Staff Software Engineer, Public Sector Washington, DC Apply →

Scale AI, Inc.; Missouri; On-site; USD 188,800 - 272,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Comprehensive health, dental, and vision coverage

Retirement benefits

Learning and development stipend

Generous PTO

Potential commuter stipend

Job summary

Scale AI, Inc. is seeking a Staff Software Engineer to develop core product components. The ideal candidate will lead feature implementation across the Federal engineering team and mentor other engineers. Responsibilities include defining technical strategies for agentic capabilities and ensuring system reliability across various classifications.

This role requires strong problem-solving skills, proficiency in full-stack development, and excellent communication abilities. Competitive compensation and benefits package included.

Qualifications

• Proficiency in front-end, back-end development and infrastructure.
• Familiarity with cloud platforms and experience in cloud-native environments.
• Knowledge of ETL processes and data pipeline integration.
• Familiarity with integrating Large Language Models and building workflows.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills.
• Willingness to embrace new technologies and learn new skills.

Responsibilities

• Orchestrate feature implementation across the Federal engineering team.
• Define technical strategy for agentic guardrails and explainability.
• Ensure system reliability across multiple security classifications.
• Mentor engineers in defining requirements with stakeholders.
• Communicate technical trade-offs to senior stakeholders.
• Consult on architecture of AI-powered solutions.

Skills

Full Stack Development

Cloud-Native Technologies

Data Engineering

AI Application Integration

Problem Solving

Collaboration and Communication

Adaptability and Learning Agility

Job description

The Public Sector software engineers (SWEs) create the core product building blocks forward-deployed teams use to develop agentic capabilities that function across multiple domains. SWEs responsibilities include building the systems required to ingest and process federal datasets to support real-time decision-making in contested environments. We develop novel agentic enabling capabilities that includes:

• Create multi-layered guardrails around agents
• Optimize data retrieval for agents
• Orchestrate fleets of asynchronous agents
• Automatically alerts users to deviations in data
• Illustrating how an agent reached a decision

As a Staff Software Engineer, you will orchestrate the implementation of vertical features and horizontal capabilities to include mentoring other engineers on defining requirements with stakeholders and communication tradeoffs of technical implementations on feature and capabilities until they are accepted by the stakeholders.

You will: Orchestrate feature implementation across the Federal engineering team to ensure architectural consistency.

• Define technical strategy for agentic guardrails, explainability, and fleet orchestration.
• Ensure system reliability and performance across multiple security classifications and network types.
• Mentor engineers in the process of defining requirements with stakeholders and gathering acceptance.
• Communicate high-level technical trade-offs and implementation strategies to senior government stakeholders and Scale C‑Suite members.
• Influence the long-term product strategy and technical roadmap for the Federal business unit.
• Consult on the architecture of AI-powered solutions for large-scale federal contracts.

Ideally you will have:

• Full Stack Development: Proficiency in front-end, back-end development and infrastructure, including experience with modern web development frameworks, programming languages, and databases
• Cloud‑Native Technologies: Familiarity with cloud platforms (e.g., AWS, Azure, GCP) and experience in developing and deploying applications in a cloud-native environment. Understanding of containerization (e.g., Docker) and container orchestration (e.g., Kubernetes) is a plus
• Data Engineering: Knowledge of ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) processes and experience in building data pipelines to integrate and process diverse data sources. Understanding of data modeling, data warehousing, and data governance principles
• AI Application Integration: Familiarity with integrating Large Language Models (LLMs) and building agentic workflows. Understanding of prompt engineering, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), and agent orchestration is beneficial.
• Problem Solving: Strong analytical and problem-solving skills to understand complex challenges and devise effective solutions. Ability to think critically, identify root causes, and propose innovative approaches to overcome technical obstacles
• Collaboration and Communication: Excellent interpersonal and communication skills to effectively collaborate with cross-functional teams, stakeholders, and customers. Ability to clearly articulate technical concepts to non-technical audiences and foster a collaborative work environment
• Adaptability and Learning Agility: Willingness to embrace new technologies, learn new skills, and adapt to defining and evolving project requirements. Ability to quickly grasp and apply new concepts and stay up-to-date with emerging trends in software engineering

Compensation packages at Scale for eligible roles include base salary, equity, and benefits. The range displayed on each job posting reflects the minimum and maximum target for new hire salaries for the position and may be inclusive of several career levels at Scale; it will be determined during the interview process based on work location and additional factors, including job-related skills, experience, qualifications, interview performance, and relevant education or training. Scale employees in eligible roles are also granted equity based compensation, subject to Board of Director approval. Your recruiter can share more about the specific salary range for your preferred location during the hiring process, and confirm whether the hired role will be eligible for equity grant. You'll also receive benefits including, but not limited to: comprehensive health, dental and vision coverage, retirement benefits, a learning and development stipend, and generous PTO. Additionally, this role may be eligible for additional benefits such as a commuter stipend.

The base salary range for this full-time position in the locations of San Francisco, New York, Seattle is:

$252,000 — $362,000 USD

The base salary range for this full-time position in the locations of Hawaii, Washington DC, Texas, Colorado is:

$227,200 — $326,000 USD

The base salary range for this full-time position in the location of St. Louis is:

$188,800 — $272,000 USD

PLEASE NOTE: Our policy requires a 90-day waiting period before reconsidering candidates for the same role. This allows us to ensure a fair and thorough evaluation of all applicants.

We believe that everyone should be able to bring their whole selves to work, which is why we are proud to be an inclusive and equal opportunity workplace. We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability status, gender identity or Veteran status.

We are committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodations to applicants with physical and mental disabilities. If you need assistance and/or a reasonable accommodation in the application or recruiting process due to a disability, please contact us at [e-mail]. Please see the United States Department of Labor's Know Your Rights poster for additional information.

We comply with the United States Department of Labor's Pay Transparency provision.

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