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About This Role
Department:
WDTech \- R\&D
We are Walker \& Dunlop. We are one of the largest providers of capital to the commercial real estate industry, enabling real estate owners and operators to bring their visions of communities — where people live, work, shop, and play — to life. We are committed to creating meaningful social, environmental, and economic change in our communities.
WDTech is W\&D’s in\-house technology team – a group of collaborative and highly skilled technology professionals, all of whom are leading experts in real estate data, data science, and technology.
WDTech Engineering builds solutions that impact not only our products but also the people and processes across our organization. A commitment to innovation and a passion for disrupting the old\-fashioned real estate industry are our highest priorities.
The Impact You Will Have
As a Senior AI Software Engineer on our AI Dev Team, you will help shape the future of our Loan Origination and Servicing platform and the AI systems that support how we build, ship and operate software across the business. You will design and build scalable applications, intelligent workflows and agentic systems that deliver real\-time insights and operational efficiency for our teams and clients. You will also contribute to Atlas, our AI collaboration platform that powers reusable skills, agents and AI capabilities across WDTech. In this role, you will help transform complex, data\-rich systems into intuitive and high\-performing experiences through thoughtful engineering and applied AI.
Primary Responsibilities
- Design, build and maintain agentic workflows that support business\-critical processes and operational efficiency
- Contribute to Atlas by authoring reusable skills, maintaining agent definitions and improving the context and evaluation infrastructure that supports scalable AI adoption
- Establish evaluation, observability and reliability standards for agentic systems, including regression testing, tracing and guardrail implementation
- Collaborate with Product Management, Product Design and business stakeholders to translate complex requirements into scalable technical solutions
- Own features end\-to\-end, including architecture, development, testing, deployment and ongoing iteration
- Drive continuous improvement across the engineering stack, including performance optimization, reliability, testing and CI/CD practices
- Mentor engineers and contribute to a culture of engineering excellence, accountability and responsible AI usage
- Support architectural discussions and technical decision\-making across AI and platform engineering initiatives
- Perform other duties as assigned.
Education and Experience
- 8\+ years of software development experience
- Bachelor’s or master’s degree in Computer Science or a related field
- Experience delivering production AI/ML systems, including LLM\-powered applications and agentic workflows
- Experience with modern agent frameworks, retrieval architectures and AI system evaluation practices
- Hands\-on experience using AI coding assistants and developer tools within engineering workflows
- Experience with Amazon Web Services, event\-driven architecture, Docker, Kubernetes and containerized deployments
- Experience within Real Estate, Financial Services or Capital Markets environments preferred
Knowledge, Skills and Abilities
- Deep proficiency in Python and modern backend frameworks such as FastAPI, with a focus on scalable and maintainable architecture
- Strong expertise with SQL databases, including schema design, query optimization and performance tuning
- Experience designing efficient, well\-structured backend systems and distributed services
- Experience with queues, background task processing, scheduled jobs and caching strategies for scalable systems
- Strong understanding of testing methodologies, including unit, integration and end\-to\-end testing
- Working knowledge of UML and technical documentation practices to communicate system design effectively
- Familiarity with Event Sourcing and Domain\-Driven Design principles
- Demonstrated ownership mindset with a commitment to continuous improvement and organizational success
- Ability to work independently, provide proactive feedback and adapt to evolving priorities in an agile environment
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills
- Ability to show ownership of your work, take on challenges and acknowledge growth opportunities, and demonstrate patience when learning new processes
- Courtesy, respect, and thoughtfulness in teaming with colleagues and other stakeholders
This position has an estimated base salary of $160,000 \- $190,000 plus a discretionary bonus. An employment offer is based on the applicant’s relevant work experience, applicable knowledge, skills, abilities, internal equity, and alignment with market data.
