Senior Product Engineer, AI

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San Francisco / $165000 - $245000 annum

INFO

Salary

SALARY:

$165000 - $245000

Location

LOCATION

San Francisco

Job Type
JOB TYPE

Permanent

Senior AI Product Engineer

Hybrid - 3x a week onsite in the San Francisco Bay Area

Salary: Up to $250,000 + equity

What Exceptional Looks Like

We're seeking a builder who has gone beyond experimentation - someone who has successfully taken AI-driven products from concept through production and scale. This individual brings a strong product mindset, approaches problems from the customer's perspective, and takes full ownership across the stack.

They understand that shipping agentic systems isn't just about prompts - it's about disciplined evaluation, iteration, and continuous improvement. They leverage AI tools as accelerators of their own thinking, not substitutes for it.

Equally important, they elevate the team around them: collaborative, intellectually honest, and motivated by collective success as much as individual output.

What Doesn't Fit

This role is not for someone who relies on AI without understanding it - or who cannot clearly articulate the reasoning behind their technical decisions.

Candidates who have only experimented with models in isolation, without delivering production-grade applications, will not find success here.

Required Experience

  • Demonstrated success building and deploying production-grade agentic AI systems in customer-facing environments (not research or prototyping)
  • Deep expertise across the agent lifecycle: prompting, evaluation, debugging, iteration, and scaling performance
  • Strong foundation in software engineering (backend or full-stack), with a deliberate transition into AI engineering
  • Clear ownership mindset - able to articulate what was built, why decisions were made, and how trade-offs were evaluated
  • Proficiency in Python or TypeScript
  • Experience designing and running evaluation frameworks to measure and improve real-world system performance

Preferred Experience

  • Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG)
  • Experience with agent frameworks or orchestration platforms (e.g., LangChain, AWS Bedrock, or similar ecosystems)

Leveling

  • Senior AI Product Engineer: ~4-6 years experience
  • Senior AI Product Engineer II: ~6-8 years experience

Note: Experience in high-growth or startup environments is highly valued. Speed, adaptability, and bias for action are critical to success in this role.

Signals of Success (What We Look For)

  • Proven track record of taking AI-driven solutions from idea to production, with the ability to clearly walk through the full journey
  • Ownership of the evaluation loop - not just building, but rigorously testing, diagnosing, and improving systems over time
  • Experience embedding AI into real-world applications, navigating scale, reliability, and user impact
  • Thoughtful decision-making - candidates can clearly explain what worked, what didn't, and why
  • Background as a strong engineer who has intentionally evolved into AI, rather than superficially layering AI onto their skillset

CONTACT

Stephanie Landa

Principal Recruitment Consultant

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