Staff Software Engineer, CKD

The role

You will lead the technical direction for bringing NerdWallet's financial guidance into third-party AI assistants. You will architect and build production LLM-backed systems and integrations on leading AI platforms.

What you will do

• Lead the technical direction for AI platform integrations.
• Own the architecture for how NerdWallet's guidance is packaged, exposed, and rendered inside third-party AI assistants.
• Write production code for new integrations and prototype new platform capabilities.
• Design for reuse across platforms by defining abstractions, contracts, and patterns.
• Track evolving platform protocols, SDKs, review processes, and policies.
• Help define eval and testing strategy for platform integrations.
• Partner with Security, Legal, and Compliance to build safely for a regulated domain.
• Set standards for monitoring, latency, cost, and incident response.
• Lead design reviews, set coding and architecture standards, and conduct code reviews.
• Coach engineers on system design, LLM-backed development, and good engineering practices.

Required qualifications

• 8+ years in software engineering
• At least 3+ years at the Staff level
• Deep hands-on experience building and operating production backend systems
• Track record of technical leadership in architecting complex systems and mentoring engineers
• Hands-on experience building production features on LLMs: tool use/function calling, MCP or similar protocols, prompt and context design, retrieval (RAG), evals, and handling non-deterministic output
• Advanced knowledge of a modern TypeScript stack (e.g., Node.js, React, GraphQL, Postgres, Redis)
• Experience designing APIs and shared services that other teams build on
• Experience building on third-party platforms or ecosystems
• Strong understanding of authentication and authorization patterns (e.g., OAuth) and security best practices
• Comfort with early-stage, zero-to-one work
• Strong communication skills

Nice to have

• Experience building apps, connectors, or agents for major AI assistant platforms
• Experience shipping AI features in regulated industries (fintech, lending, insurance, healthcare)
• Experience with AWS, modern CI/CD, containerization, and observability for LLM systems
• Experience mentoring engineers across blended FTE and vendor/contractor teams
• Comfort in a fast-paced environment where priorities shift

Benefits

• Medical, dental, and vision health care plans
• Rejuvenation Policy: Flexible Vacation Time Off + 11 holidays + holiday company shutdown
• New Parent Leave
• Mental health support
• Paid sabbatical after 5 years
• Health and Dependent Care FSA and HSA Plan with monthly NerdWallet contribution
• Monthly Wellness Stipend
• Cell Phone Stipend
• Wifi Stipend (Only remote Nerds are eligible)
• Work from home equipment stipend (Only remote Nerds are eligible)
• Co-working space subsidy (Only remote Nerds are eligible)
• 401K with 4% company match

About the company

NerdWallet is on a mission to bring clarity to all of life's financial decisions. They have built an inclusive, flexible, and candid culture.