Staff Software Engineer, AI Platform

OhioX; Northern (KY); On-site; USD 189,000 - 265,000; Full time

Job summary

Root is pursuing a bold mission to unbreak insurance by delivering delightful experiences at unbeatable prices. The AI Platform team builds the infrastructure, tooling, and operating patterns that make AI capabilities reliable, secure, and usable across Root's products and operations.

As a Staff Software Engineer, you will set the technical direction for that foundation and drive cross-team work to turn AI ambition into scalable infrastructure.

Qualifications

• 7+ years as a software engineer.
• Experience leading software teams or major technical initiatives.
• Deep expertise in cloud infrastructure, preferably AWS, Terraform, and production operations.
• Ability to drive cross-team implementation decisions and communicate complex topics to senior leaders.

Responsibilities

• Define what Root must make true for AI to become a trusted, company-wide capability and translate that vision into multi-quarter technical direction.
• Lead cross-team initiatives that turn AI strategy into durable platform architecture, shared services, and operating models.
• Make hard technical tradeoffs that let teams move quickly without compromising security, reliability, observability, cost, or maintainability.
• Unblock critical work across AI Platform, product engineering, data, security, and infrastructure by aligning decisions across systems and domains.
• Establish standards and feedback loops to monitor, govern, and continuously improve AI-enabled systems.
• Anticipate constraints and drive investments that unlock the company’s next stage of AI adoption.
• Mentor engineers and develop technical leaders through clear architecture and strong judgment.

Skills

AWS

Terraform

Production ops

Tools

Kubernetes

Job description

Root is on a mission to unbreak insurance by creating experiences people love at prices they can't believe. We believe that investing in world-class technology will facilitate a new class of insurance products, driving a massive positive impact on the hundreds of millions of drivers who carry auto insurance in the US. Root's Engineering team is committed to building a flexible platform on which our product designers and quantitative scientists can quickly test ideas, deploy them into production, and iterate, with the ultimate objective of a delightful customer experience coupled with effective risk management.

The Opportunity

AI Platform is Root's team for building the infrastructure, tooling, and operating patterns that make AI capabilities reliable, secure, and usable across Root's products and operations. As a Staff Software Engineer on AI Platform, you will set the technical direction for that foundation, connect company strategy to durable platform architecture, and lead the cross-team work that turns AI ambition into infrastructure.

Salary Range

:$188,800 - $265,000 (Eligible for competitive bonus and equity offering)

Root is a "work where it works best" company. This means we will support you working in whatever location that works best for you across the US.

How You Will Make an Impact

• Define what Root must make true for AI to become a trusted, company-wide capability—and translate that vision into multi-quarter technical direction.
• Lead the cross-team initiatives that turn AI strategy into durable platform architecture, shared services, and operating models.
• Make the hard technical tradeoffs that let teams move quickly without compromising security, reliability, observability, cost, or long-term maintainability.
• Unblock critical work across AI Platform, product engineering, data, security, and infrastructure by aligning decisions across systems and domains.
• Establish the standards and feedback loops that help Root monitor, govern, and continuously improve AI-enabled systems.
• Anticipate the next constraints before they become blockers, then drive the technical investments that unlock the company's next stage of AI adoption.
• Multiply impact by developing engineers and technical leaders through clear architecture, strong mentorship, and excellent systems judgment.

What You Will Need to Succeed

• 7+ years as a software engineer
• 3+ years leading software teams or major technical initiatives
• Demonstrated ability to set technical direction and deliver results across multiple teams or a meaningful engineering domain.
• Deep expertise in cloud infrastructure, preferably AWS, Terraform, secure software delivery, and production operations.
• Strong systems-design judgment across reliability, observability, security, cost, and long-term maintainability.
• Experience guiding AI/LLM platform or application architecture and evaluating novel technical approaches responsibly.
• Ability to drive cross-team implementation decisions, resolve ambiguity, and communicate complex topics to senior leaders.
• A record of shaping technical roadmaps, unlocking long-term value, and developing engineers beyond an immediate team.
• Excellent collaboration and influence skills with engineering and cross-functional leaders.

As part of Root's interview process, we kindly ask that all candidates be on camera for virtual interviews. This helps us create a more personal and engaging experience for both you and our interviewers. Being on camera is a standard requirement for our process and part of how we assess fit and communication style, so we do require it to move forward with any applicant's candidacy. If you have any concerns, feel free to let us know once you are contacted. We're happy to talk it through.

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Consistent with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Civil Rights Act of 1964, it is the policy of Root to provide reasonable accommodation when requested by a qualified applicant or candidate with a disability, unless such accommodation would cause an undue hardship for Root. The policy regarding requests for reasonable accommodation applies to all aspects of the hiring process. If reasonable accommodation is needed, please contact [e-mail].