Staff Software Engineer, Applied AI

Flock Freight • Encinitas, CA

4d • Hybrid

About The Position

Flock Freight is looking for a Staff Software Engineer, Applied AI to help the
company work differently with AI. This is a builder role: you will ship
AI-powered agents, copilot experiences, and integrations that accelerate how
Flock's workforce gets to the data and answers they need in their highly
transactional days. The primary focus is accelerating knowledge worker
productivity -- analytics agents for self-service data access, copilot
experiences that reduce time-to-insight, and streamlined back-office workflows.
Think: a scheduling coordinator who can ask a question in natural language and
get an answer from Snowflake in seconds. The secondary focus is contributing to
Freight Factory automation as product roadmap priorities dictate. Both areas are
product-driven. This role has optionality by design, with a natural path into
broader product engineering over time.

Team/Department Overview: Infrastructure Engineering – Reporting to the Senior
Director of Engineering, Infrastructure & Applied AI

Requirements

• 7+ years of software engineering experience, with at least 1 year in applied AI/ML or intelligent automation in production.
• Hands-on experience with LLMs (OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, or similar), including prompt engineering, RAG, function/tool calling, and agentic patterns.
• Strong software engineering fundamentals (data structures, algorithms, system design) and demonstrated ability to ship production applications at high velocity.
• Strong proficiency in Python and experience with APIs, data pipelines, and integration patterns.
• Experience with Git/GitHub workflows, CI/CD, and modern development practices.

Nice To Haves

• Experience with agentic AI frameworks (LangChain, LangGraph, CrewAI, or similar) or workflow orchestration tools.
• Familiarity with enterprise AI search/assistant platforms (e.g., Glean, Claude Cowork, or similar copilot-style tools).
• Experience with agentic process automation or RPA platforms (e.g. Sola).
• Experience in logistics, freight, or operations-heavy industries.
• Uses AI tools across its own development workflow, not just builds them for others. Stays current on the rapidly evolving landscape and forms strong opinions about what works.
• Prefers shipping working solutions over theoretical frameworks. Comfortable starting scrappy and iterating toward production quality.
• First hire of this kind, embedding across three teams -- earns trust fast, helps the people around you work better, and builds tools that scale.
• Comfortable in the freight world. Flock isn't a typical SaaS company. The work is deeply operational, and the people you're building for -- scheduling coordinators, account managers, operations teams -- need answers fast from the tools you will build.

Responsibilities

• Design and build agentic architecture that connects AI to enterprise data sources (e.g., Snowflake, operational databases), including evaluation and feedback loops that make solutions reliable over time.
• Build AI agents and automations using LLMs, RAG, agentic frameworks, and enterprise AI platforms to streamline back-office workflows and contribute to freight factory automation as roadmap priorities dictate.
• Define the technical roadmap for applied AI within corporate systems with high autonomy and ownership.
• Build copilot experiences that let employees query and act on operational data conversationally, partnering with data engineering to plug semantic layers and structured data interfaces into agents you build.
• Create reusable integration patterns and frameworks that connect enterprise platforms to AI capabilities, making the whole ecosystem smarter.
• Instrument and report on the business impact of every automation -- cost savings, hours saved, throughput gains -- to leadership.

Benefits

• Hybrid Work Model: As an organization we value in-office collaboration, working cross-functionally, and winning together. Through scheduled in-office and work from home days, we are able to work more efficiently and collaboratively.
• 401(k): We know Flock may just be a stepping stone in your epic journey, but we want to be sure you’re setting your future self up for success!
• Medical, Dental & Vision: Generous coverage for employees and dependents. Both HMO and PPO options provided.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level
• Education Level: No Education Listed
• Number of Employees: 101-250 employees