Staff Software Engineer - Applied AI at MediaAlpha, a customer acquisition solutions provider. Hybrid role: 2 days/week in office. Lead the design and development of LLM-powered applications for internal teams and ad serving platform.
Requirements
- 9+ years of experience in software development.
- Experience designing and owning systems end-to-end, including 3-tier architectures, data flows, APIs, deployments, and operational health.
- Strong programming skills in Python, including software engineering methodologies and best practices.
- Hands-on experience building LLM-powered features in production.
- Experience with RAG architectures, including vector databases, embedding models, and retrieval strategies.
- Practical prompt engineering skills with demonstrated ability to iterate and evaluate quality.
- Familiarity with core ML concepts (classification, evaluation metrics, embeddings) and the judgment to know when traditional ML approaches outperform LLM-based solutions.
- Experience with agent frameworks and tool-use patterns (MCP, function calling, etc.).
- Familiarity with cloud environments (AWS preferred: EC2, S3, Bedrock).
- A self-starter who works independently, is comfortable with ambiguity, and pays careful attention to detail.
- Experience collaborating with engineers and non-technical stakeholders.
- Ability to articulate and communicate clearly, concisely, and thoughtfully.
- Organized and self-motivated.
- B.S. required, preferably in a technical discipline (e.g., computer science)
Benefits
- Annual discretionary bonus program
- Participation in Restricted Stock Unit program
- 100% Employer-paid health, dental, and vision insurance
- 100% Employer-paid long term disability, and life insurance
- 401(k) retirement plan with matching contributions
- Open Paid Time Off policy
- Professional development reimbursement
- Cell Phone, Wellness, and Internet expense reimbursement
- 100% fully paid parental leave for team members up to 22 weeks for the primary caregiver and 12 weeks for the secondary caregiver
- Dog-friendly offices (LA and AZ) along with a $300 pet adoption reimbursement
- Subscription to the Calm App
