Lead Software Engineer, AI Platform

About the role

Root is on a mission to unbreak insurance by creating experiences people love at prices they can't believe. The Opportunity AI Platform team builds the infrastructure, tooling, and operating patterns that make AI capabilities reliable, secure, and usable across Root’s products and operations. As a Lead Software Engineer on AI Platform, you will guide the team building this foundation, set quarterly technical direction, coordinate dependencies, and coach engineers while staying close to the hard technical work.

Responsibilities

• Turn a promising AI foundation into a capability Root teams can count on by leading delivery of shared services, tools, deployment patterns, and operational practices.
• Set quarterly technical priorities that balance today’s user needs with the foundational investments that unlock tomorrow’s products and workflows.
• Make AI easier to adopt and safer to operate by driving clear decisions on reliability, security, observability, cost, and developer experience.
• Bring the right partners together across product engineering, data, security, and platform teams to resolve dependencies before they slow delivery.
• Create reusable team patterns for architecture, testing, documentation, and production operations so good decisions scale beyond a single project.
• Grow the team’s technical capacity by coaching engineers through complex designs, delivery challenges, and the tradeoffs that matter.
• Build trust in the platform by keeping stakeholders clear on progress, risks, and the decisions that will improve outcomes.

Requirements

• 5+ years of experience as a software engineer.
• 1+ years leading software teams or major technical initiatives.
• Demonstrated ability to lead team‑level technical delivery and make sound decisions in partially defined problem spaces.

Qualifications

• Deep experience with cloud infrastructure, preferably AWS, Terraform, and modern DevOps practices.
• Experience designing secure, observable, reliable systems and incorporating technical investments into team roadmaps.
• Strong understanding of AI/LLM application and platform patterns, including their operational and security implications.
• Ability to identify cross‑team dependencies, align stakeholders, and improve delivery outcomes.

Skills

• A coaching mindset and track record of helping teammates grow through complex technical work.
• Clear written and verbal communication that drives alignment and action for a team.

Benefits

• Eligible for competitive bonus and equity offering.
• Flexible work location – support for working wherever works best for you across the US.

Pay

Salary Range: $164,200 - $240,000 (eligible for competitive bonus and equity offering).