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About This Role
Senior AI Software Engineer \- HP IQ
Description \-
Who We Are
HP IQ is HP’s new AI innovation lab. Combining startup agility with HP’s global scale, we’re building intelligent technologies that redefine how the world works, creates, and collaborates.
We’re assembling a diverse, world\-class team—engineers, designers, researchers, and product minds—focused on creating an intelligent ecosystem across HP’s portfolio. Together, we’re developing intuitive, adaptive solutions that spark creativity, boost productivity, and make collaboration seamless.
We create breakthrough solutions that make complex tasks feel effortless, teamwork more natural, and ideas more impactful—always with a human\-centric mindset.
By embedding AI advancements into every HP product and service, we’re expanding what’s possible for individuals, organisations, and the future of work.
Join us as we reinvent work, so people everywhere can do their best work.
### About The Role
The AI team is building cutting\-edge solutions that bring the power of AI directly to edge devices while seamlessly integrating with cloud infrastructure. We are looking for a Senior Software Engineer to design and develop high\-performance, scalable services to support AI workloads across edge and cloud environments.
### What You Might Do
- Design, build, and maintain services that power AI\-driven applications, ensuring scalability and performance.
- Develop APIs and microservices that facilitate seamless integration between cloud\-based AI models and edge devices.
- Optimize data pipelines and storage solutions for real\-time AI inference and processing.
- Implement security and privacy best practices for distributed AI systems.
- Work closely with AI researchers, infrastructure engineers, and frontend developers to deliver end\-to\-end AI\-driven solutions.
- Build and optimize an agent orchestration runtime that enables tool use, memory management, and multi\-step reasoning across LLMs, APIs, and edge\-connected systems.
- Develop robust logging, monitoring, and alerting systems to ensure system reliability.
### Essential Qualifications
- 5\+ years of experience in backend software development, with strong proficiency in Java, C\+\+, or Python.
- Proficient in LLM integration into multi\-agent systems with strong understanding of agent orchestration, tool use, and memory/context management.
- Comfortable tinkering with LLMs via prompting and experienced with tools use, task decomposition, and structured outputs.
- Experience building distributed systems, microservices, and cloud\-native applications.
- Strong knowledge with building secure, privacy\-aware interfaces between models, devices, and external services.
- Familiarity with database management systems (SQL and NoSQL) and data streaming technologies.
- Strong problem\-solving skills and ability to work in a fast\-paced, agile environment.
### Preferred Skills
- Experience with AI model deployment and integration into backend services.
- Knowledge of edge computing, networking, and security best practices.
- Exposure to cloud\-edge hybrid architectures and distributed AI workloads.
- Familiarity with on\-device AI frameworks such as TensorFlow Lite, ONNX Runtime, or CoreML.
Salary range: $149,000 \- $240,000
Compensation \& Benefits (Full\-Time Employees)
The salary range for this role is listed above. Final salary offered is based upon multiple factors including individual job\-related qualifications, education, experience, knowledge and skills.
At HP IQ, we offer a competitive and comprehensive benefits package, including:
- Health insurance
- Dental insurance
- Vision insurance
- Long term/short term disability insurance
- Employee assistance program
- Flexible spending account
- Life insurance
- Generous time off policies, including;
+ 4\-12 weeks fully paid parental leave based on tenure
+ 11 paid holidays
+ Additional flexible paid vacation and sick leave ( US benefits overview )
Job \-
Software
Schedule \-
Full time
Shift \-
No shift premium (United States of America)
Travel \-
Relocation \-
Equal Opportunity Employer (EEO) \-
HP, Inc. provides equal employment opportunity to all employees and prospective employees, without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, sexual orientation, age, disability, or status as a protected veteran, marital status, familial status, physical or mental disability, medical condition, pregnancy, genetic predisposition or carrier status, uniformed service status, political affiliation or any other characteristic protected by applicable national, federal, state, and local law(s).
Please be assured that you will not be subject to any adverse treatment if you choose to disclose the information requested. This information is provided voluntarily. The information obtained will be kept in strict confidence.
For more information, review HP’s EEO Policy or read about your rights as an applicant under the law here: “ Know Your Rights: Workplace Discrimination is Illegal "
Salary Context
This $149K-$240K range is above the median for AI Software Engineer roles in our dataset (median: $183K across 194 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 3,708 AI roles we're tracking, AI Software Engineer positions make up 7% of the market. At HP, 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 $219,250 based on 424 positions with disclosed compensation. Senior-level AI roles across all categories have a median of $230,000. This role's midpoint ($194K) sits 11% below the category median. Disclosed range: $149K to $240K.
Across all AI roles, the market median is $217,500. Top-quartile compensation starts at $272,100. The 90th percentile reaches $325,000. For comparison, the highest-paying categories include AI Safety ($300,000) and Research Engineer ($280,000). By seniority level: Entry: $120,000; Mid: $200,000; Senior: $230,000; Director: $272,150; VP: $250,000.
HP AI Hiring
HP has 3 open AI roles right now. They're hiring across AI Software Engineer, MLOps Engineer, Data Scientist. Positions span San Francisco, CA, US, Spring, TX, US. Compensation range: $205K - $240K.
Location Context
AI roles in San Francisco pay a median of $277,088 across 810 tracked positions. That's 27% above the national 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 3,708 open positions tracked in our dataset. By seniority: 102 entry-level, 1,705 mid-level, 1,469 senior, and 432 leadership roles (Director, VP, C-Level). Remote roles make up 14% of the market (508 positions). The remaining 3,180 roles require on-site or hybrid attendance.
The market median for AI roles is $217,500. Top-quartile compensation starts at $272,100. The 90th percentile reaches $325,000. Highest-paying categories: AI Safety ($300,000 median, 21 roles); Research Engineer ($280,000 median, 147 roles); AI Architect ($254,798 median, 67 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 3,708 open positions across 16 role categories. The largest categories by volume: AI/ML Engineer (2,605), Data Scientist (310), AI Software Engineer (259). 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 (102) are outnumbered by mid-level (1,705) and senior (1,469) 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 432 positions, representing the bottleneck between technical execution and organizational strategy.
Remote work availability sits at 14% of all AI roles (508 positions), with 3,180 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 $217,500. Top-quartile roles start at $272,100, and the 90th percentile reaches $325,000. 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 $300,000 median, while Prompt Engineer roles sit at $140,000. 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 (1,890 postings), Aws (1,103 postings), Azure (877 postings), Rag (855 postings), Gcp (631 postings), Prompt Engineering (560 postings), Pytorch (545 postings), Claude (498 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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