Staff Software Engineer - AI Applications

The Opportunity: This role is part of the AI Applications team, an extension of Moloco's generative AI initiative. This team sits higher in the AI stack, closer to the user, and focuses on the delivery layer rather than infrastructure. The primary mission is to build AI-powered products and tools that: • Make Moloco as a company operate more efficiently internally. • Improve the internal-to-customer experience using generative AI. • Improve the end customer experience with AI (lighter focus initially). • Much of the work is greenfield, with only small parts of the foundation currently in place. Engineers will own products end-to-end, from problem identification through launch and ongoing operations. How Do I Know if the Role is Right For Me? • 8+ years of professional software engineering experience, with a track record of owning complex, cross-functional systems end-to-end • Deep hands-on experience architecting LLM-powered applications at production scale - agentic systems, RAG, or tool-using assistants - including the tradeoffs between latency, cost, reliability, and quality • Experience with agent frameworks/orchestration (e.g., LangGraph, custom agent loops) and multi-step reasoning systems • Proven experience designing evaluation and monitoring systems for AI products that others on the team adopt and build on • Strong systems design skills: able to define architecture and technical standards that multiple teams can build on autonomously (shared infra, guardrails, APIs) • Fluency across the stack (frontend, backend, infra) with the judgment to know where to go deep vs. delegate • Experience influencing technical direction beyond your own team - e.g., setting engineering standards, mentoring senior engineers, or leading technical strategy for a product area • History of independently identifying high-leverage problems (not just executing an assigned backlog) and building conviction with stakeholders and leadership Preferred Skills: • Experience building or leading the buildout of internal AI platform capabilities: key management, spend caps, permissioning, hosting for AI-developed apps • Track record of leading a SaaS rationalization or "build vs. buy" effort involving AI-first custom replacements • Experience redesigning a critical business workflow (not just automating a task) around AI - e.g., recruiting, customer lifecycle, planning/forecasting • Prior experience in a platform or infra-adjacent role that also required strong product instincts • Public or internal thought leadership on agent architectures, evals, or applied LLM engineering practices • Comfortable operating with minimal process, setting technical direction in a greenfield environment, and shaping team practices as they scale Compensation & Benefits U.S.-based employees have access to medical, dental, and vision insurance, a 401(k) plan with company match, short-term and long-term disability coverage, basic life insurance, and well-being benefits and perks. U.S.-based employees also receive up to 12 scheduled paid holidays per calendar year and one Thrive Day off per quarter. Additionally, all employees have Flexible Time Off (FTO). The successful candidate may be eligible for a bonus and equity awards. Eligibility and amounts are determined by performance and the terms of the applicable plans. The location for this role is listed above. For base pay range purposes, location-based compensation is grouped into the following regions. Your region is determined by your assigned work location. • Region A: Menlo Park Office, New York Office, SF Bay Area, New York Metro Area • Region B: Seattle Office, Seattle, Los Angeles/Orange County, San Diego, Austin, Boston, Washington DC Metro Area, Miami • Region C: All other U.S. locations Salary Ranges: Region A: $220,000-$275,000 USD Region B: $198,000-$247,500 USD Region C: $187,200-$234,000 USD Supporting Your Best Work and Your Best Life: Our benefits are designed to support our people in doing their best work and living well, at work and beyond. Benefits vary by country, employment type, and eligibility. Connect with a recruiter to learn more about benefits in your region.