Staff Software Engineer, AI Developer Tooling
Scale AI
CA$252,000 - CA$315,000 / year
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Description
Software is eating the world, but AI is eating software. We live in unprecedented times – AI has the potential to exponentially augment human intelligence. Every person will have a personal tutor, coach, assistant, personal shopper, travel guide, and therapist throughout life. As the world adjusts to this new reality, leading platform companies are scrambling to build LLMs at billion scale, while large enterprises figure out how to add it to their products.
At Scale, 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. The data we are producing is some of the most important work for how humanity will interact with AI.
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 also get widespread exposure to the forefront of the AI race as Scale sees it in enterprises, startups, governments, and large tech companies.
You will:
- 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.
Ideally you’d have:
- 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.
- Show a track record of independent ownership of successful engineering projects.
- Possess 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 packages at Scale for eligible roles include base salary, equity, and benefits. The range displayed on each job posting 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. Scale employees in eligible roles are also granted equity based compensation, subject to Board of Director approval. 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. You'll also receive benefits including, but not limited to: comprehensive health, dental and vision coverage, retirement benefits, a learning and development stipend, and generous PTO. Additionally, this role may be eligible for additional benefits such as a commuter stipend.
PLEASE NOTE: 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.
About Us:
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. We are expanding our team to accelerate the development of AI applications.
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. Please see the United States Department of Labor's Know Your Rights poster for additional information.
We comply with the United States Department of Labor's Pay Transparency provision.
PLEASE NOTE: 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. Please see our privacy policy for additional information.
Benefits
- vision insurance
- paid time off
- stock options
- professional development
About this role
Scale AI is building the infrastructure that powers the world's most advanced AI models, and this role puts you at the center of that effort. As Staff Software Engineer for AI Developer Tooling, you'd lead the Platform Engineering team in designing and implementing the next generation of development tools and practices—integrating AI-assisted coding platforms like Claude and Cursor alongside traditional CI/CD systems. You'd own the architecture of Scale's local development, build, test, and deployment processes while working directly with internal teams to understand their evolving needs.
This is a leadership position that blends hands-on technical depth with mentorship and organizational influence. You'd drive improvements across development practices and languages, present technical strategy to stakeholders, and mentor engineers at all levels. The role demands someone with 8+ years of engineering experience, particularly in build systems, CI/CD, and distributed infrastructure on AWS or similar platforms. You should be fluent in containerization and deployment tools like Terraform, Docker, and Kubernetes, comfortable with modern web frameworks, and ideally have hands-on experience with AI development tooling—including cost controls, security frameworks, and systems like MCP servers and AI agents.
The position is based in San Francisco and requires in-office work. Compensation ranges from $252,000 to $315,000 base salary, plus equity and benefits including health coverage, retirement, learning stipends, and PTO. This suits someone who wants to shape how engineers work with AI at scale, with exposure to how leading enterprises and governments are building generative AI applications.
How this employer is doing
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- News: Recently Raised Funding
- News: Growing or Expanding
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- Recently Raised Funding
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Pay for this role
$252,000 to $315,000 per year
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