Agent Systems Engineer

Adaption

$135K — $160K *
Information Technology
5 - 7 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • 5+ years building production ML or backend systems, focusing on LLM or agent applications from prototype to production.
  • Strong understanding of agent design principles, including planning, reasoning, tool use, orchestration, and memory.
  • Experience in developing rigorous evaluation systems as well as execution tracing and observability for agents.
  • Familiarity with OpenAI Responses API and understanding of server- versus client-side execution.

Responsibilities

  • Design agent architectures for planning, reasoning, tool use, memory, and integration with external systems and data.
  • Improve reliability for long-running, multi-step tasks, including failure recovery.
  • Build evolutionary loops for agents to enhance their performance over time.
  • Develop robust evaluations to measure agent performance without manipulation.
  • Make practical trade-offs among quality, latency, cost, and complexity.

Benefits

  • Flexible work options including in-person collaboration in the Bay Area and global remote team dynamics.
  • Unique Adaption Passport offering annual travel stipend to visit a new country to foster personal and professional growth.
  • Weekly lunch stipend for take-out meals or grocery delivery.
  • Comprehensive medical benefits paired with generous paid time off for employee well-being.
Full Job Description
The Role

You'll build the agent systems at the core of our product. These systems turn customer goals into reliable, multi-step execution across real tools and services.

This is not about building demos. You'll work on agents that operate under real constraints: incomplete information, external failures, limited budgets, and unpredictable traffic. You'll own how they plan, use tools, recover from errors, and improve over time.

Responsibilities
  • Design agent architectures for planning, reasoning, tool use, memory, and integration with external systems and data.
  • Improve reliability on long-running, multi-step tasks, including failure recovery.
  • Build the loops that let agents improve with real use, so performance compounds instead of staying frozen.
  • Develop evaluations that measure agent performance and resist being gamed.
  • Make practical tradeoffs between quality, latency, cost, and complexity.
Qualifications
  • 5+ years building production ML or backend systems, including taking LLM or agent applications from prototype to production.
  • Strong understanding of agent design: planning, reasoning, tool use, orchestration, and memory.
  • Experience building rigorous evaluation systems, plus execution tracing and observability for agents, with a focus on reproducibility.
  • Familiarity with the OpenAI Responses API, MCP, and server- versus client-side execution.


Above all, we're looking for great teammates who make work feel lighter and aren't afraid to go out on a limb with bold ideas. You don't need to be perfect, but you do need to be adaptable. We encourage you to apply, even if you don't check every box.

Benefits
  • Flexible work: In-person collaboration in the Bay Area, a distributed global-first team, and team offsites.
  • Adaption Passport: Annual travel stipend to explore a country you've never visited. We're building intelligence that evolves alongside you, so we encourage you to keep expanding your horizons.
  • Lunch Stipend: Weekly meal allowance for take-out or grocery delivery.
  • Well-Being: Comprehensive medical benefits and generous paid time off.

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