# Senior Software Engineer, AI Productivity

**Company:** [Instacart](https://hotfix.jobs/companies/instacart)
**Location:** Remote
**Role:** Backend Engineering
**Salary:** CA$168k – CA$178k/yr
**Experience:** 5+ years
**Skills:** Python, Go, Java, LLMs, Retrieval-Augmented Generation, Vector Search, AWS, GCP, Docker, Kubernetes, SQL, Data Modeling, CI/CD, Airflow, Dagster
**Posted:** 2026-08-05

> Build and operate production AI-powered services and internal productivity tools using backend software engineering, LLM integration, and intelligent automation. The role requires 5+ years of software engineering experience, cloud and distributed-systems expertise, and a bachelor's degree or equivalent experience.

## Job Description

## Responsibilities
- Design, build, and operate AI-powered services and internal applications, including code and test assistants, knowledge search, and intelligent chat workflows.
- Implement robust back-end services using Python, Go, or Java; integrate foundation models through APIs and open-source frameworks; and apply retrieval-augmented generation and vector search.
- Own projects end-to-end, including requirements, technical design, implementation, testing, deployment, observability, on-call participation, and iterative improvements to reliability, latency, and cost efficiency.
- Partner with Developer Platform, ML Platform, Security, and Legal to support safe and compliant AI usage, data governance, guardrails, content and prompt safety, and privacy-by-design.
- Define and track success metrics such as adoption, task completion time, DORA/SPACE signals, and satisfaction; run experiments and A/B tests.
- Create and maintain shared tooling, libraries, and documentation for applied AI development.
- Mentor teammates on best practices.

## Requirements
- 5+ years of professional software engineering experience building and operating production services.
- 3+ years of hands-on experience with at least one of Python, Go, or Java.
- 2+ years of experience integrating ML or LLM capabilities into applications and shipping them to production.
- Experience with AWS or GCP, Docker, and Kubernetes.
- Proficiency with SQL and data modeling, plus experience building or maintaining data pipelines.
- Experience with CI/CD, automated testing, observability, and on-call rotations.
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.

## Nice-to-haves
- Experience adapting or fine-tuning foundation models and implementing retrieval-augmented generation with vector databases.
- Experience building internal developer tools or platforms adopted by 100+ engineers.
- Experience measuring developer productivity, instrumenting product analytics, and running A/B or multivariate experiments.
- Knowledge of AI safety, privacy, and compliance practices, including PII redaction, guardrails, content moderation, and data residency.
- Experience with event-driven systems, microservices, and resilient distributed systems.
- Ability to build lightweight front ends for internal tools.
- Mentorship and technical leadership in cross-functional teams.

## Compensation
- Base pay range for Canadian-based candidates: **CA$168,000–CA$177,500 CAD**.
- Eligible for a new-hire equity grant and annual refresh grants.
- Competitive benefits are provided based on work location.

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