Staff AI Engineer

New York City, NY • On-site • Full-time Compensation: $200,000–$250,000 + 0.1%–0.35% equity About The Company Our client is building the AI operating system for the CFO office — connecting to a company's existing finance stack and automating the work behind the close, revenue recognition, reporting, cash management, and audit readiness. The goal isn't to help accountants write better prompts; it's for finance teams to review exceptions while audit-ready agents reason, explain their decisions, escalate uncertainty, and continuously improve. It is well-backed by a top fintech-focused investor alongside notable operators and finance leaders. Founded 2023 • 1–10 people (Seed) • Industry: AI Tools / FinTech The Role The client is hiring a Staff AI Engineer to own the platform layer every engineering pod builds on — from agent frameworks and context systems to orchestration, verification, observability, and data infrastructure. This isn't a module-ownership role; the work multiplies the output of the entire engineering team, and you're expected to identify the bottlenecks limiting the company rather than wait for specs from a PM or an architecture committee. Tech stack: Python (primary), agent frameworks, distributed systems, workflow/transactional engines, data infrastructure; fluent AI-coding-agent use (Claude, Cursor) valued. Requirements • 2+ years of agentic-AI work with a research-oriented background • 8+ years of software engineering with distributed-systems or platform depth • Platform-layer experience that multiplied output across engineering teams • Early-stage startup experience (pre-seed to Series B) • On-site in NYC on startup hours Nice to Haves • Deep agentic-AI experience with architectural ownership • A research-oriented ML or NLP background applied to production • Prior Staff or Principal IC at a high-growth startup • A finance, ERP, audit, or compliance domain background Why Join • Org-wide leverage, not module ownership: own the platform layer every engineering pod builds on • Strong seed backing from a top fintech investor with senior finance leaders behind the company • Ground-floor abstraction design: define the agent harness, financial context graph, and verification standards that determine whether AI is safe enough to touch a customer's books Details • Location — New York City, NY • Work policy — On-site, 6 days/week (startup hours) • Compensation — $200,000–$250,000 + 0.1%–0.35% equity • Visa sponsorship — Not available • Employment type — Full-time