AI Engineer / Staff Agent Engineer

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

What You’ll Do

• Design and implement AI-powered agents that automate staffing and workforce management workflows.
• Build intelligent 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 from problem discovery and technical design through 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 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.

Requirements

• 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.

Technologies

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

Compensation and Benefits

• Annual base salary: $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 Requirements

• 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 the initial screening.

Interview Process

• Recruiter screening.
• Hiring manager interview.
• Technical assessment and team interviews.
• Technical deep dives and cross-functional discussions.
• Final leadership interview.

Role Details

• Location: San Francisco, CA (onsite)
• Experience: 5+ years
• Education: Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or a related technical field