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About This Role
Location
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New York City
Employment Type
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Full time
Location Type
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Hybrid
Department
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Engineering
Astronomer empowers data teams to bring mission\-critical software, analytics, and AI to life and is the company behind Astro, the industry\-leading unified DataOps platform powered by Apache Airflow®. Astro accelerates building reliable data products that unlock insights, unleash AI value, and powers data\-driven applications. Trusted by more than 800 of the world's leading enterprises, Astronomer lets businesses do more with their data. To learn more, visit www.astronomer.io.
About this role
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Apache Airflow is one of the most popular open\-source data platform tools. It powers the data platforms at nearly every large company and fast\-growing startups: Airbnb, Uber, OpenAI, Anthropic, Nike, Capital One, Disney all use Airflow extensively. At Astronomer, we’re the largest contributors to the project and are building commercial products around Airflow to make it easier to use, run, and scale.
We’re in a unique position: as the company behind Apache Airflow, we see data as it moves across entire organizations—from raw ingestion to production dashboards, machine learning models, and AI products. Leveraging this vantage point, our R\&D team is developing a global context layer for data—an intelligence layer that powers search and discovery, code generation for data and analytics, and automated root cause analysis. LLMs are already quite good at writing Python and SQL code against data platforms; we think this context layer will give them the metadata necessary for data practitioners everywhere to use LLMs effectively.
As a Software Engineer on this team, you’ll help design and build this foundation and the applications around it. You’ll work on some of the hardest and most exciting challenges in data—search, information retrieval, and AI for data pracitioners—while collaborating with a small, highly skilled team that values velocity, creativity, and impact. This role sits at the intersection of applied research, software engineering, and product: we think it takes someone who can work across the stack to build, release, and scale products successfully in this space.
What you get to do:
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- Shape the future of AI for data engineering \- build intelligent systems that understand, reason about, and optimize the flow of data across entire organizations.
- Design and engineer the brain of Astronomer’s context layer, crafting components that power data modeling, semantic search, retrieval, and code generation.
- Push the boundaries of applied AI \- experiment with LLMs, embeddings, and cutting\-edge retrieval techniques to create developer tools that deliver insights to you and our customers.
- Turn research into reality \- work side by side with R\&D and product teams to bring early AI concepts to life in the product experience.
- Solve high\-impact information retrieval and search challenges at a global scale, leveraging Astronomer’s unparalleled visibility into data pipelines across industries.
- Influence the technical vision and architecture for the next generation of AI\-driven data products.
- Represent Astronomer in the community \- through open\-source contributions, technical talks, and publications that showcase our leadership in AI and data innovation.
What you bring to the role:
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- Empathy for users, and a deep interest in improving the workflows of data professionals.
- Familiarity with early\-stage product development; comfortable working with ambiguity in a fast\-changing field.
- Experience with LLMs, vector databases, embeddings, or other applied AI areas—or a strong desire to dive in.
- A creative, experimental mindset: you enjoy exploring uncharted areas, validating hypotheses, and learning through iteration.
- Strong collaboration and communication skills—you can explain complex systems clearly to both technical and non\-technical audiences.
- A collaborative approach and comfort working in an evolving, research\-driven environment where ideas move quickly.
Bonus points if you have:
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- A passion for AI systems for data, developer tools, or machine learning infrastructure.
- Familiarity with Apache Airflow or other orchestration tools.
- Demonstrated contributions to open source projects.
- Experience in search, IR, or large\-scale data infrastructure.
- Exposure to early\-stage startups or R\&D organizations where ambiguity is the norm.
- Experience building out agentic systems on top of frontier models.
*The estimated total compensation for this role ranges from $168,000 \- $230,000 based on leveling and geography, along with an equity component and a comprehensive benefits package. This range is merely an estimate; actual compensation may deviate from this range based on skills, experience, and qualifications.*
\#LI\-Fulltime
\#LI\-Hybrid
At Astronomer, we value diversity. We are an equal opportunity employer: we do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.
Salary Context
This $168K-$230K range is above the median for AI Software Engineer roles in our dataset (median: $185K across 231 roles with salary data).
Role Details
About This Role
AI Software Engineers build the applications and systems that AI models run inside. They own the API layers, data pipelines, frontend integrations, and infrastructure that turn a model into a product users interact with. Every AI company needs engineers who can build the software around the AI.
The challenge is building reliable systems around inherently unreliable components. Models are probabilistic. They'll give different answers to the same question. They hallucinate. They're slow. They're expensive. Your job is to build an application layer that handles all of this gracefully while delivering a product that users trust and enjoy.
Across the 4,317 AI roles we're tracking, AI Software Engineer positions make up 7% of the market. At Astronomer, this role fits into their broader AI and engineering organization.
AI Software Engineer roles are among the most numerous in the AI job market. Every company deploying AI needs software engineers who understand AI integration patterns. The demand is broad, spanning startups to enterprises, across every industry adopting AI capabilities.
What the Work Looks Like
A typical week includes: building API endpoints that serve model inference with caching and fallback logic, designing the data pipeline that feeds context to a RAG system, implementing streaming responses in the frontend, debugging a race condition in the async inference pipeline, and optimizing database queries for the vector search layer. It's full-stack engineering with AI at the center.
AI Software Engineer roles are among the most numerous in the AI job market. Every company deploying AI needs software engineers who understand AI integration patterns. The demand is broad, spanning startups to enterprises, across every industry adopting AI capabilities.
