Staff Frontier Engineer

Staff Frontier Engineer

Frontier Engineering

Remote - US

Multiple Hires

Position Summary:

The Staff Frontier Engineer role requires depth and reach together: the system is technically hard in its own right, and enough of Product & Engineering builds on it that one engineer getting it right compounds across the entire org. A representative problem is identity and entitlements, where everything depends on it and it is genuinely one of the harder problems in software. On the AI side, it is the eval infrastructure that determines whether what ships is actually prompted well. The Staff Frontier Engineer is individually accountable for building, hardening, and operating a system that the organization depends on without directly touching. They hold the problem space durably, long enough to develop real expertise and innovate within it. They earn the right to set its direction by shipping the system rather than by advising on it.

This role is measured on five dimensions (Craftsmanship, Impact, Mentorship, Safety, and State of the Art). What separates it from Frontier Engineer is that Judgment, Systems Thinking, and Safety now have to hold up against a problem where being wrong is expensive and, often, no one else is positioned to catch it.

Essential Responsibilities (includes, but is not limited to):

• Own, build, and operate a system that is hard enough to need its own technical strategy and technically deep in its own right, and help drive the technical specs behind it
• Make consequential calls about what to build, scale, or kill on ambiguous problems where the data does not answer the question, driving them to clarity through iteration and collaboration, and own the outcome
• Exercise Systems Thinking past your own ownership boundary: see and optimize the whole line end to end, and change your own plan, or push back on someone else's, when the end-to-end view says the locally optimal move is globally wrong. Pursue the real fix, by influencing, contributing, or escalating, even when it lives in a system you don't own
• Own the work yourself: your domain is yours to run, so address the high-leverage problems in it, scope the solutions, and build them with a workforce of agents behind you
• Instrument what you ship for adoption and usage from the start, and hold any claim of delivered value to a falsifiable, data-backed standard
• Scale your own judgment into others: mentor engineers toward owning highly complex systems rather than only reviewing their output
• Apply a categorically higher bar to safety, security, and irreversible-consequence risk: identify and close it out before it ships, covering both classic engineering risk (data loss, security vulnerabilities) and AI-specific risk (misuse, jailbreaks, unintended capability, data exposure), including deciding what not to ship when everything else is ready
• Run the full lifecycle for adopting new techniques (discovery, spike, prototype, proof of concept, hardened production) in your problem space
• Write documentation precise enough that other teams can consume your systems as a service without a standing coordination meeting

Ideal Skills, Experience, and Competencies:

Craftsmanship:

• Building: Builds and operates a system that is hard enough to need its own technical strategy and technically deep in its own right, and helps drive the technical specs for it. Builds the tool that eliminates a repeated problem.
• Judgment: Makes high-stakes calls on what to build, scale, or kill when the data runs out, and escalates the ones that belong to product
• Writing: Documents at a level that sustains other teams consuming the system without a standing meeting, and presents technical direction to engineering and product audiences

Impact:

• Outcomes: Instruments the system and proves delivered value against a falsifiable, data-backed standard
• Systems Thinking: Lands fixes across ownership boundaries when the end-to-end view demands it, regardless of who owns the code
• Mentorship: Grows another engineer's judgment

Safety:

• Applies a categorically higher bar to irreversible-consequence risk on a system with organization-wide reach

State of the Art:

• Owns the pipeline for adopting new techniques in the problem space

AI Foundations (All Roles):

• Understand AI capabilities and limitations and apply that judgment in daily engineering decisions
• Use enterprise-approved AI tools (Claude) as primary productivity accelerators across the full development lifecycle
• Apply Pax8 data classification and privacy principles before sharing any data with AI systems
• Practice responsible AI: recognize and mitigate bias, uphold fairness and transparency requirements
• Advanced prompting proficiency: multi-turn context setting, chain-of-thought elicitation, structured output enforcement, and iterative refinement

Role-Specific AI Skills:

• Build and own eval and validation infrastructure for AI-assisted or AI-native systems within your problem space, the layer that determines whether output is correct rather than merely plausible
• Apply elevated scrutiny to agent-produced code within a highly complex system
• Track state-of-the-art techniques and AI-specific vulnerability classes as they evolve, and be the one who notices when either changes and the one who ships the response into production

Additional Preferred Qualifications:

• Track record of being the de facto owner of a problem space that most of the organization depends on, earned by building and running it rather than by advising on it
• Experience mentoring other Frontier Engineers toward owning highly complex systems
• Experience taking a technique from a paper or external source through prototype and proof of concept into a hardened, safety-reviewed production rollout

Trust and Hiring:

At Pax8, we care deeply about building genuine, trust based relationships - starting with how we hire.

To protect our business, our teams, and our customers, we use a range of measures throughout the recruitment process to help confirm authenticity and prevent fraud. These safeguards are designed to be fair, respectful, and proportionate, and may evolve as risks change. By applying, you acknowledge that we take steps to verify identity and representation during hiring. If you're applying as your authentic self, you have nothing to worry about - we're excited to meet you.

We also use thoughtfully applied AI-enabled tools to support our hiring process. These tools may assist with tasks such as reviewing or prioritising applications, but hiring decisions are made by our people. More information is available in our Recruitment Privacy Notice. If you have questions about how we hire or would prefer not to have your application supported by these tools, you can opt out at any part of our process.

Everyone Belongs Here:

We encourage you to apply even if you don't meet 100% of the criteria. We're committed to diverse perspectives, inclusive hiring and sharing your transferrable skills. To fulfil this role, you must hold valid right to work in United States.

Why You'll Love Working Here:

• Benefits
• Competitive compensation package
• Annual bonus opportunity
• Employee stock options
• Comprehensive medical, dental and vision coverage
• 401(k) retirement plan with employer match
• Flexible paid time off
• Paid volunteer time
• Wellness initiatives and employee assistance programs
• Continuous learning and development opportunities
• Dedicated professional development resources
• Collaborative remote-first culture
• Access to innovative technologies and AI-powered learning tools

Compensation Range: $200k - $300k

*This is a proactive opportunity posting, allowing us to connect with exceptional talent for anticipated future openings within Pax8.

Grow With Us:

There's extensive room for a talented individual to grow at pace - whether that's advancing quickly in this role or exploring one of the many opportunities across our global organisation. You'll have access to our internal development hub designed to accelerate your skills and stretch your potential. Alongside specialist Learning & Development trainers, you'll also tap into AI powered tools, "born in the cloud" mentors, and cross continent collaboration that broaden your perspective and sharpen your expertise. We'll give you the space, trust, and the right projects to help you thrive - and full visibility of what it takes to reach your next level.

Please take a moment to review our Proprietary Rights and Non-Competition Agreement - this document outlines important information about your rights and responsibilities if you join our team.

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