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About This Role
Liftoff is a leading AI\-powered performance marketing platform for the mobile app economy. Our end\-to\-end technology stack helps app marketers acquire and retain high\-value users, while enabling publishers to maximize revenue across programmatic and direct demand.
Liftoff's solutions, including Accelerate, Direct, Monetize, Intelligence, and Vungle Exchange, support over 6,600 mobile businesses across 74 countries in sectors such as gaming, social, finance, ecommerce, and entertainment. Founded in 2012 and headquartered in Redwood City, CA, Liftoff has a diverse, global presence.
Join Liftoff as a Senior Gen AI Software Engineer and help shape the future of ad tech. As a key member of our Gen AI team, you'll design and build AI\-powered products for our demand\-side business, helping teams turn complex data into better decisions and meaningful customer growth.
You'll work across the stack, building intelligent systems and data pipelines in Python, alongside the TypeScript and React experiences that bring those capabilities to users. You'll partner closely with product, engineering, and customer\-facing teams to identify high\-impact opportunities, move quickly from prototype to production, and continuously improve what you ship.
This is a hands\-on role for an engineer who enjoys working at the intersection of AI, product, and software engineering. You'll help define how Liftoff applies modern AI to real business problems, balancing experimentation with the judgment and engineering discipline needed to build useful, reliable products.
This role is ideal for an engineer who thrives in ambiguity, enjoys experimenting with new technology, and is motivated by turning promising AI capabilities into products that create real value. You'll tackle complex problems, validate new approaches, and drive meaningful improvements across Liftoff.
WHAT YOU'LL DO
- Own generative AI product capabilities end to end, from understanding user workflows and prototyping an approach through implementation, rollout, measurement, and ongoing improvement.
- Rapidly prototype and validate AI solutions, using focused experiments to test user value and technical feasibility, then turn what works into production\-ready capabilities.
- Build agentic workflows that can reason over campaign, customer, creative, and performance data, use well\-defined tools, produce structured results, and hand control back to a person when appropriate.
- Partner closely with decision makers and subject matter experts to understand their workflows, constraints, and business context, then integrate AI agents into daily work in practical and useful ways.
- Design how AI systems access and use relevant information, including the data, tools, and instructions needed to produce useful grounded results.
- Build the systems that make AI workflows reliable in production, including tool use, state management, failure recovery, and appropriate boundaries for human review.
- Define clear, testable interfaces between models and software so uncertain model behavior can be handled safely within dependable product systems.
- Develop evaluation systems that measure whether AI features accomplish the intended task, using realistic examples and an appropriate combination of automated checks and human judgment.
- Build the instrumentation needed to understand quality, adoption, business impact, latency, cost, and failure modes in production.
- Apply appropriate safeguards for customer data, system access, and high\-impact workflows.
- Build the Python services and TypeScript and React interfaces that turn these capabilities into cohesive products for customer facing teams.
- Evaluate new models and techniques pragmatically, adopting them when they materially improve product quality, capability, speed, or cost.
- Mentor other engineers and help establish shared practices for designing, testing, and operating AI\-powered products.
WHO YOU ARE
- Minimum Bachelors Degree and 8 yrs of relevant experience.
- You are a seasoned software engineer who has built and operated meaningful production products, ideally including zero\-to\-one work spanning backend services, data, and user interfaces.
- You have shipped LLM\-powered or AI\-assisted products beyond a demo and understand the practical challenges of reliability, context, tool use, provider changes, latency, cost, and changing model behavior.
- You are highly proficient in Python and comfortable working in TypeScript and React, with strong fundamentals in API design, data modeling, SQL, and testing.
- You understand how to build the broader system around a model, including its data, tools, instructions, permissions, feedback loops, and measures of quality.
- You can define success criteria, investigate failures, and use testing, feedback, and production signals to improve AI experiences over time.
- You exercise strong product and engineering judgment, choosing when a problem calls for traditional software, an LLM\-powered approach, or a thoughtful combination of both.
- You communicate complex technical ideas clearly and collaborate effectively with domain experts and non\-technical partners.
- You are comfortable working through ambiguity, making informed decisions with incomplete information, and changing direction when evidence shows a better path.
- You are a lifelong learner with strong but flexible opinions, and you thrive on giving and receiving constructive feedback.
### Helpful, but not required
- Experience as an early engineer, startup founder, or in a similarly high\-ownership environment where you moved quickly from ambiguous problems to shipped products.
- Experience with advertising technology, campaign optimization, performance marketing, analytics products, or other data\-rich B2B software.
Location:
The preferred location for the role is in Pacific Standard Time Zone. This role is eligible for full\-time remote work in one of our entities: CA, CO, ID, IL, FL, GA, MA, MI, MN, MO, NJ, NV, NY, OR, PA, TX, UT, and WA.
*We are a remote\-first company with US hubs in Redwood City, Los Angeles, and New York City.*
Travel Expectations:
We offer several opportunities for in\-person team gatherings, including but not limited to project meetings, regional meetups, and company\-wide events. We expect our employees to attend these gatherings at least once per quarter. These gatherings provide essential opportunities for collaboration, communication, and team building.
Compensation:
Liftoff offers all employees a full compensation package that includes equity and health/vision/dental benefits associated with your country of residence. Base compensation will vary based on the candidate's location and experience.
The following are our base salary ranges for multiple levels:
- SF Bay Area, Los Angeles/Orange County, NYC, Seattle: $230,000 \- $270,000
- All other cities and towns in our approved states: $211,000 \- $248,000
\#LI\-VM1
Liftoff offers a fast\-paced, collaborative, and innovative work environment where employees are empowered to grow and make an impact. We're shaping the future of the mobile app ecosystem—join us and help accelerate what's next.
Liftoff's compensation strategy includes competitive salaries, equity, and benefits designed to support employee well\-being and performance. We benchmark compensation based on role, level, and location to ensure fairness and market alignment. Benefits may include medical coverage, wellness stipends, and additional perks based on your country of residence.
Liftoff is an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees and applicants regardless of race, ethnicity, national origin, age, marital status, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.
Agency and Third Party Recruiter Notice:
Liftoff does not accept unsolicited resumes from individual recruiters or third\-party recruiting agencies in response to job postings. No fee will be paid to third parties who submit unsolicited candidates directly to our hiring managers or Recruiting Team. All candidates must be submitted via our Applicant Tracking System by approved Liftoff vendors who have been expressly requested to make a submission by our Recruiting Team for a specific job opening. No placement fees will be paid to any firm unless such a request has been made by the Liftoff Recruiting Team and such a candidate was submitted to the Liftoff Recruiting Team via our Applicant Tracking System.
Salary Context
This $230K-$270K range is above the 75th percentile 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 Liftoff, 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 ($250K) sits 14% above the category median. Disclosed range: $230K to $270K.
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.
Liftoff AI Hiring
Liftoff has 1 open AI role right now. They're hiring across AI Software Engineer. Based in Redwood City, CA, US. Compensation range: $270K - $270K.
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
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