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Staff AI Engineer - Agent Architecture & Behavior

artisanSan FranciscoEngineering
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Salary
$250K–$325K USD
Job type
Full-time
Experience
Senior
Posted
13 Sept 2026
Status
Open · checked 7d ago

About this role

The Staff AI Engineer - Agent Architecture & Behavior position at Artisan is an on-site role in San Francisco that focuses on designing core agentic AI systems for a new product launch. This hands-on opportunity suits an experienced engineer who excels at turning ambiguous technical challenges into reliable production software.

Role Overview

The Staff AI Engineer - Agent Architecture & Behavior is an individual contributor position based in San Francisco, California. The professional will own the core AI architecture, making critical design decisions and writing foundational code for a new agentic platform. Working closely with engineering leadership, the role requires building dependable software that bridges high-level agent planning with robust execution.

Key Responsibilities

Design and implement agent execution loops, planning strategies, tool interfaces, and verification mechanisms.
Build multi-agent systems featuring coordination, context sharing, delegation, and result synthesis.
Develop resilient, stateful workflows with built-in checkpoints, recovery strategies, and appropriate human intervention.
Improve context retrieval, persistent state, skill representation, and memory handling without regressions.
Construct realistic evaluations and analyze task trajectories to measure and improve quality, latency, cost, and reliability.
Evaluate emerging models and tooling to make informed build-versus-buy decisions.
Set engineering standards and guide the team toward a coherent AI system implementation.

Requirements

Demonstrated history of personally building and shipping a substantial agentic system into production or rigorous open-source work.
Deep practical experience with LLM tool use, context engineering, planning, evaluations, and multi-agent coordination.
Hands-on background in browser or computer automation within agentic systems, including state observation and recovery.
Strong software engineering ability in Python, TypeScript, or a comparable language, alongside familiarity with asynchronous services, state machines, persistence, and concurrency.
Capacity to distinguish between model responsibilities and code-enforced guarantees regarding permissions, untrusted inputs, and human approvals.
Ability to design meaningful experiments, debug system behavior, and take technical ownership of unclear problems.

Nice to Have

Depth in agent memory and retrieval.
Experience with skill acquisition, reinforcement learning, or post-training.
Background in trajectory datasets, sandboxed execution, and distributed systems.
Familiarity with inference optimization, multimodal models, or voice models.

Skills and Tools

Python
TypeScript
Large Language Models (LLMs)
Agent architecture and multi-agent frameworks
Browser and computer automation tools

Salary and Benefits

Base salary range of $250,000 to $325,000 USD annually
Equity ranging from 0.15% to 0.30%
US visa sponsorship available

About the Company

Artisan builds AI employees designed to take on real operational work. Current products include Ava, an outbound AI BDR; Aaron, an inbound AI SDR; and Aria, an AI account executive. The company's overarching mission is to deploy autonomous AI employees capable of managing responsibilities across numerous roles and industries.

How to Apply

Candidates should apply directly on the official Artisan careers page by sharing details of an agentic system they personally owned, including what was built, the hardest failure fixed, and how improvements were measured.

Skills and tech stack

PythonTypeScriptLLMsLLMReinforcement LearningDistributed Systems

Questions candidates ask

Where is the Staff AI Engineer role located?

The position is based in person at the Artisan office in San Francisco, California.

What is the salary range and equity for this position?

The annual base salary ranges from $250,000 to $325,000 USD, accompanied by an equity stake between 0.15% and 0.30%.

Is US visa sponsorship available?

Yes, US visa sponsorship is available for this role.

What programming languages are required?

Candidates should be strong software engineers in Python, TypeScript, or a comparable language.

Is a specific degree or formal education required?

No, there is no required degree, publication record, previous employer, or specific agent framework.

Ready to apply?

The application is on the official artisan careers page.

Apply on company site