Senior Software Engineer, Operations Tools & Al Enablement

Serve Robotics•Los Angeles, CA

4d•$180,000 - $200,000

About The Position

Serve Robotics is seeking a proactive, product-minded software engineer to build and maintain practical software that improves Robotics Operations. Embedded with Operations, this engineer will explore workflows, identify recurring friction and emerging needs, and turn those opportunities into useful, reliable tools. The role emphasizes initiative, sound product judgment, focused iteration, and measurable operational impact. The engineer will personally build, ship, and support production code, including improving applications that may have originated through AI-assisted coding. Responsibilities include understanding unfamiliar code, debugging independently, improving design and reliability, and adding appropriate tests, documentation, monitoring, and security practices. The position works across several programming languages; the core system is Elixir-heavy, and the engineer is expected to learn Elixir quickly. The role also involves building, deploying, troubleshooting, and supporting applications and services on Google Cloud Platform. Working cross-functionally with Operations, Product Engineering, and other technical teams, the engineer will identify whether needs are best addressed with a focused Operations tool, an existing solution, or coordinated changes to shared systems. The engineer will help teams adopt AI-assisted workflows responsibly, remain accountable after launch, investigate failures, and verify that changes reduce operational friction or improve delivery quality.

Requirements

At least 5 years of professional experience, including substantial software engineering experience and ownership of shipped software.
Ability to independently design, implement, test, debug, deploy, and maintain applications, and to understand and improve unfamiliar codebases, including AI-generated code.
Experience building, deploying, or supporting applications and services on Google Cloud Platform, with the ability to troubleshoot them in a cloud environment.
Ability to become productive quickly in unfamiliar languages and stacks and learn Elixir to contribute to the Elixir-heavy system; prior Elixir experience is not required.
Experience building useful applications, internal tools, automations, or integrations for business or operational users.
Proactive, self-starting approach: ability to identify worthwhile problems, investigate independently, propose a path forward, and take ownership without detailed instructions.
Product and entrepreneurial judgment, including understanding user needs, challenging assumptions, balancing speed with quality, and focusing on solutions people will use.
Ability to connect local workflow improvements to broader operational goals, recognize upstream and downstream effects, and avoid optimizing a tool at the expense of the wider system.
Sound judgment about testing, code review, access controls, sensitive data, dependency management, observability, and production support.
Practical, iterative approach that delivers improvements quickly while maintaining reliability, maintainability, and attention to user needs.
Ability to work directly with non-engineering users, clarify ambiguous requests, explain tradeoffs, and turn feedback into working improvements.
Ability to align operational and engineering perspectives, explain tradeoffs, secure alignment, and keep work moving through release and adoption.
Interest in AI-assisted development and workflow automation, together with the ability to validate results and recognize limitations.

Nice To Haves

Experience with operator-facing applications, workflow automation, dashboards, or fleet and robotics tools.
Full-stack development experience, including user interfaces, services, APIs, and data integrations.
Previous experience developing applications in Elixir.
Experience taking a prototype or lightly engineered application into dependable operational use.
Effective use of AI coding assistants, including reviewing, correcting, testing, and maintaining their output.
Experience owning a product or internal tool from discovery through adoption and iteration, or building useful solutions in an entrepreneurial environment.
Experience helping non-technical teams adopt AI tools responsibly.
Experience in robotics, autonomous vehicles, logistics, delivery, or other technology-enabled field operations.

Responsibilities

Explore Operations workflows to identify recurring friction, unmet needs, and emerging failure points before they become urgent.
Assess user impact, effort, and risk; recommend what to build, improve, reuse, or leave alone, and deliver focused improvements.
Build iteratively with users, gather feedback early, and refine tools while ensuring they are safe and fit for purpose.
Own, maintain, and improve internal tools, dashboards, automations, and integrations, including applications initially created with AI-assisted coding.
Diagnose issues, resolve bugs, and keep applications working as dependencies and requirements evolve.
Build, deploy, troubleshoot, and support applications across multiple programming languages and on Google Cloud Platform; learn and contribute to the Elixir-heavy core system.
Review AI-generated code, understand dependencies and data access, address security and reliability gaps, and add appropriate tests, documentation, monitoring, and maintainable structure.
Coordinate with Operations, Product Engineering, and other technical teams on needs, ownership, dependencies, and tradeoffs; anticipate effects of API, schema, authentication, and platform changes on Operations tools.
Bring recommendations to teams responsible for shared systems, resolve blockers, and follow through on commitments rather than relying on fragile workarounds.
Help Operations identify useful AI-assisted workflows, evaluate tools, and establish safe, repeatable practices with appropriate human review and engineering ownership.
Support software after launch, investigate failures, verify operational impact, and favor durable fixes over recurring manual intervention.