Senior / Staff Software Engineer (SF/NY)

Fractional AI•San Francisco, CA

1d•Hybrid

About The Position

Fractional AI is a startup in Silicon Valley focused on transforming companies with AI software. We work with clients like Zapier and Airbyte, and our projects range from developing AI agents for medical coding and appointment booking to generating data connectors from API documentation. Founded by experienced entrepreneurs and backed by Shaper Capital, our team consists of engineers from top tech companies. We are headquartered in SF with additional offices in NYC, Raleigh-Durham, and Dubai. This role is for experienced engineering leaders or founders who want to remain individual contributors and focus on coding. You will join a small, high-caliber team building AI products for clients, setting technical direction, writing code, and tackling complex challenges. Approximately 75% of your time will be spent coding, and 25% will involve client interaction, understanding their needs, discussing tradeoffs, and ensuring product satisfaction. This position offers a unique opportunity to gain experience across a wide range of challenging problems and domains within Applied AI engineering.

Requirements

8+ years of engineering experience.
Deep care for the craft of engineering.
Shipped multiple complete products end-to-end.
Write elegant, production-ready code across multiple disciplines.
Specific interest in applying software engineering fundamentals to AI systems.
Comfort talking with senior technical stakeholders.
High ownership mindset.
Low ego, high integrity.
Experience as an engineering leader (IC or EM) or founder.

Nice To Haves

Experience in the medical coding, appointment booking, or data connector generation domains.
Familiarity with Zapier or Airbyte.

Responsibilities

Own end-to-end technical outcomes.
Work on a small, high-caliber team building AI products for clients.
Set technical direction.
Write code.
Serve as the go-to person for difficult technical challenges.
Spend roughly 75% of your time in code.
Spend 25% of your time working directly with clients, understanding problems, walking through tradeoffs, and ensuring needs are met.
Apply software engineering fundamentals to AI systems.
Balance frontier model capabilities with good system design.
Navigate conversations skillfully with senior technical stakeholders.
Jump in without instruction and embrace a 'no job too big, no job too small' mindset.
Shape strategy and culture.
Ship two to three products per year and learn from dozens more.
Have outsized autonomy on each product.
Work on the frontier of models and tooling.
Develop a strong muscle for AI product development.