Principal / Staff+ Engineer - Agentic AI (San Francisco)

About this role

Principal / Staff+ Engineer - Agentic AI (San Francisco)

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Remote

Job Type

Full Time

Requirements

Principal / Staff+ Engineer – Agentic AI (San Francisco)

Looking for experienced builders only. Join a small, elite, execution-focused team and personally own an entire technical domain at an AI-native fintech pushing agentic AI into one of the highest-stakes industries.

Comp: $330K–$380K+ base + competitive equity

Stack: Python, Node.js, React, Frontier AI Tools

This role is primarily on-site in San Francisco (3-5 days/week), with remote flexibility for exceptional candidates.

You will:

• Own architecture and engineering for an entire technical domain.
• Architect, build, and ship production AI systems alongside your team.
• Lead a pod through technical credibility while remaining deeply hands-on with code.
• Build AI agents across voice, chat, retrieval, evaluation, and computer use.
• Own the technical bar for quality, reliability, and velocity.
• Partner with Product as an equal owner of outcomes.
• Use Claude Code, Cursor, and frontier models as part of the daily engineering workflow.

100% Required:

• Staff or Principal-level Software Engineer with 6–14 years of experience.
• Experience scaling with an early-stage startup (Series A–C).
• Owned a critical system or product end-to-end from 0→1.
• Strong distributed systems and software architecture fundamentals.
• Deep, daily use of frontier AI tools such as Claude and Cursor.
• Strong hands-on engineering skills, ideally across Python, Node.js, and React.
• Comfortable leading technically without moving into pure management.

Other Skills:

• Hands-on technical founder experience.
• Conversational AI, voice AI, or agentic systems experience.
• Experience building production LLM or AI systems.
• BS/BA in Computer Science or a related technical field.
• MS or PhD in a related technical field.
• Experience building high-scale fintech or financial infrastructure.

How The Company Works

• AI-native – frontier AI tools are part of the standard engineering workflow.
• Hands-on – senior technical leaders still architect, code, review, and ship.
• High ownership – own an entire domain rather than a narrow piece of a system.
• Small senior team – engineering is organized into high-leverage pods.
• Production-focused – real AI products serving 100+ financial institutions.
• Early-stage impact – Series A and already cash-flow positive.