AI applications. You will own the full stack from frontend to observability, working directly with stakeholders to understand problems, design end-to-end solutions, and iterate rapidly on real-world data and workflows.

You will collaborate across teams, driving AI adoption, with a strong emphasis on real discovery, fast delivery, and measurable impact.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of full-stack engineering experience, with meaningful time spent shipping production systems end to end.
• Strong CS fundamentals: data structures, algorithms, system design; able to whiteboard service architectures.
• Frontend depth incl. modern React, TypeScript, and robust component architecture.
• Backend depth in Node.js, Java, and Python; API design, data modeling, auth, error handling.
• Production LLM experience with prompt engineering, agents, evaluation, retrieval, and deployment at scale.
• Fluency with AI-assisted development tools and agentic coding; measurable results.
• Data fluency with databases and Python data tooling.
• Cloud and deployment fluency (AWS, GCP, Azure) with real URL, auth, CI/CD, containers, observability.
• Integration experience with SSO, OAuth, third-party APIs, legacy systems.
• High agency: navigate ambiguity and own decisions.
• High cooperation across Pearson’s large org; strong communication across executives and engineers.
• Up-to-date with AI capabilities and product stacks.

Responsibilities

• Go where the problem is; design and build end-to-end systems with real users in real workflows.
• Engage in real discovery by sitting with users, observing work, and translating needs into usable software.
• Build during conversations; deliver working software quickly, not just wireframes.
• Handle messy inputs (spreadsheets, PDFs, messages) and turn them into coherent solutions.
• Ship production AI applications on frontier LLMs, agents, MCP servers, and retrieval systems.
• Iterate quickly across multiple engagements with evolving requirements.
• Own the full stack: frontend, backend, data, deployments, observability, and delivery.
• Codify patterns that work across engagements and push improvements back to platform teams.
• Maintain relationships with lines of business throughout engagements, identifying opportunities.

Skills

Full-stack engineering

CS fundamentals

Frontend depth

Backend depth

Production LLM experience

Data fluency

Cloud deployment

Integration experience

High agency

High cooperation

Communication skills

AI product awareness

Currency on AI frontier

Education: CS or equivalent

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or equivalent

Tools

React

TypeScript

Node.js

Java

Python

AWS

GCP

Azure

CI/CD

Docker/Kubernetes

Job description

Pearson is seeking a forward deployed engineer to operate where the work happens, embedding with business lines to ship production AI applications. You will own the full stack from frontend to observability, working directly with stakeholders to understand problems, design end-to-end solutions, and iterate rapidly on real-world data and workflows.

You will collaborate across teams, driving AI adoption, with a strong emphasis on real discovery, fast delivery, and measurable impact.