Staff Software Engineer Software

Front Door Defense; New York (NY); On-site; USD 252,000 - 315,000; Full time

Job summary

Scale is seeking a Staff Software Engineer to own the long-term architecture evolution and lead cross-team initiatives that scale our AI data platform. You will work across CB teams to drive high-impact data operations and ensure reliable, AI-native infrastructure.

Reporting to the Director of Contributor Engineering, you will mentor engineers, guide architecture decisions for scalability and performance, and partner with product and leadership to shape the roadmap while delivering

Qualifications

• 7+ years of full-time engineering experience with leadership roles.
• Experience shipping high-quality products at scale.
• Experience with LLMs, vector databases, and AI technologies.
• Proficient in JavaScript/TypeScript and SQL.
• Experience with Kubernetes.
• Experience with major cloud providers (AWS, Azure, GCP).

Responsibilities

• Own long-term architecture evolution and cross-team initiatives to scale the AI data platform.
• Lead platform infrastructure overhaul for sustainability, scalability, and AI-native design.
• Mentor engineers across the team and drive high-impact projects.
• Collaborate with product and leadership to shape roadmap and priorities.
• Own large, ambiguous problem spaces end-to-end across backend, frontend, and ML systems.

Skills

Software leadership

Scale/ship at scale

LLMs / AI technologies

JavaScript/TypeScript

SQL

Kubernetes

Cloud providers (AWS/Azure/GCP)

Vector databases

Tools

Vector databases

Job description

Staff Software Engineer

Own the long-term architecture evolution and lead cross-team initiatives to scale AI data platform

Location: New York

Compensation: $252,000 - 315,000 USD / year

Job Tags: Software

About The Role

Our Generative AI Data Engine powers the world's most advanced LLMs and generative models through world-class RLHF (Reinforcement Learning with Human Feedback), human data generation, model evaluation, safety, and alignment. The data we are producing is some of the most important work for how humanity will interact with AI.

This is a horizontal, high-impact L6 Staff Fullstack Engineer & Architect position reporting directly to the Director of Contributor Engineering.

Instead of being tied to a single domain, your scope is spread across all Contributor (CB) teams (including Allocation, Growth, Trust & Safety, Pay, and Allocations). Together, these teams power Scale's AI data operations - from building high-impact datasets that push the boundaries of LLM capabilities, to optimizing contributor onboarding and incentives, to safeguarding data integrity through advanced trust, safety, and security measures. They work at the intersection of ML, operations, and analytics to ensure we deliver the highest-quality data at scale.

You will act as an organizational architect and tech lead, dynamically embedding yourself into the highest-priority projects across the org to guarantee execution, unblock teams, and successfully ship mission-critical initiatives. Concurrently, you will lead the long-term technical evolution of our stack, transforming the core architecture to ensure it is highly sustainable, scalable, and fundamentally AI-native.

You will:

• Deploy flexibly into critical, fast-moving product initiatives across the CB organization
• Lead the architectural overhaul of our platform infrastructure, making it highly sustainable, robust, and optimized for deep integration with LLMs and foundation models.
• Lead architecture decisions for scalability, reliability, and performance
• Mentor and uplevel engineers across the team
• Partner with product and leadership to shape roadmap and priorities
• Own large, ambiguous problem spaces end-to-end
• Work across backend, frontend, and ML systems

Ideally you'd have:

• 7+ years of full-time engineering experience, post-graduation, with a proven track record of operating as a Tech Lead, Architect, or Principal Engineer.
• Track record of shipping high-quality products and features at scale
• Experience tinkering with or productizing LLMs, vector databases, and the other latest AI technologies
• Proficient in Javascript/Typescript, and SQL
• Experience with Kubernetes
• Experience with major cloud providers (AWS, Azure, GCP)

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.

$252,000 - $315,000 USD

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.

At Scale, our mission is to develop reliable AI systems for the world's most important decisions. Our products provide the high-quality data and full‑stack technologies that power the world's leading models, and help enterprises and governments build, deploy, and oversee AI applications that deliver real impact. We work closely with industry leaders like Meta, Ernst & Young, Mayo Clinic, Time Inc., the Government of Qatar, and U.S. government agencies including the Army and Air Force. We are expanding our team to accelerate the development of AI applications.

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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