Staff Software Engineer, AI Foundations (AI Agent Optimization) - Temporal

Role Summary

Temporal is seeking a Staff Software Engineer to lead AI agent optimization efforts. You will design and build tools and mechanisms to help Temporal users optimize agents for token spend and response time while maintaining result quality. This role involves deep dives into model routing, multi-agent architecture, cache policy, and context management.

You will collaborate with other AI Foundations team members focused on agentic development, ecosystem integrations, and policy/security systems. This is an action-oriented team that values blending theory and practice to solve customer problems and ship fast.

Most of Temporal’s work is open source: https://github.com/temporalio

What You'll Do

• Work as a software engineer.
• Maintain and expand a deep understanding of agentic coding.
• Design and build agentic coding systems that deliver high-quality outputs.
• Develop a deep understanding of AI application development patterns and techniques.
• Take end-to-end ownership of new features, ensuring reliability and a great developer experience.
• Work with multiple programming languages: Python, TypeScript, Java, Go.
• Serve as a domain expert on AI design patterns, collaborating with field staff.
• Work directly with the developer community to debug issues and gather feedback.
• Write public technical documentation.
• Provide expert engineering support to customers when needed.
• Travel to meet coworkers once or twice a year.
• Attend developer conferences (optional).

What You’ll Bring

• 8+ years of professional work experience.
• Proven experience in optimizing AI systems using machine learning and systems techniques.
• Experience and passion for generative AI, particularly for agents and coding.
• A deep appreciation for using AI to improve quality.
• A thoughtful and opinionated approach to code and software development practice.
• Fluency in multiple programming languages and an affinity for learning new ones.
• Deep experience with concurrent programming.
• Experience designing APIs and writing documentation for publicly-available libraries.
• Strong technical communication skills (written and verbal) in English.
• BS or MS in Computer Science (or equivalent work experience).

Nice to Have

• Familiarity with Temporal’s programming model.
• A track record of open source software contributions.
• Experience contributing to the architecture and design of large-scale distributed systems.
• Deep background in machine learning, model training, data science, or ML systems.
• Graduate degree in Computer Science.