Software Engineer
Hirepluto
San Francisco, CA · $180k–$220k a year · Posted October 13, 2026
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Where San Francisco, CA ranks
Where San Francisco, CA placed in our monthly rankings, month by month. Each month stays online at its own address.
November 2026
- #1Best cities for security jobs316 openings · of 20
- #1Best cities for technology jobs7,178 openings · of 100
- #1Best cities for financial services pay after cost of living$173k · of 33
- #1Best cities for entry-level jobs that want AI skills35% · of 100
- #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 engineering jobs
- Best cities for software and engineering jobs #1 San Francisco (3,412 openings)
- Best cities for engineering pay after cost of living #1 San Mateo ($216k)
- Most requested AI skills in engineering jobs #1 AI tools in daily work (6.1%)
- AI tools named most often in engineering jobs #1 Claude (1.7%)
- Employers with the most engineering jobs #1 Amazon (2,992 roles)
Pay compared with the market
This listing pays about $200,000 a year. Across 475 open software engineer listings that state pay, the middle half runs $159,500 to $238,500 and the median is $197,500. That is inside the middle half of those listings, 1% above the median.
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
Location: San Francisco, CA
Work Model: Onsite
Industry: Applied AI / AI research data
Compensation: $180K-$220K base, $280K-$500K OTE
About the Company
Our partner is a fast-growing applied AI company that builds high-quality reinforcement-learning environments, agents, and data sold to the world's leading frontier AI labs. They recently grew from under twenty people to more than fifty in a matter of months and have reached a nine-figure revenue run rate. Their work directly powers foundation-model development across the industry.
The Opportunity
As one of the first engineering hires, you will build and scale the data infrastructure behind the company's products: complex data workflows and high-throughput pipelines that hold up under heavy load. You will work across Next.js on the web and Python for desktop applications.
This is a high-ownership IC role for an engineer who ships fast, owns projects end to end, and wants their work to directly power the most important model development happening today.
Responsibilities
Build and scale complex data workflows that support the company's core products.
Architect and optimize high-throughput data pipelines that perform under heavy load.
Ship web features in Next.js and desktop applications in Python.
Own projects end to end, from design through production.
Help set engineering best practices as one of the earliest members of the team.
Requirements
Experience building and scaling complex data workflows and high-throughput data pipelines.
Experience with heavy-load, production systems.
Strong Python, plus experience with Next.js or a comparable modern web framework.
A track record of owning projects end to end and shipping quickly in a fast-paced environment.
Background at a top-tier tech company, financial institution, or high-growth startup; data infrastructure for AI/ML systems is a plus.
A track record of meaningful tenure and impact at previous companies.
Able to work onsite in San Francisco.