\#LI\-MR1
\#LI\-Remote
What We Offer
- The opportunity to join one of Fortune Magazine’s Great Places to Work winners
- Comprehensive benefit options\* that have earned Walker \& Dunlop the gold level of the 2025 Cigna Healthy Workforce Designation™, some of which include:
+ Up to 83% subsidized medical payroll deductions
+ Competitive dental and vision benefits
+ 401(k) \+ match
+ Pre\-tax transit and commuting benefits
+ A robust health and wellness program – earn cash rewards and gain access to resources that
promote health, engagement, and balance
+ Paid maternity and parental leave, as well as other family paid leave programs
+ Company\-paid life, short and long\-term disability insurance
+ Health Savings Account and Healthcare and Dependent Care Flexible Spending
- Career development opportunities
- Empowerment and encouragement to give back – volunteer hours and donation matching
- Eligibility may vary based on average number of hours worked
EEO Statement
We are committed to equity in all steps of the recruitment and employment experience. We believe in equal access to opportunities in our workplace. We do not tolerate discrimination, including harassment, based on any characteristic protected by applicable law, such as race, color, national origin, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation, sex, age, disability, veteran or military status, and genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law. We strive to be a safe place to ask questions, build professional relationships, and develop careers.
SPAM
Please be wary of recruitment scams. An indication of a scam might be a request for sensitive or bank information at the time of application or emails coming from a non walkerdunlop.com email address. Please call us at 301\.215\.5500, if you have any concerns about information requested during or after the application process.
Fair Chance Hiring
Background checks, including any questions related to infractions, arrests, or conviction records, will not be conducted until after a conditional offer of employment has been accepted. We will consider for employment qualified applicants regardless of arrest and conviction records, in accordance with federal, state, and local laws.
Salary Context
This $160K-$190K range is below the median for AI Software Engineer roles in our dataset (median: $190K across 219 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 3,823 AI roles we're tracking, AI Software Engineer positions make up 7% of the market. At Walker & Dunlop, 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 $232,000 based on 797 positions with disclosed compensation. Senior-level AI roles across all categories have a median of $227,400. This role's midpoint ($175K) sits 25% below the category median. Disclosed range: $160K to $190K.
Across all AI roles, the market median is $200,100. Top-quartile compensation starts at $253,500. The 90th percentile reaches $307,500. For comparison, the highest-paying categories include AI Engineering Manager ($275,000) and AI Safety ($274,200). By seniority level: Entry: $97,880; Mid: $165,000; Senior: $227,400; Director: $247,800; VP: $250,000.
Walker & Dunlop AI Hiring
Walker & Dunlop has 1 open AI role right now. They're hiring across AI Software Engineer. Based in Remote, US. Compensation range: $190K - $190K.
Remote Work Context
Remote AI roles pay a median of $170,000 across 1,926 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 3,823 open positions tracked in our dataset. By seniority: 112 entry-level, 1,798 mid-level, 1,516 senior, and 397 leadership roles (Director, VP, C-Level). Remote roles make up 15% of the market (590 positions). The remaining 3,217 roles require on-site or hybrid attendance.
The market median for AI roles is $200,100. Top-quartile compensation starts at $253,500. The 90th percentile reaches $307,500. Highest-paying categories: AI Engineering Manager ($275,000 median, 41 roles); AI Safety ($274,200 median, 55 roles); Research Engineer ($260,000 median, 434 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 3,823 open positions across 15 role categories. The largest categories by volume: AI/ML Engineer (2,629), Data Scientist (322), AI Software Engineer (279). 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 (112) are outnumbered by mid-level (1,798) and senior (1,516) 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 397 positions, representing the bottleneck between technical execution and organizational strategy.
Remote work availability sits at 15% of all AI roles (590 positions), with 3,217 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 $200,100. Top-quartile roles start at $253,500, 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 $275,000 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 (1,979 postings), Aws (1,190 postings), Azure (899 postings), Rag (839 postings), Gcp (726 postings), Pytorch (595 postings), Prompt Engineering (595 postings), Claude (540 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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