Interested in this AI Software Engineer role at Blend Labs?
Apply Now →Skills & Technologies
About This Role
Blend is a diverse team of problem solvers who believe that the world’s financial resources should be more accessible. Our cloud banking platform is used by Wells Fargo, U.S. Bank, and over 330 other financial services firms to acquire more customers, increase productivity, and deliver end\-to\-end digital experiences. Our software enables our customers to process an average of more than $5 billion in loans per day, making it possible for consumers to reach their financial goals faster and lead better lives. Come do work that matters.
As a Software Engineer at Blend, you will design, implement, and maintain the platform that powers 20% of mortgages in the US. You'll work closely with our product development team to translate customer needs into functional, scalable software — and you'll do it the modern way: with AI coding agents woven into every stage of your development lifecycle. We're an engineering organization that builds AI\-first, and we're looking for early\-career engineers who already work that way instinctively.
### *Please note this role is in\-office in Raleigh, North Carolina.*
How you'll contribute:
--------------------------
- Build features end\-to\-end across the stack — from responsive, accessible user interfaces to resilient, scalable back\-end services.
- Use AI coding agents such as Claude Code, Cursor, or Codex daily across the software development lifecycle: planning, design, codebase analysis, implementation, testing, documentation, code review, and refactoring.
- Apply and help evolve our AI\-driven development lifecycle (AIDLC) practices — spec\-driven development, agentic workflows, and effective context and prompt engineering — and share what you learn with the team.
- Review, test, and harden AI\-generated code to production quality. You own everything you ship, no matter who (or what) wrote the first draft.
- Collaborate with cross\-functional teams to translate business requirements into technical specifications and code.
- Work with product managers and UI/UX designers to implement new features and enhancements with a seamless, accessible user experience across devices.
- Design and develop applications that scale, with maintenance, resiliency, and robustness in mind.
- Identify and troubleshoot software defects and issues, ensuring timely resolution.
- Participate in code reviews to maintain code quality — including thoughtful review of AI\-assisted contributions — and offer peer mentorship and guidance.
- Participate in the team's on\-call rotation.
- Create your own story! Some of Blend's best features have come from engineering initiatives. You'll have an opportunity to propose new ideas and build features end\-to\-end.
Who you are:
----------------
- You have a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field (or equivalent practical experience) with 1–3 years of experience building production software.
- You use AI to write code every day. Tools like Claude Code, Cursor, or Codex aren't experiments for you — they're core to how you work, and you stay current as they evolve.
- You're proficient in the latest AIDLC techniques: decomposing problems into well\-scoped tasks an agent can execute, writing effective specs and prompts, managing context, and critically evaluating AI output for correctness, security, and maintainability.
- You're a full\-stack developer: comfortable in back\-end development with languages such as Node.js, TypeScript, or Golang, and in front\-end technologies such as HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and modern frameworks like React.
- You have experience working with databases like Postgres, MongoDB, or similar technologies.
- You're hungry to learn. You have high learning velocity, you're curious about new tools and techniques, and you treat a fast\-changing toolchain as an opportunity rather than a burden.
- You're an excellent communicator who can operate independently and collaboratively in a fast\-paced environment, driving projects to a successful outcome.
Compensation:
- Base Salary Range: $92,000 – $109,000 (This applies to full time hires. Final offer determined by multiple factors, including but not limited to function, level, geographic location, job related knowledge, skills, and experience.)
- Bonus (if applicable): Eligibility is contingent upon both company performance against established goals and achievement of individual performance objectives.
- Equity : Meaningful Restricted Stock Units in public company stock (NYSE: BLND) so you share in Blend’s long\-term growth and success.
### Our Benefits at a Glance
We offer a comprehensive and competitive benefits package designed to support your health and work\-life balance.
### Health \& Wellbeing
- We offer medical, dental, and vision benefits, with a generous employer contribution that helps keep your medical insurance costs low.
- Company\-paid life, short\-term, and long\-term disability coverage
- Generous PTO, holidays, and maternity/parental leave
- Employee Assistance Program (EAP): mental health, legal, childcare \& eldercare, financial planning, college search, and more
- Voluntary benefits: accident, critical illness, hospital indemnity, identity theft, and legal insurance
- Monthly wellness stipend for fitness, mental health, and well\-being
- Additional perks: Milk Stork, pet insurance, and paid volunteer time off
### Growth \& Future
- 401(k) retirement plan with company match
- Pre\-tax savings: healthcare \& dependent care FSAs, Limited Purpose FSA, and HSA
Salary Context
This $92K-$109K range is in the lower quartile 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 Blend Labs, 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. Mid-level AI roles across all categories have a median of $194,400. This role's midpoint ($100K) sits 54% below the category median. Disclosed range: $92K to $109K.
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.
Blend Labs AI Hiring
Blend Labs has 1 open AI role right now. They're hiring across AI Software Engineer. Based in Raleigh, NC, US. Compensation range: $109K - $109K.
Location Context
Across all AI roles, 15% (635 positions) offer remote work, while 3,657 require on-site attendance. Top AI hiring metros: New York (1,650 roles, $220,000 median); San Francisco (1,335 roles, $265,000 median); Los Angeles (708 roles, $214,112 median).
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
Get Weekly AI Career Intelligence
Salary data, skills demand, and market signals from 16,000+ AI job postings. Every Monday.