StaffEngineer-AgenticAI

ABOUT THE ROLE A well-funded, early-stage AI startup in the mechanical engineering software space is looking for a Staff Engineer — Agentic AI to own the core agent intelligence layer that turns engineers' intent into reliable, cost-efficient multi-step workflows across complex desktop engineering tools. This is a high-impact, senior technical leadership role reporting directly to the CTO, sitting at the intersection of applied agentic AI, user research, and product delivery. The company serves Fortune 100 hardware engineering customers and is backed by notable investors. You'll join a small, senior team and have a direct line to executive leadership. The role is on-site in San Francisco, CA. WHAT YOU'LL DO - Lead development of the core agent intelligence layer executing multi-step workflows across complex desktop engineering software (CAD, CAE, PLM). - Report to the CTO and serve as technical lead for a small team of AI engineers, a user researcher, and domain expert contractors. - Own the full product loop: define agent capabilities from user stories, build implementations, and benchmark against real workflows. - Drive agent task success rate — define the eval framework, establish baselines, and systematically improve completion metrics. - Set and enforce per-task token budgets; track cost per completed workflow to ensure commercial viability. - Build rigorous, reproducible evaluation infrastructure grounded in validated user stories (SWE-bench-level rigor applied to engineering workflows). - Lead user story mapping and validation through direct interviews and collaboration with domain experts. - Translate validated user stories into testable evals, closing the loop between research and benchmarking. - Own agent architecture decisions: tool-calling strategies, state management, error recovery, model routing, and context management. - Act as a player-coach: write production code, review designs, unblock the team, and raise engineering standards. - Collaborate cros