AI Engineer / Staff Agent Engineer

PVR Cinemas is seeking an Applied AI Engineer / Staff Agent Engineer to design, build, and scale AI agents supporting the industrial supply chain and staffing industry. The role includes end-to-end ownership of AI agent product features and the supporting platform engineering across backend, orchestration, evaluation, and production monitoring.

Location

San Francisco, CA (onsite)

Compensation

USD 200,000 - 300,000 per year (annual base salary)

Role Responsibilities

• Design and implement AI-powered agents to automate staffing and workforce management workflows.
• Build systems for worker sourcing, screening, verification, matching, and shift placement.
• Architect and develop scalable backend services, APIs, and distributed systems.
• Develop real-time matching and automated vetting pipelines using machine learning and AI agents.
• Own AI agent product features end-to-end, from problem discovery and technical design to deployment and optimization.
• Improve platform performance, reliability, scalability, and operational efficiency.
• Collaborate with product, engineering, and operations teams to deliver measurable business outcomes.
• Architect and develop end-to-end AI agent platforms, including orchestration runtimes, tool integrations, and execution frameworks.
• Design model strategies, prompt systems, retrieval mechanisms, memory architectures, and agent evaluation frameworks.
• Build evaluation datasets, automated graders, regression suites, and experimentation tools to measure agent quality.
• Implement monitoring, observability, and reliability mechanisms for production AI systems.
• Integrate AI agents with internal and customer enterprise systems, including Warehouse Management Systems (WMS), Transportation Management Systems (TMS), and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) platforms.
• Establish best practices for AI-assisted software development and production deployment.
• Work directly with customers and operational teams to identify problems and convert insights into scalable product capabilities.
• Contribute to technical strategy, architectural decisions, and long-term platform development.
• Mentor engineers and support the growth of the engineering team.

Required Qualifications

• 5–10 years of professional software engineering experience, preferably in early-stage or high-growth startups.
• Proven experience building and launching 0-to-1 AI agent products in production environments.
• Demonstrated ownership of products or features from conception through deployment, with measurable business impact.
• Strong hands-on expertise in Python and/or TypeScript/Node.js.
• Experience designing distributed systems, backend services, APIs, and scalable data models.
• Strong proficiency with PostgreSQL and event-driven technologies such as Kafka, RabbitMQ, or similar messaging systems.
• Practical experience with AI agent orchestration, production deployment, evaluation, and observability.
• Strong understanding of trade-offs between prompting, fine-tuning, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), and conventional software logic.
• Experience implementing testing, monitoring, regression evaluation, and reliability practices for AI applications.
• Strong product mindset, problem-solving ability, and end-to-end technical ownership.
• Ability to operate effectively in a fast-paced, ambiguous startup environment.
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or a related technical field, preferably from a highly regarded university.
• Willingness to work on-site five days per week in New York City or San Francisco.

Technology Stack

Python, TypeScript, Node.js, PostgreSQL, Kafka, RabbitMQ

Benefits

• Annual base salary of $200,000–$300,000 USD.
• Competitive equity package.
• Relocation assistance available for eligible candidates moving to New York.
• Opportunity to build foundational AI technology with significant product and architectural ownership.
• Direct collaboration with senior leadership and cross-functional teams.
• Opportunity to influence the future of AI-powered staffing and industrial operations.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with AI-native marketplaces, staffing platforms, or multi-sided marketplace products.
• Background in matching algorithms, recommendation systems, workforce optimization, or credential verification.
• Experience building products for logistics, supply chain, manufacturing, healthcare, or other traditional industries.
• Familiarity with React, React Native, and modern full-stack development.
• Experience integrating AI agents with enterprise platforms and third-party APIs.
• Experience working directly with customers to understand operational challenges and translate them into technical solutions.
• Experience mentoring engineers and influencing technical architecture in a growing startup.

Visa / Work Authorization

• Eligible visa transfers are considered, including qualifying H-1B transfers and OPT candidates where applicable.
• New H-1B sponsorship through the lottery is not available.
• Candidates should confirm their current work authorization status during initial screening.

Interview Process

1. Recruiter screening.
2. Hiring manager interview.
3. Technical assessment and team interviews.
4. Technical deep dives and cross-functional discussions.
5. Final leadership interview.