Software Development Engineer III – AI & Agentic Systems

WEX•Washington, DC

1d•$121,500 - $145,500

About The Position

At WEX, a Software Development Engineer (SDE) Level 3 is a senior technical leader who designs complete services, solves complex integration problems, and drives the lifecycle of major initiatives from end to end. In this role, you will directly participate in WEX’s fast-paced AI-driven opportunities, acting as a key builder and strategist for next-generation technology. You will champion internal AI adoption by helping build AI-powered software (using tools such as Google Gemini, AWS Agent Core, Claude, and other third-party agentic integrations) while sharing education and coaching within the organization.

Requirements

Senior technical leader who designs complete services
Solves complex integration problems
Drives the lifecycle of major initiatives from end to end
Directly participate in WEX’s fast-paced AI-driven opportunities
Key builder and strategist for next-generation technology
Champion internal AI adoption by helping build AI-powered software
Share education and coaching within the organization
Design and deploy multi-agent workflows within AWS Agent Core
Effectively handle state management, memory persistence, and complex tool interactions
Help drive internal education and coaching initiatives for tools
Collaborate with external AI partners on new agentic opportunities
Design, build, and own the lifecycle of entire services and cross-platform integrations
Solve complex system gaps and drive overarching audit strategies
Make critical trade-off decisions on data orchestration
Build systems that handle failure gracefully by implementing retries, circuit breakers, and fallbacks
Ensure all designs are testable and maintainable long-term
Review code for security flaws
Ensure all services adhere strictly to WEX’s authentication standards
Design reliable cloud infrastructure
Proactively avoid resource over-provisioning
Own the automated deployment package and metadata framework
Write scripts or automation manifests to deploy configurations cleanly across sandbox tiers
Prevent environment drift
Build and optimize CI/CD pipelines
Focus heavily on reducing build times and tightening feedback loops
Capable of solving complex bugs (intermittent issues, race conditions, memory leaks)
Ensure the root cause is fixed permanently
Own Incidents for your services during outages
Create step-by-step triage runbooks and playbooks
Empower Tier 1/2 helpdesk teams or junior analysts to resolve common platform errors without escalation
Partner with Product Managers who define Functional requirements by owning the Non-Functional requirements (Performance, Security, Scalability) needed to meet business KPIs
Work with PMs to prioritize the backlog
Explicitly negotiate the inclusion of "Tech Debt" and "Refactoring" by explaining long-term business risks
Negotiate "Must Haves" vs. "Nice to Haves" to ensure sprint achievability
Offer alternative solutions that respect time and budget constraints
Enforce strict quality standards during code reviews with empathy
Reject sloppy or brittle "quick fixes"
Set the organizational standard for clean design patterns
Proactively mentor SDE 1s and 2s
Delegate work specifically to help them grow
Facilitate data-driven discussions to resolve engineering disagreements
Effectively de-escalate "religious wars" about technology
Ensure "quiet" voices are heard in design meetings
Rapidly learn and apply new languages or frameworks
Lead knowledge-sharing sessions
Seek out critical feedback
Context-switch effectively across workstreams when project parameters change

Responsibilities

Design and deploy multi-agent workflows within AWS Agent Core, effectively handling state management, memory persistence, and complex tool interactions.
Help drive internal education and coaching initiatives for tools with as Google Gemini Enterprise; collaborate with external AI partners on new agentic opportunities.
Design, build, and own the lifecycle of entire services and cross-platform integrations.
Solve complex system gaps and drive overarching audit strategies.
Make critical trade-off decisions on data orchestration (e.g., MCP/API, Agents/Skills) based on robust data and requirements.
Build systems that handle failure gracefully by implementing retries, circuit breakers, and fallbacks.
Ensure all designs are testable and maintainable long-term.
Review code for security flaws and ensure all services adhere strictly to WEX’s authentication standards (e.g., OAuth scopes).
Design reliable cloud infrastructure (e.g., auto-scaling groups, failover strategies) while proactively avoiding resource over-provisioning.
Own the automated deployment package and metadata framework.
Write scripts or automation manifests to deploy configurations cleanly across sandbox tiers, preventing environment drift.
Build and optimize CI/CD pipelines, focusing heavily on reducing build times and tightening feedback loops.
Capable of solving complex bugs (intermittent issues, race conditions, memory leaks), ensuring the root cause is fixed permanently.
Own Incidents for your services during outages.
Create step-by-step triage runbooks and playbooks that empower Tier 1/2 helpdesk teams or junior analysts to resolve common platform errors without escalation.
Partner with Product Managers who define Functional requirements by owning the Non-Functional requirements (Performance, Security, Scalability) needed to meet business KPIs.
Work with PMs to prioritize the backlog, explicitly negotiating the inclusion of "Tech Debt" and "Refactoring" by explaining long-term business risks.
Negotiate "Must Haves" vs. "Nice to Haves" to ensure sprint achievability.
Offer alternative solutions that respect time and budget constraints.
Enforce strict quality standards during code reviews with empathy ("Check tone").
Reject sloppy or brittle "quick fixes" while setting the organizational standard for clean design patterns.
Proactively mentor SDE 1s and 2s, delegating work specifically to help them grow.
Facilitate data-driven discussions to resolve engineering disagreements, effectively de-escalating "religious wars" about technology and ensuring "quiet" voices are heard in design meetings.
Rapidly learn and apply new languages or frameworks, lead knowledge-sharing sessions, seek out critical feedback, and context-switch effectively across workstreams when project parameters change.