Senior Software Engineer, AI
Job Description
Toast is recruiting on behalf of this company for a Senior Software Engineer, AI to join their Engineering team in Toronto. They are looking for an experienced backend engineer who is excited to build and optimize LLM-powered systems that help users uncover meaningful business insights.
Responsibilities
- Design, build, and maintain backend systems that power LLM-driven and agentic workflows
- Develop retrieval pipelines, orchestration layers, and multi‑step agent architectures that support scalable AI‑powered search experiences
- Lead the evaluation of agentic systems using automated, offline, and human‑in‑the‑loop frameworks to measure relevance, quality, latency, and task success
- Improve retrieval and ranking systems across hybrid retrieval, re‑ranking, query rewriting, and post‑retrieval synthesis
- Optimize LLM‑powered workflows for speed, accuracy, reliability, and production readiness
- Own technical projects from concept through launch, including experimentation strategy, architecture decisions, and operational excellence
- Collaborate closely with product, infrastructure, and data teams to align technical solutions with user needs and business goals
- Stay current with advances in LLMs, retrieval systems, and agentic reasoning, and apply relevant developments to product and engineering work
- Contribute to engineering best practices that support maintainability, observability, testing, and continuous delivery
Requirements
- 5+ years of experience building and operating backend systems in production
- Strong experience in at least one of the following areas: search and retrieval, data pipelines, distributed systems, or API‑driven service architectures
- 2+ years of hands‑on experience working with search, retrieval, or ranking systems
- Experience building or evaluating LLM‑powered or agentic systems, including retrieval‑augmented generation or multi‑step workflows
- Strong software engineering fundamentals with the ability to write clean, maintainable, and well‑tested code
- Proficiency in Python and experience with backend frameworks, APIs, and production infrastructure
- Familiarity with vector databases and search platforms such as FAISS, PGVector, Pinecone, Weaviate, Elasticsearch, or OpenSearch
- Experience with cloud platforms such as AWS, GCP, or Azure in environments with scale, low‑latency requirements, and high availability
- Experience using AI coding tools to improve development workflows
- A customer‑focused mindset with the ability to connect technical decisions to user outcomes
- Demonstrated ability to lead projects, make sound architectural decisions, and support the growth of others on the team
Benefits
- Competitive compensation with a salary range of CA$145,000–CA$183,000, plus equity
- Extended health and dental coverage starting from day one
- Employee Stock Option Plan for full‑time employees
- Flexible vacation policy designed to support rest and balance
- Career development support through coaching, feedback, and performance reviews
- Access to high‑quality equipment and tooling
- Hybrid work model with in‑office collaboration in Toronto on designated days
- Opportunities to work closely with leadership and contribute to meaningful technical direction
- A workplace that values belonging, authenticity, accessibility, and professional growth
- An inclusive hiring approach that considers potential, transferable experience, and equivalent backgrounds