Fictiv Exists to Enable Hardware Innovators to Build Better Products, Faster
Fictiv exists to help product innovators create.
Fictiv is a global manufacturing and supply chain company that enables organizations to scale globally across Fictiv’s four global manufacturing centers in India, Mexico, China, and the U.S.. Companies use Fictiv to access high-quality production, optimize supply chain logistics, and mitigate supply chain risk—ensuring they can move from prototype to full-scale manufacturing with speed and confidence. To date, Fictiv has delivered more than 35 million commercial and prototype parts for industries such as aerospace, robotics, automotive, climate tech, and more, helping them innovate faster, free up precious resources, and drive profitable growth.
Senior Software Engineer, AI Team
Location: Oakland, CA – Onsite (HQ)
Department: Technology – Artificial Intelligence
Reports to: Director of Engineering, AI
Employment Type: Full-time
Classification: Exempt
About the Role
Fictiv is building the next generation of intelligent manufacturing platforms. Our AI Team operates as an independent innovation group focused on creating entirely new product capabilities for both Fictiv and Misumi.
Rather than maintaining legacy systems or shipping incremental features, this team explores 0→1 product concepts, rapidly prototypes them with real users, and evolves them into production-ready opportunities in partnership with the broader engineering organization.
This role is ideal for engineers who thrive in discovery-driven environments. You’ll work at the intersection of AI, manufacturing, and real-world data, identifying opportunities where intelligent automation can meaningfully improve how digital manufacturing operates.
You should bring an inventor’s mindset, startup-level ownership, and strong technical rigor, continuously testing and refining ideas before scaling them.
Your work will help define how AI transforms digital manufacturing using the proprietary datasets and operational insights of Fictiv and Misumi.
This position is based in our Oakland, CA headquarters and requires regular onsite collaboration with the AI team.
What You’ll Do
- Identify high-impact AI opportunities that create strategic advantage for Fictiv and Misumi.
- Rapidly prototype AI-driven applications using real company data to test new ideas and hypotheses.
- Design and iterate on LLM-powered systems to validate product-market fit, technical feasibility, and business impact.
- Partner with customers and internal teams to evaluate real-world feasibility and value.
- Leverage proprietary manufacturing and supply chain datasets to build differentiated capabilities.
- Work with engineering and product teams to transition validated prototypes into scalable production systems.
- Evaluate emerging AI technologies, models, and tooling for applicability to complex workflows.
- Document system architecture, experiments, and learnings to support productionization.
- Contribute to shaping the long-term AI strategy across both organizations.
Basic Qualifications
- 8+ years of professional software engineering experience.
- Strong AI-assisted coding skills with modern backend or full-stack development.
- Experience building and deploying LLM-powered applications used by real users in production.
- Proficiency with modern development stacks (TypeScript/JavaScript and AWS preferred).
- Deep understanding of:
- Prompt engineering
- LLM evaluation frameworks
- Reliability and guardrail patterns
- LLM system architecture
- Experience designing experiments and validating technical hypotheses using data.
- Must be legally authorized to work in the United States without the need for visa sponsorship now or in the future.
Preferred Experience
- Experience building AI-powered products in production environments.
- Strong ability to work across multiple languages, frameworks, and technical domains.
- Experience working with complex, messy, real-world datasets.
- Background in applied AI or machine learning systems.
What Makes You Successful in This Role
- Strong product intuition and business-oriented thinking.
- A desire to solve meaningful problems, not just build technology.
- Comfort working in ambiguous, fast-moving environments with minimal process.
- Ability to independently evaluate ideas and challenge assumptions.
- Clear and structured communication skills.
- A mindset oriented toward discovery, experimentation, and rapid learning.
Additional Information
- Work Location: Oakland, CA – Onsite at company headquarters
- Travel: 0–10% (primarily for team meetings or conferences)
Perks & Benefits
As part of your total compensation package, you will receive:
- Competitive medical and dental insurance
- 401(k) retirement savings plan
- Monthly Virtual Work stipend
- Generous PTO policy
- Leave programs, including maternity, parental/bonding, and medical leave to care for yourself or a loved one
- Onboarding setup, including a standing desk, laptop, monitor, and chair, plus a stipend for additional items such as headphones and blue light glasses
- Company-paid annual retreat
Salary Range:
$160,000 – $200,000 per year, depending on experience
About Fictiv
Fictiv is transforming how the next rockets, self-driving cars, and life-saving robots are designed, developed, and delivered to customers around the world. People who succeed at Fictiv are talented, creative, and driven to achieve professional excellence and support our vision to help product innovators create.
We’re actively seeking teammates who:
- Bring diverse perspectives and experience to our culture and company.
- Excel at being part of a strong, empathetic team.
- Thrive in an environment emphasizing respect, honesty, collaboration, and growth.
- Have an ‘always learning’ mindset that celebrates learning, not just wins.
- Help us continue to build a world-class organization that values the contributions of all of our teammates
We encourage applications from members of underrepresented groups, including but not limited to women, members of the LGBTQ community, people of color, people with disabilities, and veterans.
Top Skills
What We Do
Fictiv is a Digital Manufacturing Ecosystem that delivers high-quality parts at unprecedented speeds. Since our founding in 2013, we've manufactured over 19M parts for early-stage companies and large enterprises alike, helping them innovate with agility and get to market faster. Visit www.fictiv.com to learn more and get an instant quote! -- We’re committed to creating a company that reflects our community by including voices from a variety of backgrounds and perspectives. We believe the best teams are born from an environment that emphasizes respect, honesty, collaboration, and growth. If you share our vision, we’re interested in hearing from you. #fictivmade
