AI Staff Engineer

About the role

We're looking for a rare kind of engineer: someone who thinks AI-first, ships end-to-end, and moves at a pace that makes a small team feel like a large one. You won't be handed tickets - you'll be handed problems, often loosely defined, and trusted to decide what to build, build it, and get it in front of real restaurants and their customers fast. This is a high-ownership, founding-level role on our growing NYC team. You'll shape how AI shows up across the Sauce platform - from delivery optimization to the tools our restaurants and operators use every day. If you're the kind of person who saw a new model launch and shipped a working product that weekend, we want to talk.

Responsibilities

• Take ambiguous product ideas from zero to shipped - design, build, deploy, and iterate, largely on your own
• Build AI-native features (agents, RAG, tool-use, structured outputs, evals) as core product, not bolted-on demos
• Own the full stack: frontend, backend, data, model integration, and the glue in between
• Stand up the feedback loops - evals, telemetry, fast iteration - that make AI products reliable in production
• Make pragmatic build-vs-buy calls and keep the team on the frontier of what models can do
• Partner closely with product and operations to turn real restaurant problems into shipped solutions
• Raise the bar on velocity and product taste for everyone around you

Requirements

• Hands-on experience building with LLM APIs and SDKs (OpenAI, Anthropic, or open models) - writing code against the models, not wiring up no-code/automation tools
• Strong full-stack ability: you can own a feature from database to UI without waiting on anyone (TypeScript / Python and a modern web stack)
• At least 8 years of professional software engineering experience, with 3+ years building and shipping production full-stack applications
• A builder first: a public trail - open-source repos, side projects, demos, or products with real users - that shows what you ship when no one's telling you what to build
• AI-first by default: you reach for models to solve problems, keep up with the ecosystem without being told to, and know what works in production vs. what's just a nice demo
• Product-minded: you care about the user and the outcome, not just the diff - you can decide what to build, not only how
• Fast: you compress weeks into days, shipping and iterating instead of polishing in private
• Comfortable with ambiguity and a small, fast-moving team

Nice to have

• A meaningful open-source project people actually use (stars, forks, downloads, dependents)
• AI apps you launched solo that gained real traction
• Experience with agent/eval frameworks, vector stores, and production LLM tooling
• A history of being early - building in a space before it was obvious
• Contributions to leading AI or developer-tool projects
• Experience in marketplaces, logistics/delivery, or restaurant/local-commerce tech

Benefits

• Strong & Competitive Compensation Package, Including Equity
• Company-Sponsored Insurance Package (Health, Dental, Vision, Mental Health)
• Paid Parental Leave
• Flexible Work Environment
• Responsible Paid Time Off Policy