Staff Software Engineer, AI

Basis•Ontario, CA

About The Position

Basis is hiring a Staff Software Engineer, AI to serve as the technical lead for its AI Core team, which builds Compass, an AI agent platform for automating media planning, buying, and operations. The team develops orchestration, tooling, and evaluation infrastructure for reliable LLM-powered agents, and connects internal and customer agents to the Basis platform through MCP and A2A. It also enables other Basis Engineering teams by developing patterns and best practices for agentic and AI-assisted development. The role sets technical direction for Compass and LLM-powered features; architects multi-agent systems; and leads the design of MCP servers, A2A integrations, and APIs. It owns agent orchestration, evaluation, observability, production support, and end-to-end software quality. The Staff Engineer also represents the team in cross-team planning and architecture discussions, drives large technical projects, translates business goals into technical plans, mentors engineers, and advances AI-assisted and agentic development practices across Basis Engineering. Basis is headquartered in Chicago and offers flexible work options across the U.S. and Canada, including remote, hybrid, or on-site work at headquarters. The posted salary range is $136,908–$210,000 per year, with final compensation depending on location, experience, and skills. Total compensation may also include bonuses, equity, and benefits.

Requirements

At least 8 years of professional software engineering experience, including recent experience shipping production LLM-powered applications or agent systems.
Technical leadership experience, including owning a team's or major system's technical direction and influencing architecture beyond one's immediate area.
Expert-level Python proficiency and experience architecting production APIs and backend services and integrating protocols such as MCP and A2A.
Deep experience building and operating production-grade agentic systems with frameworks such as Strands, LangChain, or Claude Agent SDK.
Experience with asynchronous and event-driven patterns, prompt engineering, structured outputs, and techniques for improving agent reliability.
Sound judgment about when to optimize for speed and when to invest in quality.
Experience with evaluation and observability tools such as Langfuse or LangSmith, including creating evaluation strategies from the ground up.
Fluency with AI coding tools such as Claude Code, Cursor, or Codex, with strong judgment and ownership of AI-generated output.
Ability to mentor engineers and explain complex agentic systems to engineers, Product and Operations partners, and non-technical stakeholders.
Collaborative approach to design and decision-making that prioritizes equity, access, and continuous learning, and commitment to inclusive, respectful environments.

Nice To Haves

Bachelor's or advanced degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field.
Experience in ad tech, media planning systems, or programmatic advertising platforms.
Hands-on experience with AWS Bedrock, including Bedrock AgentCore (Runtime, Gateway, Identity).
Experience designing MCP tool sets or skills libraries adopted by multiple teams or external partners.
Experience with authentication and authorization for non-human actors, such as OAuth 2.0 flows for agents and token vaulting for third-party integrations.
Experience with RAG systems, vector databases, or knowledge retrieval approaches.

Responsibilities

Set the technical direction for Compass and LLM-powered features.
Architect multi-agent systems, make major design decisions, and balance rapid experimentation with stable, scalable architecture.
Lead the design and evolution of MCP servers, A2A integrations, and APIs connecting agents to the Basis media buying toolkit.
Own agent orchestration, evaluation, and observability; define how agent quality is measured and ensure reliable production behavior.
Own software end to end, including production support for Compass.
Serve as the primary technical contact for Product, QA, Design, Operations, other Engineering teams, and relevant stakeholders.
Represent the team in cross-team planning, architecture discussions, and RFCs.
Drive large-scale technical projects across teams and systems from ideation through production.
Own team deliverables, decisions, quality, process, and technical direction.
Understand business and stakeholder needs, translate goals into technical plans, and identify risks and blockers.
Maintain the team's technical quality bar through design and code reviews.
Onboard engineers, mentor senior and mid-level engineers, and model effective collaboration.
Lead adoption of AI-assisted and agentic development across Basis Engineering by establishing practices and building examples and infrastructure.
Foster a positive team culture aligned with Basis' core principles.
Promote Basis in the community.