Staff Software Engineer, AI Email Applications, Artificial Intelligence (AI) Required - Work From Home
Next Step Systems Open · verified Oct 24, 2026 At a glance
Senior Engineering Leadership role at Next Step Systems. Remote, United States · full-time · $150,000–$180,000 base.
techroles summary, based on the employer's posting.
What you'll do
- Set engineering direction across backend, mobile and desktop, then carry that plan through delivery
- Design AI workflows that manage state, tool use, retries, fallback paths and failures
- Build the APIs and software layers that connect AI systems to product experiences
- Lead senior engineers through technical reviews and direct mentorship while staying hands-on
- Set up monitoring, testing and observability, and balance speed, cost, reliability and user experience
What you bring
- AI experience is required, including work integrating machine learning or large language model capabilities into products
- You have substantial experience leading product or application engineering for complex systems
- You have built and shipped backend software that runs in production
- You bring deep expertise in at least one client or backend platform, with the ability to work across them
Who this fits
This suits a hands-on technical leader who wants to guide a small team while remaining close to implementation. The role is fully remote and requires completing a sixty-minute coding assessment.
From the employer
Staff Software Engineer, AI Email Applications, Artificial Intelligence (AI) Required - Work From Home
As the Staff Software Engineer, AI Email Applications, you own the engineering layer that turns AI capability into a reliable product. You will shape the architecture across backend services, APIs, and client applications, while leading a small team of senior engineers. This is a hands-on leadership role. You stay close to the code, make critical architectural decisions, and ensure the system remains fast, reliable, and coherent as it scales. This position is 100% Remote.
MUST BE WILLING TO TAKE A 60 MINUTE CODING ASSESSMENT.
Staff Software Engineer Responsibilities:
- Own the application engineering strategy and execution across backend, mobile, and desktop.
- Design reliable systems for AI-powered workflows, including state, orchestration, tool use, retries, fallbacks, and failure handling.
- Build the APIs and abstractions that connect Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems to real-world product experiences.
- Lead a small, senior engineering team and raise the technical bar through design reviews, code reviews, and hands-on mentorship.
- Make high-impact trade-offs across latency, reliability, cost, security, and user experience.
- Establish strong production foundations: observability, monitoring, testing, and operational excellence.
- Partner closely with Machine Learning (ML) leadership to turn model capabilities into robust, shippable product experiences.
- Move quickly while keeping the architecture simple, maintainable, and ready to scale.
Staff Software Engineer Outcomes:
- Production systems are observable, monitored, and stable under real-world load.
- Decisions consistently balance speed, cost, reliability, and user experience.
- Features across backend, mobile, and desktop work smoothly and reliably.
- Latency and reliability improve measurably over time.
Staff Software Engineer Qualifications:
- Artificial Intelligence (AI) experience required.
- Significant experience leading application or product engineering for complex systems.
- Strong hands-on background building and shipping backend systems used in production.
- Experience building AI-powered products or systems that integrate with modern Machine Learning (ML)/Large Language Model (LLM) capabilities.
- Strong technical judgment and the ability to make decisions with incomplete information.
- Comfortable working across backend and client platforms, with deep expertise in at least one.
- A strong bias toward ownership, shipping, and learning from real-world usage.
- High standards for code quality, reliability, and engineering fundamentals.
Benefits include medical insurance, Dental, Vision, Savings Plan Options, PTO, etc.
Keywords: San Francisco CA Jobs, AI, Artificial Intelligence, AI Email Applications, APIs, Backend, Desktop, LLM, Large Language Model, ML, Machine Learning, Mobile, Staff Software Engineer, Work From Home, Remote, California Recruiters, IT Jobs, California Recruiting
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Please check out all of our jobs at www.nextstepsystems.com.
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