Software Engineer Developer Productivity AI Tools

About the role

The role is focused on advancing how Thinking Machines Lab builds software internally, ensuring safety, speed, and joy in the process. The primary responsibility is to build AI-assisted tools for software development, collaborating with platform, security, and product engineers.

Responsibilities

• Enable researchers and engineers to leverage AI to enhance coding productivity while maintaining code quality.
• Standardize AI coding tools such as Claude Code, Cursor, and Codex, configuring, hardening, and maintaining them across the organization.
• Set up secure, reproducible agent sandboxes for remote development and continuous integration testing.
• Establish golden-path development environments and guidelines for handling secrets and personally identifiable information (PII).
• Support individual contributors in developing personalized AI-enhanced workflows.
• Track tool usage, reliability, and costs.

Requirements

• Minimum qualifications: Bachelor’s degree or equivalent industry experience in computer science, engineering, or a related field. Experience developing productivity tools and best practices for large codebases. Ability to communicate effectively and collaborate with researchers to build and manage internal tools.
• Preferred qualifications: Hands-on experience with container platforms, modern CI tools, and package management. Practical experience with AI coding tools and model APIs. Solid Linux/networking fundamentals; comfort with secrets management and safe egress. Proficiency in systems programming languages and scripting languages.

Skills

• Experience with container platforms (Docker/Kubernetes), modern CI (GitHub Actions/Buildkite), and package management tools (uv).
• Practical experience with AI coding tools and model APIs (OSS via vLLM / SGLang / TGI).
• Solid Linux/networking fundamentals; comfort with secrets management and safe egress.
• Proficiency in systems programming languages (Rust) and scripting languages (Python).

Pay

Depending on background, skills, and experience, the expected annual salary range for this position is $350,000 - $475,000 USD.

Schedule

This role is based in San Francisco, California.

Benefits

• Generous health, dental, and vision benefits.
• Unlimited PTO.
• Paid parental leave.
• Relocation support as needed.