Interested in this AI Software Engineer role at Planet DDS?
Apply Now →Skills & Technologies
About This Role
##### About Planet DDS
We’re on a mission to fix dental software \- and we’re not playing small. Our platform replaces clunky, outdated systems with modern, cloud\-based, AI\-powered technology built to actually work at scale. From practice management to imaging to revenue cycle automation, we’re tearing down the old infrastructure and rebuilding the future of dentistry. Planet DDS is the fastest\-growing provider of dental practice management solutions and the \#1 cloud platform for DSOs and multi\-location groups.
Here, you won’t just join a team \- you’ll join a movement. We want bold thinkers who are ambitious enough to push limits, empathetic enough to work as one, and accountable enough to own big outcomes. Trust is our currency, collaboration is our edge, and impact is our fuel. If you’re ready to grow fast, challenge the status quo, and help reinvent an entire industry, Planet DDS is where you belong.
To learn more, visit: Planet DDS.
Overview
The Software Engineer III will build production software faster and better by thoughtfully leveraging AI development tools. This isn't an ML or data science role \- you won't be training models. Instead, you'll use tools like Claude Code, Cursor, and Copilot as force multipliers across the entire software development lifecycle: planning, coding, testing, debugging, and documentation. You'll join one of our product pods and be expected to not only deliver your own work but help your teammates adopt these tools effectively. We're early in this journey as an organization, so your practical experience will directly shape how we work.
Job Duties
- Own delivery of features end\-to\-end: from technical design through implementation, testing, and deployment
- Architect solutions that are maintainable, scalable, and aligned with our product direction
- Use AI\-assisted development tools strategically across the full SDLC \- planning work with AI agents, generating and refining code, creating comprehensive test coverage, and accelerating debugging
- Mentor engineers on effective AI\-assisted workflows; help establish team\-wide patterns and practices
- Contribute to technical direction within your pod and across the broader engineering organization
- Drive improvements to our development processes, tooling, and CI/CD pipelines
- Collaborate closely with product and design to balance technical quality with delivery speed
Skills and Qualifications
- 5\-7 years of commercial software engineering experience, with a track record of shipping and maintaining production systems
- Deep understanding of software engineering fundamentals: OOP, design patterns, SOLID principles, testing strategies, and writing code that others can maintain
- Demonstrated experience using AI coding tools (Claude Code, Cursor, Copilot, or similar) as a core part of your workflow \- you should be able to explain how you approach complex problems differently with these tools
- Ability to work effectively across the stack; .NET and React experience highly preferred, but excellent fundamentals in other modern stacks are valuable
- Experience with CI/CD, automated testing, and shipping code frequently with confidence
- Strong communication skills and a genuine interest in helping teammates grow
- Comfort with ambiguity and rapid iteration \- you ship, learn, and adapt
Preferred:
- Experience in a SaaS or healthcare software environment
- Exposure to DevOps practices and infrastructure\-as\-code
- Experience working in agile teams with short iteration cycles
Benefits:
- Medical, dental and vision insurance
- Health Savings Account
- Flexible Spending Accounts
- Telehealth
- 401(k) and 401(k) match
- Life and AD\&D insurance
- Short\-Term and Long\-Term Disability
- FTO or Vacation
- Sick Time
- Employee Well\-Being program
- 11 paid holidays
- Volunteer Time Off
- Employee Referral program
- Additional perk and voluntary benefit programs
Salary is based on a number of factors and may vary depending on job\-related knowledge, skills, and experience. This position is also eligible for variable pay as part of the total compensation package.
PLANET DDS CORE IDEOLOGY:
To encourage measurable progress toward our vision and make the best decisions on behalf of employees and customers, we adopted a set of common values:
- Collaborative – Working independently and across teams, we create scalable solutions to enable company growth
- Empathetic – We are educated on the experience of our customers and feel vested in their success
- Accountable – We feel ownership for the quality of our work and take pride in the positive outcomes
- Trustworthy – We operate with integrity and honest, making promises we know that we can keep
- Ambitious – We are driven by our ability to make a long\-term, positive impact on the lives of dental market leaders
Planet DDS is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.
Salary Context
This $101K-$135K 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 Planet DDS, 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 ($118K) sits 46% below the category median. Disclosed range: $101K to $135K.
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.
Planet DDS AI Hiring
Planet DDS has 2 open AI roles right now. They're hiring across AI/ML Engineer, AI Software Engineer. Based in Remote, US. Compensation range: $114K - $135K.
Remote Work Context
Remote AI roles pay a median of $180,000 across 1,196 positions. About 15% of all AI roles offer remote work.
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.