Senior AI Software Engineer (Product)

Role overview

Senior AI Software Engineer (Product) at Brightwheel. You will own AI-powered improvements across core workflows, design and build cross-cutting AI services, and help shape the data and system architecture. You’ll lead by example in AI-augmented engineering with a focus on measurable user and business outcomes.

Key missions

• Conceive and build cross-cutting AI services that support multiple product areas (e.g., classroom workflows, billing, family communication).
• Own the end-to-end product cycle as a hybrid PM+Eng+Data: talk with customers and internal teams, define success metrics, and design workflows and user experiences.
• Create shared abstractions and tools for AI, including:
  • common prompt and tool patterns
  • logging and monitoring
  • reusable components

Responsibilities

• Design AI-enabled data flows with safety constraints (guardrails, evaluation, monitoring).
• Build full-stack experiences while also creating reusable backend services and patterns for other teams.
• Drive decisions and alignment using prototypes, customer/internal feedback, success metrics, and working software.
• Handle sensitive educator and family data with secure, least-privilege designs.

Requirements

• Strong understanding of LLM limitations including hallucinations, safety, and evaluation; ability to design UX/data flows/guardrails around them.
• Product-driving technical leadership: validate hypotheses with prototypes and define success metrics using working software.
• Full-stack mindset with a platform approach: design data models and APIs, implement backend logic, and build front-end experiences.
• Backend engineering experience in at least one modern web stack: Ruby on Rails, Python, Go, or Node.
• Strong relational database skills and confidence working with larger datasets (modeling, performant queries, analytics).
• Proven experience shipping AI-powered products to production, improving real metrics (engagement, time saved, satisfaction, retention).
• Hands-on LLM experience in real applications, including prompt/tool design, RAG-style retrieval patterns, and production evaluation & monitoring.
• Web front-end experience, ideally React (or similar component-based framework).
• 2+ years professional software engineering with ownership of medium-to-large production systems.
• Evidence of applied AI thinking via a portfolio of projects, open-source, or writing.
• Formal CS training (4-year CS degree or equivalent).

Nice-to-haves

• Background in vertical SaaS, ecommerce, or other operations-heavy domains.
• Experience designing shared platforms/frameworks adopted by multiple teams (e.g., internal SDKs, evaluation services, experimentation tooling).
• Track record of raising quality/operations standards: secure, testable, maintainable code; automation of operations.
• AI-native workflow with modern AI coding assistants and lightweight orchestration tools.