Senior/Staff Software Engineer, Agentic Core
Axion
San Francisco, CA · $230k–$300k a year · Posted October 26, 2026
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Pay compared with the market
This listing pays about $265,000 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 33% above the median, above the middle half of those listings.
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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.
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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 looking for an experienced Software Engineer to help architect and scale the agentic systems at the core of the Axion platform. This is a senior individual contributor role: you'll own design decisions that determine how our agents reason, act, and integrate with enterprise data, working in close partnership with Engineering and Product leadership. The hard problem is the data—customer, service, field, telematics, warranty, and aftermarket signals that are disconnected and mostly unstructured—and the bar is high, because an agent's conclusion can drive a recall or a redesign. The ideal candidate thrives in early stage companies, has deep experience building complex, data-intensive systems, and knows what it takes to make non-deterministic, LLM-driven systems reliable in production.
RESPONSIBILITIES
- Own technical architecture for our agentic systems—orchestration, tool use, memory, retrieval, evaluation, observability, and the guardrails that keep agents reliable when the input data is noisy and incomplete.
- Build and harden the reasoning layer and infrastructure that take customer data from ingestion through agent-driven reasoning to root-cause insight, at the scale and reliability manufacturers require.
- Establish rigorous evaluation and testing for non-deterministic systems—measuring agent accuracy against expert-validated ground truth and the outcomes customers track: detection rates, investigation speed, and warranty cost.
- Mentor engineers on agentic patterns and system design, unblocking hard problems and sharing context generously.
WHAT YOU'LL BRING
- Experience building agentic systems (LLM orchestration, tool/function calling, multi-step and multi-agent reasoning, retrieval and context engineering, and interoperability protocols such as MCP, or comparable work).
- Demonstrated ability to design and own complex distributed systems, ideally in data-intensive B2B SaaS environments.
- Hands-on fluency with the modern agentic stack and a strong intuition for the failure modes of non-deterministic, LLM-driven systems—plus the evaluation and observability practices needed to tame them.
- Experience turning messy, heterogeneous real-world data into something a model can reason over reliably.
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.