Staff Software Engineer, AI Foundations

Temporal is an open source programming model that can simplify code, make applications more reliable, and help developers focus on delivering features faster. We are on a mission to be the reliable foundation of every developer’s toolbox, building a team that values curiosity, drive, collaboration, genuineness, and humility. If you have a passion for improving the developer experience and building world-class open-source software, we’d love to hear from you.

About the role

Temporal provides a reliable foundation powering AI leaders such as OpenAI, NVIDIA, Cursor, Lovable, Replit, and others. Its adoption spans a broad range of AI applications, from agents to data pipelines. The AI Foundations team accelerates Temporal adoption across the ecosystem by combining deep use-case understanding with technical principles like computer systems and software design fundamentals.

This role focuses on agentic development, maintaining agent skills that boost tools like Codex and Claude Code, and expanding Temporal’s partner ecosystem through a plugin system for frameworks such as Pydantic AI, AI SDK by Vercel, Google ADK, and OpenAI Agents SDK. You’ll work at the forefront of the agentic coding revolution while grounding solutions in technical fundamentals.

Responsibilities

• Maintain and expand a deep understanding of agentic coding.
• Design and build agentic coding systems that deliver high-quality outputs.
• Implement Temporal AI SDK features supporting a variety of frameworks and libraries.
• Develop expertise in AI application development patterns, including emerging approaches.
• Take end-to-end ownership of new features, collaborating with teams to ensure reliability and a great developer experience.
• Work with multiple programming languages: Python, TypeScript, Java, and Go.
• Serve as a domain expert on AI design patterns, collaborating with field staff to provide best practices and canonical examples.
• Engage directly with the developer community to debug issues and gather feedback on Temporal features and APIs.
• Write public technical documentation for Temporal concepts and APIs.
• Provide rare but critical engineering expertise to support customers in need.
• Travel once or twice a year for team offsites and occasionally attend developer conferences (optional).

What You Won’t Do

• Work as a Data Scientist, Data Analyst, DevOps SWE, or SRE.
• Work in an office (Temporal is fully remote).
• Commit poorly-tested or unreliable code—Temporal aspires to be “Reliable as Gravity.”
• Work behind closed doors—our work is open source, including PRs and public comments.
• Sit in meetings all day—we communicate mainly in writing and use meetings for status updates or thorny issues.
• Handle 24/7 on-call or pager alerts.

Requirements

• 8+ years of professional work experience.
• Experience and passion for harnessing generative AI, particularly for agents and coding.
• A deep understanding of how to use AI to increase quality, not just quantity.
• A thoughtful, opinionated approach to code and software development practices.
• A track record of open-source contributions, including to third-party libraries.
• Fluency in multiple programming languages and an affinity for learning new ones.
• Deep experience with concurrent programming (mutexes, atomics, and other concurrency primitives).
• Experience designing APIs and writing documentation for public libraries or modules.
• Strong technical communication skills (written and verbal) in English.
• BS or MS in Computer Science (or equivalent work experience writing production-grade software).

Nice to Have

• Familiarity with Temporal’s programming model (e.g., you’ve written an app on Temporal).
• Experience building agents or other AI applications.
• Background in machine learning, model training, data science, or ML systems.
• Experience contributing to the architecture and design of large-scale distributed systems.
• Graduate degree in Computer Science.

Benefits

• U.S. Benefits:
  • Unlimited PTO, 12 holidays + 2 floating holidays.
  • 100% premium coverage for medical, dental, and vision.
  • AD&D, long-term & short-term disability, and life insurance (standard & supplemental available).
  • Empower 401K Plan.
  • Additional perks: learning & development, lifestyle spending, home office setup, professional memberships, WFH meals, internet stipend, and more.
• International Benefits:
  • Paid time off and benefits vary by country, issued in partnership with Remote.com.
  • Perks for all international employees: learning & career development, lifestyle spending account, home office setup, professional memberships, WFH meals, and access to the Calm app for mental wellness.

Pay

The estimated pay range for this role is $224,000 - $302,400, plus eligibility to participate in Temporal's equity plan. Compensation reflects salary and commission (when applicable) across geographic markets, considering prior experience, knowledge, expertise, skillset, market location, and job level.

Schedule

• Fully remote work.
• Occasional travel for company events, team offsites, or developer conferences (optional).