Staff Software Engineer, AI Developer Tooling

About Scale

At Scale, our mission is to develop reliable AI systems for the world's most important decisions. Our products provide the high-quality data and full-stack technologies that power the world's leading models, and help enterprises and governments build, deploy, and oversee AI applications that deliver real impact. We work closely with industry leaders like Meta, Ernst & Young, Mayo Clinic, Time Inc., the Government of Qatar, and U.S. government agencies including the Army and Air Force.

Our products include the Generative AI Data Engine, SGP, Donovan, and others that power the most advanced LLMs and generative models in the world through world-class RLHF, human data generation, model evaluation, safety, and alignment.

About the Role

At the foundation of these products is the Platform Engineering team. In this role, you will redefine how engineers develop, build, test, and deploy software at Scale using AI development tools in addition to traditional practices. You'll get widespread exposure to the forefront of the AI race as Scale sees it in enterprises, startups, governments, and large tech companies.

Responsibilities

• Define next-generation AI development tooling and frameworks using products like Cursor, Claude Code, OpenAI Codex, and MS Copilot, as well as in-house custom-built solutions
• Drive the architecture, design, and implementation of our local development process, build, test, continuous integration, and continuous delivery systems, working closely with stakeholders and internal customers to understand and refine requirements
• Directly mentor software engineers ranging from new grads to experienced engineers
• Proactively identify opportunities and drive improvements to software development practices, processes, tools, and languages
• Present technical information to teams and stakeholders, providing guidance and insight on development processes and technologies

Requirements

• 8+ years of full-time engineering experience, post-graduation, with experience in build, test, or CI/CD systems
• Extensive experience defining and evangelizing best-practices for AI development tools, including cost guardrails, security frameworks, and hosting knowledge-sharing sessions, among others
• Extensive experience in software development and a deep understanding of distributed systems and public cloud platforms (AWS preferred)
• Experience configuring, testing, and enabling MCP servers, AI agents, and other associated systems
• Track record of independent ownership of successful engineering projects
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills, and the ability to translate complex technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders
• Experience working fluently with standard infrastructure, containerization, and deployment technologies like Terraform, Docker, Kubernetes, etc.
• Experience with modern web frameworks like NodeJS, NextJS, etc.
• Strong knowledge of software engineering best practices and CI/CD tooling (CircleCI, Helm, ArgoCD)

Nice to Haves

• Experience scaling products at hyper-growth startups
• Experience with modern build systems like Bazel, Buck, Pants, etc.

Compensation and Benefits

Compensation packages at Scale for eligible roles include base salary, equity, and benefits. Scale employees in eligible roles are also granted equity based compensation, subject to Board of Director approval.

Base salary range for San Francisco, New York, Seattle: $252,000—$315,000 USD

The range displayed reflects the minimum and maximum target for new hire salaries for the position and may be inclusive of several career levels at Scale; it will be determined during the interview process based on work location and additional factors, including job-related skills, experience, qualifications, interview performance, and relevant education or training.

Additional benefits include:

• Comprehensive health, dental and vision coverage
• Retirement benefits
• Learning and development stipend
• Generous PTO
• Commuter stipend (may be eligible for this role)

Your recruiter can share more about the specific salary range for your preferred location during the hiring process, and confirm whether the hired role will be eligible for equity grant.

Equal Opportunity

We believe that everyone should be able to bring their whole selves to work, which is why we are proud to be an inclusive and equal opportunity workplace. We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability status, gender identity or Veteran status.

We are committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodations to applicants with physical and mental disabilities. If you need assistance and/or a reasonable accommodation in the application or recruiting process due to a disability, please contact us at accommodations@scale.com.

Policy Notes

Our policy requires a 90-day waiting period before reconsidering candidates for the same role. This allows us to ensure a fair and thorough evaluation of all applicants.

We collect, retain and use personal data for our professional business purposes, including notifying you of job opportunities that may be of interest and sharing with our affiliates. We limit the personal data we collect to that which we believe is appropriate and necessary to manage applicants' needs, provide our services, and comply with applicable laws. Any information we collect in connection with your application will be treated in accordance with our internal policies and programs designed to protect personal data.