Senior/Staff Software Engineer, AI Insights
Axion
San Francisco, CA · $220k–$290k a year · Posted October 8, 2026
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Where San Francisco, CA placed in our monthly rankings, month by month. Each month stays online at its own address.
November 2026
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- #1Best cities for technology jobs7,178 openings · of 100
- #1Best cities for financial services pay after cost of living$173k · of 33
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- #1Best cities for entry-level jobs that want AI skills in the West Coast35% · of 54
- #1Cities with the most jobs that do not need a four-year degree in the West Coast902 jobs · of 47
Rankings about data & analytics jobs
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- Best cities for data and analytics pay after cost of living #1 Foster ($232k)
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- Employers with the most data and analytics jobs #1 Amazon (711 roles)
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Pay compared with the market
This listing pays about $255,000 a year. Across 116 open senior listings that state pay, the middle half runs $166,000 to $240,000 and the median is $199,000. That is 28% above the median, above the middle half of those listings.
Listed pay is what employers advertise, not what people are paid.
How AI is used in this kind of work
Among software developers, AI is already used for some of the tasks. Measured exposure for software developers: 29% (some).
Share of this job’s tasks that AI is already used for at work, from real usage. It is not a forecast of job loss, and a low number means no use seen yet. Source: Anthropic Economic Index.
Skills this job asks for
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About the job
ABOUT US
Founded in 2021, Axion is at the forefront of transforming product quality and customer satisfaction in manufacturing. Our cutting-edge AI-powered platform empowers manufacturers to swiftly identify, thoroughly investigate, and effectively resolve quality issues while simultaneously elevating customer experiences and outcomes.
As trailblazers in end-to-end quality intelligence, we're setting new industry standards. Our innovative approach enables industrial, aerospace, consumer, and medtech manufacturers to harness the power of quality and post-market data, driving down costs and boosting business performance.
Our vision extends beyond mere problem-solving; we're committed to reshaping the future of manufacturing. By seamlessly integrating advanced AI technology with deep industry expertise, Axion is paving the way for smarter, safer, and more efficient production processes across diverse sectors.
Backed by leading investors, including Bessemer Venture Partners and Salesforce Ventures, Axion is poised to lead the quality revolution in manufacturing.
ABOUT THE ROLE
We’re hiring for a Senior or Staff Software Engineer to help lead our agile, fast-moving backend teams. In this role, you’ll design and build scalable agentic systems, backend services and data-processing workflows that transform complex, unstructured customer data into reliable, structured outputs. . You’ll help shape the architecture of our APIs, databases, cloud infrastructure, and LLM-powered and agentic systems while improving their reliability, observability, and performance. Working closely with engineering, product, and customer-facing teams, you’ll translate ambiguous business needs into clear technical direction and lead foundational decisions that scale with the company. This is a high-impact opportunity to shape the company’s technical strategy and make foundational decisions that will scale with us
RESPONSIBILITIES
- Architect and operate multi-step, tool-using agentic pipelines that convert unstructured data into reliable structured output
- Build evaluation frameworks, golden datasets, and feedback loops that measure quality and catch regressions
- Improve model performance through prompt and pipeline optimization, model selection, and fine-tuning where it pays off
- Own the reliability of cloud-native services: deployment, observability, scalability, and on-call support
- Mentor engineers and lead cross-team technical initiatives from design through production
WHAT YOU'LL BRING
- 5+ years building and operating production backend or data-intensive systems
- Production experience with LLM systems, including multi-step, tool-using, or agentic workflows
- Experience measuring and improving model quality, through evals, prompting, fine-tuning, or a mix
- Experience designing distributed systems, asynchronous workflows, and reliable data-processing services
- Working knowledge of data warehousing, ideally applied to versioned datasets, lineage, or feedback capture
- Experience running containerized applications on a major cloud platform ([AWS/GCP/Azure])
BONUS POINTS
- Fine-tuning or distillation experience (SFT, LoRA, or provider tuning APIs)
- Experience with LLM observability and cost/latency optimization
OUR VALUES
- Collaborate deeply. Feedback is part of how we build — everyone has a voice, and ideas win on merit.
- Leave ego at the door. Titles don’t define value; contribution does.
- Bias toward action. We iterate fast and favor progress over perfection.
- Communicate with clarity. Direct, transparent, and always in service of the mission.
- Act like owners. Everyone is accountable for outcomes, not just tasks.
- Sustain excellence. We push hard but don’t glorify burnout — we’re in this for the long game.
WHAT WE OFFER
- Full Medical, Dental & Vision coverage for all single employees + Axion covers an additional 70% of the excess for dependents. Medical Carriers: Aetna & Kaiser
- HSA - Eligible Plan with monthly Axion contribution
- Unlimited PTO, and we really mean it! Take time off whenever you need to rest, travel, or recharge. We want everyone to unplug and return refreshed.
- 401(k) Retirement Plan
- More Perks & Benefits included
Ready to drive the future of manufacturing with AI? Apply today to join our team and help us build the category-defining platform for quality intelligence.
Axion is an Equal Opportunity / Affirmative Action employer committed to diversity in the workplace. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, age, national origin, disability, protected veteran status, gender identity, or any other factor protected by applicable federal, state, or local laws.