Senior Software Engineer, AI Builder

$171K - $231K Mountain View, CA, US Senior AI Software Engineer

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Skills & Technologies

ClaudePythonTypescript

About This Role

AI job market dashboard showing open roles by category

Overview

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This is a role on the Business Disruption Team at Intuit. We are a high\-octane, entrepreneurial group on a mission to build net\-new disruptive products and supercharge our existing ecosystem with AI\-first technologies. We operate like a nimble startup within the broader Intuit organization.

You will be working alongside an elite, dynamic mix of seasoned Intuit veterans and brilliant newcomers to the company. This is a team composed of proven leaders with deep track records of success across the organization. By combining deep institutional knowledge with fresh, disruptive perspectives, we create an environment where you will be challenged, mentored, and inspired to do the best work of your career.

We are looking for an exceptional Full\-Stack Software Engineer who thrives in ambiguity, operates with a high degree of autonomy, and moves with blistering speed. In this role, you won't just be writing code—you will be leveraging the latest AI coding tools to dramatically accelerate your output, running rapid experiments directly with customers, and bringing zero\-to\-one concepts to life. If you are a builder who loves to ship fast, learn continuously, and have a lot of fun doing it, you belong here.

Responsibilities

  • Rapid Development \& Execution: Design, build, and ship full\-stack software solutions with an intense focus on velocity and getting things done.
  • AI\-Accelerated Engineering: Extensively leverage AI coding assistants and modern tooling to write, test, and deploy code faster and more efficiently than traditional methods.
  • Customer\-Centric Experimentation: Work on the front lines with end\-users to conduct rapid product experiments, gather real\-world feedback, and iterate quickly based on data.
  • Autonomous Navigation: Operate comfortably in a fast\-paced environment with a high degree of ambiguity, taking extreme ownership of your projects from inception to launch.
  • Disruptive Innovation: Build entirely new, AI\-native products from scratch while also identifying ways to accelerate existing Intuit products with cutting\-edge tech.

Qualifications

  • Technical \& Craft Expertise: Proven experience as a Full\-Stack Software Engineer building modern, scalable applications across both the frontend and backend. Typescript \+ Python is what we use.
  • AI Tooling Fluency: Hands\-on experience and deep comfort using AI coding tools (e.g., Claude Code, Cursor, Codex) to augment and accelerate your daily development workflows.
  • Startup Mentality: An aggressively entrepreneurial spirit with a track record of moving fast, cutting through red tape, and delivering results quickly.
  • Customer Obsession: A strong desire to be close to the customer, with demonstrated experience running A/B tests, prototypes, or rapid user experiments.
  • Adaptability \& Autonomy: The ability to self\-direct, pivot rapidly when hypotheses are disproven, and thrive in an unstructured, highly ambiguous environment.
  • Growth Mindset: A relentless appetite for learning new technologies, taking calculated risks, and having a blast while building the future.

Intuit provides a competitive compensation package with a strong pay for performance rewards approach. This position may be eligible for a cash bonus, equity rewards and benefits, in accordance with our applicable plans and programs (see more about our compensation and benefits at Intuit®: Careers \| Benefits). Pay offered is based on factors such as job\-related knowledge, skills, experience, and work location. To drive ongoing fair pay for employees, Intuit conducts regular comparisons across categories of ethnicity and gender. The expected base pay range for this position is:

Bay Area, California: $171,000 \- $231,500

Salary Context

This $171K-$231K range is above the median for AI Software Engineer roles in our dataset (median: $190K across 193 roles with salary data).

Role Details

Company Intuit
Title Senior Software Engineer, AI Builder
Location Mountain View, CA, US
Category AI Software Engineer
Experience Senior
Salary $171K - $231K
Remote No

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 3,824 AI roles we're tracking, AI Software Engineer positions make up 7% of the market. At Intuit, 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

Claude (14% of roles) Python (51% of roles) Typescript (8% of roles)

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 $234,620 based on 682 positions with disclosed compensation. Senior-level AI roles across all categories have a median of $227,400. This role's midpoint ($201K) sits 14% below the category median. Disclosed range: $171K to $231K.

Across all AI roles, the market median is $200,000. Top-quartile compensation starts at $253,000. The 90th percentile reaches $307,500. For comparison, the highest-paying categories include AI Engineering Manager ($293,500) and AI Safety ($274,200). By seniority level: Entry: $97,380; Mid: $160,000; Senior: $227,400; Director: $243,000; VP: $250,000.

Intuit AI Hiring

Intuit has 12 open AI roles right now. They're hiring across AI Software Engineer, AI/ML Engineer, Data Scientist, AI Product Manager. Positions span Mountain View, CA, US, San Diego, CA, US, Oakland, CA, US. Compensation range: $190K - $369K.

Location Context

Across all AI roles, 16% (613 positions) offer remote work, while 3,187 require on-site attendance. Top AI hiring metros: New York (2,448 roles, $210,000 median); San Francisco (1,990 roles, $253,000 median); Los Angeles (1,686 roles, $189,000 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 3,824 open positions tracked in our dataset. By seniority: 119 entry-level, 1,813 mid-level, 1,472 senior, and 420 leadership roles (Director, VP, C-Level). Remote roles make up 16% of the market (613 positions). The remaining 3,187 roles require on-site or hybrid attendance.

The market median for AI roles is $200,000. Top-quartile compensation starts at $253,000. The 90th percentile reaches $307,500. Highest-paying categories: AI Engineering Manager ($293,500 median, 31 roles); AI Safety ($274,200 median, 51 roles); Research Engineer ($260,000 median, 401 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 3,824 open positions across 15 role categories. The largest categories by volume: AI/ML Engineer (2,702), Data Scientist (281), AI Software Engineer (258). 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 (119) are outnumbered by mid-level (1,813) and senior (1,472) 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 420 positions, representing the bottleneck between technical execution and organizational strategy.

Remote work availability sits at 16% of all AI roles (613 positions), with 3,187 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 $200,000. Top-quartile roles start at $253,000, and the 90th percentile reaches $307,500. 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 Engineering Manager roles lead at $293,500 median, while Prompt Engineer roles sit at $142,800. 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 (1,968 postings), Aws (1,203 postings), Azure (882 postings), Rag (877 postings), Gcp (735 postings), Prompt Engineering (587 postings), Pytorch (586 postings), Claude (554 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

Based on 682 roles with disclosed compensation, the median salary for AI Software Engineer positions is $234,620. Actual compensation varies by seniority, location, and company stage.
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.
About 16% of the 3,824 AI roles we track offer remote work. Remote availability varies by company and seniority level, with senior and leadership roles more likely to offer location flexibility.
Intuit is among the companies actively hiring for AI and ML talent. Check our company profiles for detailed breakdowns of open roles, salary ranges, and hiring trends.
Common next steps from AI Software Engineer positions include Staff Engineer, AI Architect, Engineering Manager. Progression depends on whether you lean toward technical depth, people management, or product strategy.

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