Software Engineer, Developer Productivity, AI Tools

Thinking Machines Lab

$300K — $350K *
Information Technology
Less than 5 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience in computer science or engineering
  • Experience in developing tools for large codebases
  • Strong communication skills for collaborating with researchers
  • Hands-on experience with container platforms like Docker or Kubernetes
  • Familiarity with AI coding tools and model APIs
  • Solid Linux and networking fundamentals
  • Proficiency in systems programming and scripting languages

Responsibilities

  • Enable researchers to leverage AI for improved coding productivity
  • Standardize and maintain AI coding tools for organizational use
  • Build secure sandboxes for remote development and testing
  • Set up development environments with security guards for sensitive data
  • Assist developers in creating personalized AI-powered workflows
  • Monitor tool usage, reliability, and costs

Benefits

  • Generous health, dental, and vision benefits
  • Unlimited paid time off (PTO)
  • Paid parental leave
  • Relocation support as needed
Full Job Description
About the Role

We are hiring a developer productivity engineer to advance how we build software internally: safely, quickly, and with delight. The main focus are AI tools and coding agents. You'll partner with platform, security, and product engineers to build state-of-the-art tooling for AI-assisted software development, and make our inner loop dramatically faster.

The scope of this role includes both setting up company-wide platforms and working with developers to accelerate their individual workflows.

What You'll Do
  • Enable our researchers and engineers to leverage AI to improve coding productivity without compromising code quality
  • Standardize AI coding tools, such as Claude Code, Cursor, and Codex. You will help configure, harden, and maintain the best tools, integrating org-wide configurations with individual preferences.
  • Build secure, reproducible agent sandboxes for remote dev & CI testing.
  • Set up golden-path dev environments and guardrails for secrets/PII.
  • Help individual contributors develop their personalized AI-enabled workflow.
  • Track tool usage, reliability, and cost.
Skills and Qualifications

Minimum qualifications:
  • Bachelor's degree or equivalent industry experience in computer science, engineering, or similar.
  • Experience developing productivity tools and best practices for large codebases.
  • Ability to communicate clearly and work with researchers to build and manage a variety of internal tools.

Preferred qualifications:
  • Hands-on experience with container platforms (e.g. Docker/Kubernetes), modern CI (GitHub Actions/Buildkite), and package management tools (uv).
  • Practical experience with AI coding tools and model APIs (e.g. OSS via vLLM / SGLang / TGI).
  • Solid Linux/networking fundamentals; comfort with secrets management and safe egress.
  • Proficiency in systems programming languages (e.g. Rust) and scripting languages (e.g. Python).
Logistics
  • Location: This role is based in San Francisco, California.
  • Compensation: Depending on background, skills and experience, the expected annual salary range for this position is $300,000 - $350,000 USD.
  • Visa sponsorship: We sponsor visas. While we can't guarantee success for every candidate or role, if you're the right fit, we're committed to working through the visa process together.
  • Benefits: Thinking Machines offers generous health, dental, and vision benefits, unlimited PTO, paid parental leave, and relocation support as needed.

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