Senior Software Engineer, AI Applications

Hybrid: Persons in these roles are expected to spend part of their time on-site in our Seattle offices and may occasionally work remotely from their home in the Greater Seattle area. On-site requirements vary based on position and team. If you have questions about Hybrid work arrangements for this role, please ask your recruiter.

Compensation Range: $140,230 - $213,150

Who You Are:

You are a seasoned full-stack engineer with strong front-end expertise who thrives in greenfield environments where you have broad scope and the opportunity to wear multiple hats. You excel in building impactful, AI-powered solutions and take pride in delivering intuitive, high-performance user experiences. In this role, you’ll work closely with UX designers and AI/ML experts to create seamless interfaces that empower both end-users and researchers to interact effectively with our AI systems.

Who We Are: 

You’ll be joining the engineering team responsible for building Ai2’s ambitious flagship projects. This includes developing the infrastructure and systems that support "truly open" foundation models and our agentic AI research assistant. Our team works directly with world-class researchers to connect the dots between R&D, engineering, and real-world impact.

Your Next Challenge:

The essential functions include, but are not limited to the following:

• Engage in the entire software development lifecycle; from ideation and design to implementation and testing to deployment and operational support
• Scale our systems in a cost effective and sustainable manner and be a driving force behind continuous improvements in reliability and automation
• Improve team velocity through contributions to software design, feature development, platform and framework enhancements, capacity planning, and deployment tooling.
• Help set and maintain best practices in how we measure, monitor, and respond to system availability, latency, and general application health
• Mentor less-senior engineers on the team in both technical and non-technical skills

What You’ll Need:

Minimum qualifications:

• BS degree in Computer Science or related technical field where software development is a key component, or equivalent industry experience.
• 5+ years of experience building high quality software and services
• Experience in one or more of the following (or similar) languages: Javascript, Typescript, Python
• Experience with React for building dynamic user interfaces
• Experience with analytics tools like Heap, Datadog or similar for monitoring performance, system health, and user interactions
• Strong understanding of A/B testing methodologies and experience implementing experiments.
• Experience working with Large Language Models (LLMs) and a solid understanding of Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) and frameworks like LangChain or similar. Proficient in integrating AI-powered capabilities into applications, including prompt engineering, memory management, agent workflows, and external tool integrations

Preferred qualifications:

• Experience designing, scaling and troubleshooting large-scale distributed systems
• Experience with AWS, Google Cloud (or similar) cloud development
• Experience with FastAPI
• Experience designing and managing relational databases such as PSQL or similar
• Heightened sense of ownership for the performance and stability of services that provide value to millions of users
• Ability to think systematically about improving the process of developing and supporting software and the skills to translate these concerns into outcomes for our users and team
• Growth mindset: a desire to stretch the definition of the role and find additional ways to provide impact in a small team

Physical Demands and Work Environment:

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by a team member to successfully perform the essential functions of this position. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the functions.

• Must be able to remain in a stationary position for long periods of time. 
• The ability to communicate information and ideas so others will understand. Must be able to exchange accurate information in these situations. 
• The ability to observe details at close range.
• Can work under deadlines.

A Little More About Ai2:

Ai2 is a Seattle based non-profit AI research institute founded in 2014 by the late Paul Allen. Our mission is building breakthrough AI to solve the world’s biggest problems. We develop foundational AI research and innovation to deliver real-world impact through large-scale open models, data, robotics, conservation, and beyond.

In addition to Ai2’s core mission, we also aim to contribute to humanity through our treatment of each member of the Ai2 Team. Some highlights are:

• We are a learning organization – because everything Ai2 does is ground-breaking, we are learning every day. Similarly, through weekly Ai2 Academy lectures, a wide variety of world-class AI experts as guest speakers, and our commitment to your personal on-going education, Ai2 is a place where you will have opportunities to continue learning alongside your coworkers. 
• We value diversity - We seek to hire, support, and promote people from all genders, ethnicities, and all levels of experience regardless of age. We particularly encourage applications from women, non-binary individuals, people of color, members of the LGBTQA+ community, and people with disabilities of any kind. 
• We value inclusion - We understand the value that people's individual experiences and perspectives can bring to an organization, and we are building a culture in which all voices are heard, respected and considered.
• We emphasize a healthy work/life balance – we believe our team members are happiest and most productive when their work/life balance is optimized. While we value powerful research results which drive our mission forward, we also value dinner with family, weekend time, and vacation time. We offer generous paid vacation and sick leave as well as family leave.
• We are collaborative and transparent – we consider ourselves a team, all moving with a common purpose. We are quick to cheer our successes, and even quicker to share and jointly problem solve our failures.
• We are in Seattle – and our office is on the water! We have mountains, we have lakes, we have four seasons, we bike to work, we have a vibrant theater scene, and we have so much else. We even have kayaks for you to paddle right outside our front door. We welcome interest from applicants from outside of the United States.
• We are friendly– chances are you will like every one of the 200+ (and growing) people who work here. We do. 

Ai2 is proud to be an Equal Opportunity employer. We do not discriminate based upon race, religion, color, national origin, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, transgender status, sexual stereotypes, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, or other applicable legally protected characteristics. You may view the related Know Your Rights compliance poster and the Pay Transparency Nondiscrimination Provision by clicking on their corresponding links. 

This employer participates in E-Verify and will provide the federal government with your Form I-9 information to confirm that you are authorized to work in the U.S. If E-Verify cannot confirm that you are authorized to work, this employer is required to give you written instructions and an opportunity to contact the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) or Social Security Administration (SSA) so you can begin to resolve the issue before the employer can take any action against you, including terminating your employment. Employers can only use E-Verify once you have accepted a job offer and completed the Form I-9.

We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations to employees and applicants with disabilities to the full extent required by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). If you feel you need a reasonable accommodation pursuant to the ADA, you are encouraged to contact us at recruiting@allenai.org 

• Team members and their families are covered by medical, dental, vision, basic life insurance, basic accidental death and dismemberment insurance, short-term disability, long-term disability, and an employee assistance program.
• Team members are able to enroll in our voluntary life insurance program, our voluntary accidental death and dismemberment program, our health savings account plan, our healthcare reimbursement arrangement plan, and our health care and dependent care flexible spending account plans.
• Team members are able to enroll in our company’s 401k plan.
• Team members will receive $125 per month to assist with commuting or internet expenses and will also receive $200 per month for fitness and wellbeing expenses.
• Team members will also receive up to ten sick days per year, up to seven personal days per year, up to 20 vacation days per year and twelve paid holidays throughout the calendar year.
• Team members will be able to receive annual bonuses and can participate in the long-term incentive plan.

Note: This job description in no way states or implies that these are the only duties to be performed by the team members(s) of this position. Team members will be required to follow any other job-related instructions and to perform any other job-related duties requested by any person authorized to give instructions or assignments. All duties and responsibilities are essential functions and requirements and are subject to possible modification to reasonably accommodate individuals with disabilities. To perform this job successfully, the team member(s) will possess the skills, aptitudes, and abilities to perform each duty proficiently. Some requirements may exclude individuals who pose a direct threat or significant risk to the health or safety of themselves or others. The requirements listed in this document are the minimum levels of knowledge, skills, or abilities. This document does not create an employment contract, implied or otherwise, other than an at will relationship.