Staff Software Engineer, AI Foundations (AI Agent Optimization)

Job Summary

We have an opening to hire a Staff Software Engineer - Agent Optimization. Temporal provides a reliable foundation powering AI leaders such as OpenAI, NVIDIA, Cursor, Lovable, Replit, and others. Its adoption is expanding to users spanning a broad range of AI applications ranging from agents to data pipelines and everything in between.

Responsibilities

• Work as a software engineer
• Maintain and expand a deep understanding of agentic coding
• Design and build agentic coding systems that we can trust to deliver high-quality outputs
• Develop a deep understanding of AI application development patterns and techniques, including emerging approaches and architectures
• Take end-to-end ownership of new features, working with other teams to deliver exceptional reliability and a great developer experience
• Work with multiple programming languages: Python and TypeScript, Java, Go
• Serve as a domain expert on AI design patterns, collaborating with field staff to provide best-practices and canonical examples
• Work directly with our developer community to debug issues that need expert attention and get feedback on Temporal features and APIs
• Write public technical documentation describing Temporal concepts and APIs
• Go the extra mile to support a customer in need, on the rare occasion that our teams’ engineering expertise is needed
• Travel to meet your coworkers for a week once or twice a year
• Attend the occasional developer conference to talk about how great Temporal is (optional)

Requirements

• 8+ years of professional work experience
• Proven experience in optimizing AI systems using both machine learning and systems techniques
• Experience and passion for harnessing generative AI, particularly for agents and coding
• A deep appreciation for how to use AI to improve quality, not only to increase quantity
• A sense of taste in code and software development practice
• Fluency in multiple programming languages, and an affinity for learning new ones
• Deep experience with concurrent programming,you should know how to use mutexes, atomics, and other concurrency primitives safely
• Experience designing APIs and writing documentation for publicly-available libraries or modules
• Strong technical communication skills,written and verbal,in English
• BS or MS in Computer Science (or a closely-related degree), or equivalent work experience writing production-grade software

Nice to Have

• Familiarity with Temporal’s programming model (e.g. you’ve written an app on Temporal)
• A track record of open source software contributions, including contributions to 3rd party libraries
• Experience contributing to the architecture and design of large-scale distributed systems
• Deep background in machine learning, model training, data science, or machine learning systems
• Graduate degree in Computer Science

Compensation

• The estimated pay range for this role is $224,000 - $302,400
• Additionally, this role is eligible to participate in Temporal's equity plan

Benefits

• Unlimited PTO, 12 Holidays + 2 Floating Holidays
• 100% Premiums Coverage for Medical, Dental, and Vision
• AD&D, LT & ST Disability, and Life Insurance (Standard & Supplemental Available)
• Empower 401K Plan
• Additional Perks for Learning & Development, Lifestyle Spending, Home Office Setup, Professional Memberships, WFH Meals, Internet Stipend and more!