Staff AI Software Engineer

Nextiva

1d • Remote

About The Position

At Nextiva, we’re reimagining how businesses connect, bringing together customer experience and team collaboration on a single, conversation centric platform. Powered by AI, driven by human innovation. Our culture is forward thinking, customer obsessed and built on the belief that meaningful connections drive better business outcomes. Whether it’s through our signature Amazing Service®, the technology we create, or the experiences we cultivate, connection is at the core of who we are. If you’re ready to collaborate with incredible people, make an impact, and help businesses everywhere deliver truly amazing experiences, this is where you belong.

The Staff Engineer – AI is a hands-on individual contributor role for an experienced engineer with deep technical expertise in Python, distributed systems, and system design. This role will help design, build, and launch new AI-focused initiatives while working across Nextiva engineering teams and with external technology partners.
As a Staff Engineer, you will operate at the intersection of hands-on engineering, system design, and early-stage solutioning. You will take ownership of new capabilities from initial technical discussions through design, development, and launch. This is not an architecture-only position; we are looking for someone who remains close to the code and is comfortable building alongside the team.
You will work on initiatives involving NextIQ capabilities, including collaboration with the Google Gemini team to bring capabilities built within Nextiva into partner environments. You will also work closely with U.S.-based Nextiva product and engineering teams, including teams working on NextOS, to extend NextIQ capabilities across the Nextiva ecosystem.
This role is ideal for an engineer who enjoys solving ambiguous problems, building new capabilities from the ground up, and taking end-to-end technical ownership while contributing as a deeply hands-on individual contributor.
We are seeking a Staff Engineer – AI to help accelerate new AI initiatives and support Nextiva’s mission of delivering exceptional customer experiences through a unified, modern platform powered by AI and automation.

Requirements

• 7–10+ years of relevant software engineering experience, with strong hands-on experience building and delivering production software.
• Very strong hands-on Python engineering skills.
• Strong system design capabilities.
• Experience designing and building distributed systems.
• Demonstrated experience owning and launching software modules or capabilities end to end.
• Experience taking technical initiatives from solutioning and design through development and launch.
• Ability and willingness to remain hands-on with coding at Staff Engineer level.
• Experience contributing to architecture and technical solutioning discussions.
• Ability to work effectively on new initiatives where requirements and technical approaches may still be evolving.
• Ability to collaborate effectively with internal engineering teams and external technology partners.
• Ability to work remotely within a time zone reasonably aligned with the Arizona-based team.

Nice To Haves

• Experience operating as a Staff Engineer or at a comparable level in a similarly sized or slightly larger organization.
• Experience building new products, modules, or technical capabilities from the ground up.
• Experience combining system-level design responsibilities with significant hands-on implementation.
• Experience collaborating directly with external technology partners.
• Experience working across distributed engineering teams.
• Use AI-assisted engineering tools as part of day-to-day development to improve productivity and accelerate coding, problem-solving, testing, and engineering workflows.
• Apply strong engineering judgment when working with AI-generated code or recommendations, including appropriate validation, testing, and technical review.
• Understand how AI capabilities can be integrated into larger products and partner environments while maintaining scalable system design.
• Stay current with evolving AI-assisted software engineering practices and apply them where they improve engineering effectiveness.
• Contribute directly to AI-related initiatives involving NextIQ and partner environments such as Google Gemini.
• Strong sense of ownership and accountability.
• Comfortable working through ambiguity and early-stage technical challenges.
• Able to move effectively between system design and hands-on implementation.
• Strong problem-solving and technical decision-making skills.
• Collaborative approach to working across engineering teams and external partners.
• Ability to take ownership of a capability through design, build, and launch.
• Self-directed and comfortable operating as a senior individual contributor.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and launch new AI-focused engineering capabilities and modules.
• Own engineering initiatives end to end, from early-stage solutioning and architecture through implementation and launch.
• Remain deeply hands-on with software development and contribute production code.
• Build solutions using Python and apply strong distributed-systems engineering principles.
• Participate in system design, architecture, and solutioning discussions with engineering teams.
• Work closely with the Google Gemini team on initiatives designed to bring NextIQ capabilities into Gemini.
• Collaborate with other external technology partners to extend Nextiva capabilities into their environments.
• Partner with U.S.-based Nextiva product and engineering teams on new initiatives.
• Work with teams supporting NextOS to help bring NextIQ capabilities into other areas of the Nextiva ecosystem.
• Navigate ambiguous, early-stage technical problems and translate them into practical engineering solutions.
• Take accountability for designing, building, and successfully launching the capabilities you own.

Benefits

• Multiple health plan options to suit your needs, including medical, dental, vision, and telemedicine coverage
• Life, disability, and supplemental indemnity plans
• Flexible Time Off for salaried employees, PTO for hourly employees, Paid Sick Time, Paid Parental Bonding Leave, and holiday pay
• 401(k) with company match, Health Savings Accounts with company contributions, Dependent Care FSA
• Employee Assistance Program (EAP) and comprehensive wellness initiatives
• Access to ongoing learning and development opportunities and career advancement

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Education Level: No Education Listed