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Standard Template LabsStandard Template LabsNew York, NY

Staff Software Engineer

Leads hands-on development of AI-native, distributed systems that integrate LLMs, retrieval, and graph intelligence into enterprise IT workflows. Requires 7+ years of software engineering experience, strong architecture and API expertise, modern programming skills, and experience mentoring engineers.

160k – 230k/yr
On-site7+ YOEAI Research

About the role

Responsibilities

AI-Driven Systems Engineering

  • Design and develop AI-native architectures that embed LLMs and intelligent automation into ITSM and CMDB workflows.
  • Leverage LLMs, embeddings, and retrieval pipelines to power natural-language interfaces, knowledge synthesis, and reasoning within the platform.
  • Collaborate with product, design, and data teams to infuse AI into backend systems and user-facing features.

Technical Ownership

  • Own complex systems end-to-end, including design, architecture, deployment, and production reliability.
  • Drive architectural decisions balancing near-term speed with long-term scalability and maintainability.
  • Help define the AI-first engineering stack and patterns for prompt orchestration, model integration, and continuous learning.

Hands-On Engineering

  • Write clean, scalable, and testable code for AI-enabled systems.
  • Design and optimize distributed, event-driven systems and APIs that handle data and inference at scale.
  • Conduct deep-dive code reviews and performance tuning across high-traffic production environments.

Leadership and Mentorship

  • Lead by example, improve code quality, foster experimentation, and mentor engineers in AI-augmented workflows.
  • Champion adoption of AI tooling such as Cursor, Windsurf, and Claude.

Requirements

  • 7+ years of professional software engineering experience delivering large-scale, high-impact systems.
  • Deep expertise in distributed systems, cloud-native architecture, and API design.
  • Hands-on experience with or strong interest in LLMs, vector databases, embeddings, or AI agent frameworks.
  • Familiarity with prompt engineering, fine-tuning, and AI-powered developer tools.
  • Experience mentoring engineers and guiding cross-functional teams toward technical excellence.
  • Strong proficiency in one or more modern programming languages, such as Go, Python, Rust, or Java.
  • Knowledge of Kubernetes, event-driven systems, and CI/CD best practices.
  • A builder’s mindset and eagerness to explore, prototype, and ship quickly.

Compensation and Benefits

  • Competitive compensation, equity, and benefits package.
  • Estimated yearly salary: $160,000–$230,000 USD.
  • Build foundational product features for an AI-first enterprise platform.
  • Own critical systems intended to scale to millions of users.
  • Work onsite five days a week from the Flatiron District, Manhattan office.

Skills

LLMsEmbeddingsVector Databasesretrieval pipelinesai agent frameworksDistributed Systemscloud-native architectureAPI DesignGoPythonRustJavaKubernetesevent-driven systemsCI/CD

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