Skills Required
Full-stack engineering skills with AI integration experience. Python and TypeScript are the most common requirements. You'll need to understand API design, database architecture, and how to build reliable systems around probabilistic outputs. Experience with streaming, async processing, and caching patterns is increasingly important as real-time AI applications proliferate.
Knowledge of vector databases, embedding APIs, and LLM integration patterns (function calling, structured outputs, retry logic) differentiates AI software engineers from general software engineers. Understanding cost optimization (caching strategies, model routing, batched inference) is valuable since inference costs can dominate application economics.
Strong postings describe the product you'll be building, the AI integration patterns you'll work with, and the scale requirements. Look for companies that have existing AI features and need engineers to improve and expand them, not companies that are 'planning to add AI' someday.
Compensation Benchmarks
AI Software Engineer roles pay a median of $218,500 based on 729 positions with disclosed compensation. Senior-level AI roles across all categories have a median of $227,400. This role's midpoint ($199K) sits 9% below the category median. Disclosed range: $168K to $230K.
Across all AI roles, the market median is $215,000. Top-quartile compensation starts at $266,300. The 90th percentile reaches $320,790. For comparison, the highest-paying categories include AI Safety ($287,500) and Research Engineer ($272,100). By seniority level: Entry: $110,000; Mid: $194,400; Senior: $227,400; Director: $274,554; VP: $241,000.
Astronomer AI Hiring
Astronomer has 1 open AI role right now. They're hiring across AI Software Engineer. Based in New York, NY, US. Compensation range: $230K - $230K.
Location Context
AI roles in New York pay a median of $220,000 across 1,650 tracked positions.
Career Path
Common paths into AI Software Engineer roles include Software Engineer, Full-Stack Developer, Backend Engineer.
From here, career progression typically leads toward Staff Engineer, AI Architect, Engineering Manager.
If you're a software engineer, you're already 80% there. Learn the AI integration patterns: RAG, streaming inference, function calling, structured outputs. Build a project that demonstrates you can wrap an AI model in a production-quality application with proper error handling, caching, and user experience. That's the portfolio piece that gets you hired.
What to Expect in Interviews
Technical screens look like standard software engineering interviews with an AI twist. Expect system design questions about building reliable applications around probabilistic models: handling streaming responses, implementing retry logic for API failures, and designing caching strategies for LLM outputs. Coding rounds test standard algorithms plus practical integration patterns like async processing and rate limiting.
When evaluating opportunities: Strong postings describe the product you'll be building, the AI integration patterns you'll work with, and the scale requirements. Look for companies that have existing AI features and need engineers to improve and expand them, not companies that are 'planning to add AI' someday.
AI Hiring Overview
The AI job market has 4,317 open positions tracked in our dataset. By seniority: 138 entry-level, 2,071 mid-level, 1,655 senior, and 453 leadership roles (Director, VP, C-Level). Remote roles make up 15% of the market (635 positions). The remaining 3,657 roles require on-site or hybrid attendance.
The market median for AI roles is $215,000. Top-quartile compensation starts at $266,300. The 90th percentile reaches $320,790. Highest-paying categories: AI Safety ($287,500 median, 34 roles); Research Engineer ($272,100 median, 227 roles); AI Engineering Manager ($244,000 median, 23 roles).
AI Software Engineer roles are among the most numerous in the AI job market. Every company deploying AI needs software engineers who understand AI integration patterns. The demand is broad, spanning startups to enterprises, across every industry adopting AI capabilities.
The AI Job Market Today
The AI job market spans 4,317 open positions across 15 role categories. The largest categories by volume: AI/ML Engineer (3,004), Data Scientist (345), AI Software Engineer (309). These three account for the majority of open positions, though smaller categories often have higher per-role compensation because of specialized skill requirements.
The seniority mix tells a story about where AI teams are in their maturity. Entry-level roles (138) are outnumbered by mid-level (2,071) and senior (1,655) positions, reflecting that most companies are past the 'build a team from scratch' phase and need experienced engineers who can ship production systems. Leadership roles (Director, VP, C-Level) total 453 positions, representing the bottleneck between technical execution and organizational strategy.
Remote work availability sits at 15% of all AI roles (635 positions), with 3,657 requiring on-site or hybrid attendance. The remote share has stabilized after the post-pandemic correction. Senior and specialized roles (Research Scientist, ML Architect) are more likely to be remote-eligible than entry-level positions, partly because experienced hires have more negotiating power and partly because these roles require less hands-on mentorship.
AI compensation is structured in clear tiers. The market median sits at $215,000. Top-quartile roles start at $266,300, and the 90th percentile reaches $320,790. These figures include base salary with disclosed compensation. Total compensation (including equity, bonuses, and sign-on) runs 20-40% higher at companies that offer those components.
Category matters for compensation. AI Safety roles lead at $287,500 median, while Prompt Engineer roles sit at $145,000. The spread between highest and lowest-paying categories reflects the premium on specialized technical skills versus broader analytical roles.
The most in-demand skills across all AI postings: Python (2,249 postings), Aws (1,224 postings), Azure (938 postings), Rag (915 postings), Gcp (660 postings), Pytorch (640 postings), Prompt Engineering (624 postings), Kubernetes (559 postings). Python dominates, appearing in the vast majority of role descriptions regardless of category. Cloud platform experience (AWS, GCP, Azure) is the second most common requirement. The newer entrants to the top skills list (RAG, vector databases, LLM APIs) reflect the shift from traditional ML toward generative AI applications.
Frequently Asked Questions
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