Staff Engineer, Applied AI
Palo Alto, California
Tinder – Engineering /
Full-time /
Hybrid
Our Mission
Launched in 2012, Tinder® revolutionized how people meet, growing from 1 match to one billion matches in just two years. This rapid growth demonstrates its ability to fulfill a fundamental human need: real connection. Today, the app has been downloaded over 630 million times, leading to over 97 billion matches, serving approximately 50 million users per month in 190 countries and 45+ languages - a scale unmatched by any other app in the category. In 2024, Tinder won four Effie Awards for its first-ever global brand campaign, “It Starts with a Swipe”™"
Our Values
One Team, One Dream
We work hand-in-hand, building Tinder for our members. We succeed together when we work collaboratively across functions, teams, and time zones, and think outside the box to achieve our company vision and mission.
Own It
We take accountability and strive to make a positive impact in all aspects of our business, through ownership, innovation, and a commitment to excellence.
Never Stop Learning
We cultivate a culture where it’s safe to take risks. We seek out input, share honest feedback, celebrate our wins, and learn from our mistakes in order to continue improving.
Spark Solutions
We’re problem solvers, focusing on how to best move forward when faced with obstacles. We don’t dwell on the past or on the issues at hand, but instead look at how to stay agile and overcome hurdles to achieve our goals.
Embrace Our Differences
We are intentional about building a workplace that reflects the rich diversity of our members. By leveraging different perspectives and other ways of thinking, we build better experiences for our members and our team.
We are seeking a Staff Engineer, Applied AI to lead the design and development of real-world solutions built on generative AI and LLMs. Unlike roles focused on training foundation models, this position emphasizes building applied systems like Slack bots, RAG applications, multi-agent workflows, and AI-integrated platforms to solve practical problems and improve productivity of the entire organization.As a Staff Engineer, you’ll work across product, research, and engineering teams to ensure our AI strategy translates into impactful solutions. You will be leading the solutions building, mentor engineers, and establish best practices for building AI-powered applications that are reliable, cost-efficient, and safe.
Key Responsibilities:
- Solution Building
- Lead the development of AI applications that integrate LLMs with APIs, databases, and enterprise systems.
- Oversee the design and optimization of AI agent & pipelines to enhance factuality.
- Build scalable agentic workflows and orchestration systems for enterprise use cases.
- Technical Leadership
- Own the architecture and design of applied AI systems (bots, RAG, agents, integrations, MCP servers).
- Define patterns, frameworks, and reusable components to accelerate AI solution delivery across teams.
- Drive evaluation and guardrail frameworks for ensuring AI reliability, safety, and performance.
- Collaboration & Mentorship
- Partner with product managers and stakeholders to translate ambiguous business needs into technical solutions.
- Mentor engineers, review designs/code, and guide teams in applied AI best practices.
- Collaborate with security, compliance, and data teams to ensure responsible AI adoption.
- Innovation & Strategy
- Stay ahead of emerging LLM frameworks, orchestration tools, and AI agents.
- Identify opportunities for new AI-powered capabilities within existing systems.
- Contribute to long-term AI roadmap and platform strategy.
Qualifications:
- Technical Expertise
- Strong experience in Python, TypeScript/JavaScript, and distributed systems.
- Hands-on experience with LLM APIs (OpenAI, Anthropic, etc.), orchestration frameworks (LangChain, LlamaIndex, CrewAI, LangGraph), and vector databases (Elasticsearch, Pinecone, etc.).
- Proven track record of building production-grade AI applications (bots, agents, RAG systems).
- Leadership & Influence
- 8+ years of software engineering experience with 2+ in applied AI/ML.
- Prior experience as a tech lead or staff-level engineer, influencing technical direction beyond a single team.
- Strong ability to communicate AI concepts to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
- Problem-Solving
- Exceptional ability to abstract problems into AI-powered workflows.
- Skilled at balancing rapid prototyping with building for scale and reliability.
Nice-to-Have
- Experience with enterprise SaaS integrations (Slack, Jira, etc.).
- Familiarity with operations of LLM apps (monitoring, cost optimization, guardrails, eval).
- Background in UX design for AI-driven interactions.
- Contributions to open-source AI tooling or frameworks.
$270,000 - $295,000 a year
The salary range for this position is $270,000 - $295,000. Factors such as scope and responsibilities of the position, candidate's work experience, education/training, job-related skills, internal peer equity, as well as market and business considerations may influence base pay offered. This salary range is reflective of a position based in Palo Alto, CA. This salary will be subject to a geographic adjustment (according to a specific city and state), if an authorization is granted to work outside of the location listed in this posting.
Commitment to Inclusion
At Tinder, we don’t just accept difference, we celebrate it. We strive to build a workplace that reflects the rich diversity of our members around the world, and we value unique perspectives and backgrounds. Even if you don’t meet all the listed qualifications, we invite you to apply and show us how your skills could transfer. Tinder is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace where we welcome people of all sexes, gender identities, races, ethnicities, disabilities, and other lived experiences. Learn more here: https://www.lifeattinder.com/dei
If you require reasonable accommodation to complete a job application, pre-employment testing, or a job interview or to otherwise participate in the hiring process, please speak to your Talent Acquisition Partner directly.
#Tinder
