Hiring: Staff Software Engineer - AI Platform Company: Rivian and Volkswagen Group Technologies Location: Palo Alto, CA Job Posted Time: 2026-09-11 11:57:09 Employment Type: Full-time Target Skills & Keywords : AWS, Go, Kubernetes, LLM, Machine Learning, NLP, Python, Systems Design, User Experience About the job Experience: •12+ years of hands-on experience in software engineering, with a deep focus on designing and building large-scale distributed systems. Extensive, hands-on experience in building and deploying complex agentic applications leveraging LLMs in production environments. Demonstrated track record of org-wide technical impact. Required Skills: •Architect and Own Agentic Systems at Org-Wide Scale: Architect and lead the development of highly scalable and sophisticated intelligent agents that utilize LLMs to automate workflows, optimize operations, and elevate user experiences — setting the technical direction across multiple teams and product areas. •Define LLM Integration Strategy: Own and drive the technical vision and long-term strategy for integrating LLMs with our evolving software ecosystem, ensuring robust, scalable, and maintainable communication and data exchange. Serve as the primary technical decision-maker and escalation point for LLM architecture across the organization. •Lead the Cognitive Automation Roadmap: Partner with product managers, engineering leaders, and senior leadership to set the strategic direction for cognitive automation. Leverage LLMs to automate complex cognitive tasks — such as information extraction, summarization, and question answering — to enhance efficiency and accuracy system-wide. •Champion Scalable System Design: Take ultimate ownership of the entire development lifecycle, from conceptualization and design to implementation and deployment, for our most critical machine learning-powered tools and applications. Establish technical frameworks and patterns adopted org-wide. •Establish and Uphold Engineering Standards Across the Organization: Define the engineering culture. Implement and enforce industry-leading standards for building production-grade, distributed machine learning solutions — and ensure adoption and consistency beyond your immediate team. •Drive Technical Consensus and Shape Organizational Direction: Continuously research and experiment with emerging trends in machine learning, AI agents, and distributed systems. Translate findings into actionable technical strategy with measurable org-wide impact. •Lead Cross-Functional Alignment at the Executive Level: Work closely with Machine Learning engineers, product teams, and senior leadership to gather requirements, define project scope, and deliver impactful solutions. Own technical alignment across the organization and represent engineering at the executive level. •Grow and Elevate Engineering Talent Broadly: Share your expertise and provide guidance across engineering levels — from mid-level engineers to senior leads — fostering a culture of technical excellence, innovation, and continuous learning. Actively contribute to hiring strategy and technical bar-raising. Qualifications: •Advanced Degree: Bachelor's, Master's degree or Ph.D. in Computer Science, Machine Learning, or a related field. •Proven Experience: 12+ years of hands-on experience in software engineering, with a deep focus on designing and building large-scale distributed systems. Extensive, hands-on experience in building and deploying complex agentic applications leveraging LLMs in production environments. Demonstrated track record of org-wide technical impact. •Strong Technical Skills: Expertise in Golang is strongly preferred. Proficiency in Python or similar programming languages, as well as deep expertise with cloud and container frameworks such as AWS and Kubernetes. A proven track record of designing and building highly scalable, fault-tolerant, and observable distributed systems. •Deep Understanding: Expert-level grasp of machine learning principles, algorithms, and evaluation metrics, as well as software engineering best practices for distributed systems. •Production Experience: Demonstrated success in owning the design, deployment, and operation of scalable backend software in high-stakes production environments at significant organizational scale. •Collaborative Spirit and Technical Leadership: Excellent communication and teamwork skills, with a proven ability to build consensus with executive stakeholders, define engineering culture, and align entire organizations on complex technical decisions. •Passion for Innovation: A genuine interest in exploring the latest advancements in machine learning and natural language processing and applying them to solve impactful business challenges at scale. Compensation: •$206,500 - $283,900 / year •Competitive benefits and rewards package •In addition to a competitive base salary, full-time positions may be is eligible to participate in our annual company performance bonus program Interested candidates, please apply directly through the job posting on company's career page or try via AI auto apply on this platform. Don't miss this opportunity to join a forward-thinking team!