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About This Role
Job Title: Principal Software Engineer, AI
Location: Remote \- US
Clari \+ Salesloft are building the next era of enterprise revenue \- one where teams make confident decisions powered by AI and real signals. By combining our scale, insights, and AI innovation, we’re building the industry’s first Predictive Revenue System, enabling humans and AI to work together to make smarter decisions and drive consistent growth.
With thousands of customers using our platforms every day, we have an unmatched view into how revenue is actually won \- the Revenue Context that reveals what happens, when, and with what outcome. This gives us a unique opportunity to transform an entire category and set a new benchmark for how modern revenue teams operate.
Join us to help transform how companies around the world run revenue \- and build the platform that will guide leading revenue teams into the future.
THE OPPORTUNITY:
You will be a key member of our fast\-growing and high\-performing AI Platform team in the US, owning the design and build\-out of our AI Context Layer \- the data platform that gives our AI agents access to high\-quality, well\-governed context about the world they operate in. We are looking for an experienced AI Engineer who can help realize the Clari \+ Salesloft vision with their passion and proven track record of excellence and innovation. We are looking for engineers who are passionate about their work and who thrive on leading\-edge technologies to develop ground\-breaking AI\-driven enterprise\-grade applications.
On a day\-to\-day basis, you will be responsible to \-
- Embed with feature teams across the organization to understand what they need from the context layer \- what data, at what quality, in what form \- and use those insights to drive the platform roadmap.
- Build the technical vision and roadmap for our Context Layer: a collection of high\-quality data products \- including a knowledge graph, RAG engines, and retrieval/search infrastructure \- that give AI agents access to the best possible context about our customers and their revenue processes.
- Design and own the access control and RBAC model for the context layer \- a genuinely hard problem at the intersection of multi\-tenant data, agent identity, and fine\-grained permissions.
- Define and evolve the APIs, SDKs, and developer interfaces that teams use to interact with the context layer, ensuring they are ergonomic, well\-documented, and built for scale.
- Identify data platform dependencies and work closely with data engineering to ensure the underlying data infrastructure can reliably service the context layer's needs.
- Drive architecture discussions, design and code reviews, and set the technical standard for how context is modeled, stored, retrieved, and governed.
- Address governance and security requirements around data access, lineage, and auditability in an AI context.
- Contribute to hiring strong and diverse talent to strengthen the team.
- Contribute actively to internal documentation, onboarding, and platform adoption programs to ensure the Context Layer is well\-understood and widely used.
In addition to working with amazing colleagues who exemplify our 'team over self' core value, you will also have the opportunity to work on impactful and revolutionary software that is changing the way sellers sell. You will have an opportunity to make a difference.
WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR:
We're looking for a Principal Software Engineer, AIPrincipal AI Engineer to lead the design and build\-out of our Context Layer \- the data platform that gives our AI agents access to high\-quality, well\-governed context about the world they operate in. This includes a knowledge graph, RAG and retrieval systems, and the access control and governance infrastructure that sits around them. You will be the technical owner and driver of this platform, working across feature teams and data engineering to build systems that are accurate, fast, secure, and a joy to build on. This role sits alongside talented staff engineers who own specific platform domains. The principal brings cross\-cutting technical leadership, roadmap synthesis, and the ability to connect the dots across those domains .
If you're looking for an opportunity to learn more, do more, and become more, then becoming a Principal AI Engineer is the career path for you!
THE TEAM:
The Engineering Team at Clari \+ Salesloft is deeply committed to building an enterprise\-grade platform that serves as the backbone for our customers' most critical business process \- Revenue. With an unrelenting commitment to innovation, our mission is to craft the ultimate revenue intelligence platform for our customers. Rooted in Agile principles, we foster a culture of adaptability and efficiency across all our teams. If you're energized by the prospect of contributing to a dynamic environment that emphasizes collaboration, continuous improvement, and leveraging the forefront of technology to address customer needs, we would love to meet you.
THE SKILL SET:
- 12\+ years of professional software engineering experience, with a strong focus on data\-layer or search/retrieval infrastructure
- Proven experience designing and building knowledge graphs and/or large\-scale retrieval and search systems in production
- Deep expertise in RAG architectures, vector databases, and embedding\-based retrieval \- including evaluation, quality tuning, and relevance optimization
- Strong understanding of access control and RBAC design in multi\-tenant, data\-rich environments, with the judgment to navigate the tradeoffs involved
- Experience designing developer\-facing APIs and SDKs, with a track record of building interfaces that are intuitive and well\-adopted internally
- Familiarity with data governance, lineage, and audit\-ability requirements \- particularly in enterprise or regulated contexts
- Demonstrated ability to lead technical direction across multiple teams and drive complex, multi\-stakeholder projects to delivery
- Experience with Python and/or Java; comfort working across data engineering, backend systems, and platform infrastructure
- Excellent communication skills \- able to work across engineering, product, data, and leadership to align on direction and drive outcomes
*\~Locked \- To Not Be Edited\~*
At Clari \+ Salesloft, we are committed to creating an inclusive and supportive workplace where everyone belongs and can thrive. We focus on culture add, not culture fit, and believe our teams are made stronger by the unique perspectives, experiences, and identities each person brings.
We are proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer and provide employment opportunities to all employees and applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, pregnancy, or any other characteristic protected by law.
If you’re excited about this role even though your experience may not perfectly match every requirement, we encourage you to apply. We are actively hiring across multiple geographies and would love to welcome passionate, curious, and mission\-driven individuals to our growing team. Explore our open roles and consider joining us!
\#LI\-REMOTE
Please note that all official communication regarding job opportunities at Clari \+ Salesloft will come from an @clari.com or @ salesloft.com email address. If you receive messages on LinkedIn or other job platforms claiming to be from Clari \+ Salesloft, they may not be legitimate. To verify the authenticity of any job\-related communication, please visit our official Careers Page.
*We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process, such as reviewing applications, analyzing resumes, notetaking, or summarizing responses. These tools assist our recruitment team but do not replace human judgment \- all hiring decisions are made by people. If you would like more information about how your data is processed or prefer to opt out of any AI\-assisted tools, please let your recruiter know. Opting out will not impact your experience or consideration.*
It is Clari \+ Salesloft’s intent to pay all Lofters competitive wages and salaries that are motivational, fair and equitable. The goal of Clari \+ Salesloft’s compensation program is to be transparent, attract potential employees, meet the needs of all current employees and encourage employees to stay with our organization.
Actual compensation packages are based on several factors that are unique to each candidate, including but not limited to skill set, depth of experience, certifications, and specific work location.
The total compensation package for this position may also include performance bonus, benefits and/or other applicable incentive compensation plans.
Base Pay Range
$1 \- $100,000 USD
Salary Context
This $0K-$100K range is in the lower quartile for AI Software Engineer roles in our dataset (median: $190K across 193 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 3,824 AI roles we're tracking, AI Software Engineer positions make up 7% of the market. At Salesloft, 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 $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 ($50K) sits 79% below the category median. Disclosed range: $1 to $100K.
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.
Salesloft AI Hiring
Salesloft has 1 open AI role right now. They're hiring across AI Software Engineer. Based in Remote, US. Compensation range: $100K - $100K.
Remote Work Context
Remote AI roles pay a median of $169,035 across 1,817 positions. About 16% 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 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
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