Staff Software Engineer, AI Foundations (AI Agent Optimization)

About the role

The Staff Software Engineer – Agent Optimization will lead the AI Foundations team’s agent‑optimization efforts, designing tools and mechanisms to reduce token spend and response time while preserving quality. The role involves building agentic coding systems, working with Python, TypeScript, Java and Go, serving as a domain expert on AI design patterns, and collaborating with the developer community and other team members.

About the company

Temporal builds an open‑source programming model that simplifies code and makes applications more reliable. It powers AI leaders such as OpenAI, NVIDIA and others, and aims to be the reliable foundation of every developer’s toolbox. The company is remote‑first, growing, and values curiosity, drive collaboration genuineness and humility.

Requirements

• 8+ years of professional software engineering experience
• Proven experience optimizing AI systems using machine‑learning and systems techniques
• Experience and passion for generative AI, especially for agents and coding
• Ability to use AI to improve quality, not just quantity
• Strong sense of code quality and thoughtful development practices
• Fluency in multiple programming languages and willingness to learn new ones
• Deep experience with concurrent programming and safe use of mutexes, atomics, etc.
• Experience designing APIs and writing documentation for publicly available libraries
• Strong technical communication skills in English, both written and verbal
• BS or MS in Computer Science or related field, or equivalent production‑grade software experience
• Familiarity with Temporal’s programming model and having built an app on Temporal (preferred)
• Track record of open‑source contributions, including third‑party libraries (preferred)
• Experience contributing to architecture and design of large‑scale distributed systems (preferred)
• Deep background in machine learning, model training, data science, or ML systems (preferred)
• Graduate degree in Computer Science (preferred)