Lead Software Engineer, AI Labs (Product and Customer Facing)

We are building a new business unit meant to drive large-scale transformation through data, generative AI, and a leading platform that supports mission-critical workloads. In this role, you'll grow within a team of the most talented engineers and AI researchers in the world, as you contribute high-quality code to the hardest problems faced by our customers.

As a Software Engineer in this new business unit, you'll touch every phase of the product lifecycle. You'll own a range of responsibilities, from generating ideas and designing prototypes to executing features and shipping releases, while working alongside world-class engineers who will champion your growth.

You'll work hand-in-hand with technical and non-technical colleagues to uncover real customer problems and deliver solutions that address them.

You'll rotate forward and embed directly with our most demanding customers and partners to quickly understand their greatest problems, then design and implement solutions against them. You'll apply your problem-solving ability, creativity, and technical skills to help organizations drive real impact in the world.

You'll make use of everything around you

Salesforce products, open source technologies, and anything you and your team can build.

It doesn't matter what languages you know when you join us. What matters is that you can write clean, effective code and learn new languages quickly. Our software is constantly evolving, so we need engineers who can do the same.

We also adapt to the diverse environments of our customers and deliver solutions that scale across disparate networks and infrastructure.

You'll be on the forefront of something Salesforce has never done before. You'll learn how to unpack a problem and understand the costs and consequences of its solution, pick up new technologies and languages, and even develop them yourself, all within a collaborative community that will support and challenge you as you grow.

Responsibilities

• Work alongside motivated and talented engineers to bring cutting-edge theory into customer-facing practice
• Build tools and pipelines to support ML and AI efforts
• Design, build, deploy, and maintain production software and AI services, such as APIs, UIs, and agentic evaluators
• Roll out scalable cloud architectures and the software that runs on them
• Help with end-user requirements gathering and executive presentations
• Understand the toughest customer problems and devise thoughtful solutions

Required Skills / Qualifications

• B.S. in Computer Science with coursework in Artificial Intelligence (M.S. preferred)
• 5+ years of industry experience in Software Engineering, with a focus on AI/ML (7-12 years for Lead, 4-8 years for Senior)
• Proficiency in multiple programming languages such as Python, Go, Java, or C++
• Strong background in APIs, data modeling, and databases
• Experience with production cloud deployments such as AWS, GCP, or OCI
• Experience field-debugging full-stack deployments
• Demonstrated ability to work both independently and collaboratively in a dynamic environment
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Proven collaborator who can manage internal and external stakeholders and drive consensus across diverse engineering and product teams
• Solid understanding of security principles and best practices
• Passion for continuous learning in AI technologies and enthusiasm for mentoring peers
• A demonstrated, genuine AI-first approach to engineering: using AI to move faster, build fluency across the stack, and contribute well beyond your core specialty
• Experience using AI tools (e.g., Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, Codex, Cursor) in development workflows
• High level of authorship

Preferred Skills / Qualifications

• Experience with open-source technologies such as Kubernetes, Envoy, Grafana, React, and Redux
• UI and graphic design sensibilities