Staff engineer on SoFi's internal AI Developer Experience team, owning end-to-end platform systems — AI gateway, model routing, eval platform, harness vending, and AI cost telemetry — that let SoFi engineers ship faster and safer with AI. Built with modern backend languages (Java/Kotlin/Python/Go/Scala), distributed systems, and cloud infra (AWS/GCP).
Compensation
Not disclosed
Location
CA - San Francisco; WA - Seattle
Work setup
Not specified
Seniority
Staff
Employment
Not specified
Experience
2+ years
Category
Software engineering
Posted
Skills
ai
aws
ci-cd
cli
cloud
containerization
data-governance
developer-experience
distributed-systems
finops
fintech
gcp
java
kotlin
llm
prompt-engineering
python
scala
Must have
Bachelor's + 3-4 years experience OR Master's + 2-3 years in software engineering, CS, or related field
Advanced programming expertise in at least one modern backend language (Java, Kotlin, Python, Go, or Scala)
Distributed systems expertise: security, concurrency, fault tolerance, horizontal scaling, idempotence
Track record of technical leadership on production platforms (feature delivery, cross-functional alignment, architecture)
Hands-on experience building AI-assisted developer tooling and LLM-based systems (coding assistants, autonomous agents, prompt engineering, tool execution frameworks)
Hands-on experience with cloud infrastructure (AWS/GCP), containerization, modern CI/CD pipelines, and on-call service ownership
Product-oriented engineering mindset treating internal developers as customers
Clear written and verbal communication, including structured technical design documents
Nice to have
Experience building or operating LLM evaluation pipelines, model proxies, or semantic request routing layers
Experience with cost telemetry, usage-based metering, or FinOps instrumentation
Background in fintech or adjacent environments under strict data compliance and security regulations
Full description
Employee Applicant Privacy NoticeWho we are:
Shape a brighter financial future with us.
Together with our members, we’re changing the way people think about and interact with personal finance.
We’re a next-generation financial services company and national bank using innovative, mobile-first technology to help our millions of members reach their goals. The industry is going through an unprecedented transformation, and we’re at the forefront. We’re proud to come to work every day knowing that what we do has a direct impact on people’s lives, with our core values guiding us every step of the way. Join us to invest in yourself, your career, and the financial world.The role:
SoFi's AI Platform team builds the foundation that enables every engineer at SoFi to ship faster, safer, and with higher leverage from AI. Our AI Developer Experience (AI DevEx) team owns SoFi's interactive coding strategy and underlying infrastructure: AI economics, coding harnesses and harness vending, our evaluation platform, the enterprise AI Gateway, and intelligent model routing.
As a founding Staff Software Engineer, you'll be a technical leader on the team: owning major platform systems, setting the team's engineering standards, and working closely with our Autonomous Coding, CI/CD, and Code Factory teams and the engineering teams we serve.
What you’ll do:
- Own platform systems end-to-end: design, build, and operate foundational components of the AI Gateway, model routing, eval platform, and harness vending, transforming broadly defined challenges into production-grade systems.
- Instrument AI economics: develop usage telemetry, cost allocation, and chargeback mechanisms that provide transparent visibility into AI spend per developer.
- Lead team execution: plan feature architecture and implementation paths, parallelize work streams across teammates, and align cross-team dependencies with product and engineering leaders.
- Guide technical design: facilitate design reviews, evaluate architectural trade-offs, and align critical technical outcomes with the broader SoFi engineering community.
- Establish technical standards: define coding conventions, automated patterns, and architectural standards that result in maintainable, extensible software for other engineers.
- Drive operational excellence: automate build, test, and deployment workflows; serve as a leading resolver on production incidents; and resolve root causes through post-incident actions.
- Maintain a 6-to-12-month technical vision: anticipate system growth, prioritize architectural hygiene, and make pragmatic build-versus-adopt choices across an evolving tooling ecosystem.
- Partner with internal engineering teams: engage directly with developers as primary customers to understand their workflows, drive adoption of interactive coding tools, and translate feedback into continuous system enhancements.
- Mentor and develop engineers: provide well-calibrated, constructive code and design feedback to accelerate team member growth.
What you’ll need:
- Education & Minimum Experience Requirements: Bachelor’s Degree + 3–4 Years of Experience OR Master’s Degree + 2–3 Years of Experience in software engineering, computer science, or a related field.
- Advanced programming expertise in at least one modern backend language (such as Java, Kotlin, Python, Go, or Scala).
- Proven distributed systems expertise with sound judgment evaluating trade-offs across security, concurrency, fault tolerance, horizontal scaling, and idempotence.
- Track record of technical leadership guiding feature delivery, cross-functional alignment, and architecture on production platforms.
- Hands-on experience developing with or building AI-assisted developer tooling and LLM-based systems (e.g., coding assistants, autonomous agents, prompt engineering, and tool execution frameworks).
- Hands-on experience with cloud infrastructure (AWS/GCP), containerization, modern CI/CD pipelines, and operational on-call service ownership.
- Product-oriented engineering mindset: commitment to treating internal developers as customers and measuring success through platform adoption and user sentiment.
- Clear written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to draft structured technical design documents and present options to diverse stakeholders.
AI-Assisted Engineering Expectations:
- Apply AI tools responsibly to prototype solutions, navigate unfamiliar codebases, and accelerate implementation velocity while upholding high security and safety standards.
- Critically inspect and validate AI-generated code, backing all implementations with comprehensive automated tests to ensure long-term maintainability.
- Maintain rigorous compliance with data governance and security policies, ensuring sensitive member data and proprietary assets are never exposed to unapproved tools.
- Elevate team productivity by establishing and sharing proven harnesses, prompt templates, and operational guardrails.
Nice to have:
- Direct experience building or operating LLM evaluation pipelines, model proxies, or semantic request routing layers.
- Experience with cost telemetry, usage-based metering, or FinOps instrumentation.
- Background in fintech or adjacent environments operating under strict data compliance and security regulations.
Compensation and Benefits
The base pay range for this role is listed below. Final base pay offer will be determined based on individual factors such as the candidate’s experience, skills, and location.
To view all of our comprehensive and competitive benefits, visit our Benefits at SoFi page!
SoFi provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion (including religious dress and grooming practices), sex (including pregnancy, childbirth and related medical conditions, breastfeeding, and conditions related to breastfeeding), gender, gender identity, gender expression, national origin, ancestry, age (40 or over), physical or medical disability, medical condition, marital status, registered domestic partner status, sexual orientation, genetic information, military and/or veteran status, or any other basis prohibited by applicable state or federal law.
The Company hires the best qualified candidate for the job, without regard to protected characteristics.
Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.
New York applicants: Notice of Employee Rights
SoFi is committed to an inclusive culture. As part of this commitment, SoFi offers reasonable accommodations to candidates with physical or mental disabilities. If you need accommodations to participate in the job application or interview process, please let your recruiter know or email accommodations@sofi.com.
We are unable to accommodate remote work from Hawaii, Alaska or Puerto Rico at this time.
Internal Employees
If you are a current employee, do not apply here - please navigate to our Internal Job Board in Greenhouse to apply to our open roles.