Staff Software Engineer, Clerk Chat

• You're obsessed with building reliable, low-latency infrastructure and equally passionate about crafting prompts and orchestration layers that make AI feel magical. You understand that great AI products aren't just about the models—they're about the systems that surround them. You take ownership of complex problems, influence technical direction across teams, and elevate those around you
• 10+ years of software engineering experience, with significant time spent in backend or infrastructure roles
• Deep expertise in Python or Go (or similar languages) for building production systems
• Hands-on experience with LLMs—prompt engineering, fine-tuning, RAG architectures, or building AI-powered features
• Strong understanding of distributed systems, including event-driven architectures, async processing, and real-time data pipelines
• Experience with low-latency systems where milliseconds matter
• Track record of technical leadership—influencing architecture, mentoring engineers, and driving cross-functional initiatives
• Excellent communication skills—you can explain complex technical concepts clearly to both engineers and non-technical stakeholders
• A bias toward shipping—you balance technical excellence with pragmatism

Desirable

• As a Staff Software Engineer focused on Backend & AI, you are a technical leader who thrives at the intersection of systems engineering and applied AI
• Design and build backend systems that power real-time voice AI at scale, with a relentless focus on latency, reliability, and observability
• Develop and refine AI prompting strategies for conversational voice agents, optimizing for natural dialogue, accuracy, and edge-case handling
• Own the AI orchestration layer—from prompt engineering to context management, tool calling, and response streaming
• Drive architectural decisions that shape our voice AI pipeline, including integration with STT, TTS, and LLM providers
• Build evaluation frameworks to measure and iterate on AI performance, including automated testing for prompt quality and regression detection
• Collaborate closely with product and customers to translate real-world use cases into robust AI behaviors
• Mentor engineers and raise the technical bar across the organization
• Contribute to technical strategy as a key voice in how we build and scale our platform