Senior Software Engineer

Engineering

 Prolific

Prolific is not just another player in the AI space – we are the architects of the human data infrastructure that's reshaping the landscape of AI development. In a world where foundational AI technologies are increasingly commoditized, it's the quality and diversity of human-generated data that truly differentiates products and models.

The role

We’re looking for impact-focused Software Generalists to join our specialized team focused on serving frontier model creators and enterprise AI application developers. As a full-stack engineer, you will work across Prolific’s domains to solve customer and product problems.

This is an exciting opportunity to work directly with frontier AI companies, making critical technical decisions that balance scrappy startup execution with scalable, reliable engineering, as Prolific revolutionizes research for the AI community. You'll will have regular in person collaboration with customers and our US team, as well as collaborate closely with our UK-based tech teams.

This role is hybrid based out of our San Francisco office, approx 1-2 days a week.

What you’ll bring to the role

• Over 4 years of experience in a product engineering role
• Can translate business concepts into software models
• Ability to quickly learn and adapt across the breadth of Prolific’s domains
• Familiar working in both monoliths and distributed systems
• Strong communication and collaboration skills for direct customer interaction
• Good understanding of modern web applications and architecture design patterns
• Experience supporting applications in production environments
• Judgment to balance scrappy startup execution with scalable, reliable engineering
• Comfort with rapid iteration and responding to customer queries with urgency
• Experience with some of our technology stack:
  • Python (we use Django & Fast API)
  • TypeScript and JavaScript (we use Vue.js)
  • SQL and NoSQL databases (we use MongoDB and PostgresSQL)
  • Building and deploying to the cloud (we use GCP, Kubernetees, Github Actions & CircleCI)
  • Instrumenting, monitoring & observability (we use Datadog)

What you’ll be doing in the role 

This is a unique engineering role at Prolific.

In this role, you will operate with high ownership and a product mindset, at start-up pace, to solve customer problems and capture business opportunities irrespective of the technology required to do so.

You will be part of a cross-functional Product Engineering team, optimised for the success of a single customer group. You will collaborate directly with account managers, customer success specialists and customers to deeply understand their problem spaces. You will ideate and build with autonomy, supported by a high-performing team.

This role will see you work across Prolific domains to solve customer problems, needing you to get up to speed quickly and deliver across shared codebases to a high engineering standard. You will also help support our systems in production & respond to incidents when required.

Key Technologies 

• Cloud Platforms: Google Cloud Platform and AWS
• Programming Languages: Python, JavaScript, and TypeScript
• Frameworks: Vue.js, Django Rest Framework, Container-based and Serverless architectures
• Databases: MongoDB and DynamoDB
• DevOps and Monitoring: CircleCI, GitHub Actions, Kubernetes, Celery, EventBridge and DataDog

Why Prolific is a great place to work

We've built a unique platform that connects researchers and companies with a global pool of participants, enabling the collection of high-quality, ethically sourced human behavioral data and feedback. This data is the cornerstone of developing more accurate, nuanced, and aligned AI systems.

We believe that the next leap in AI capabilities won't come solely from scaling existing models, but from integrating diverse human perspectives and behaviors into AI development. By providing this crucial human data infrastructure, Prolific is positioning itself at the forefront of the next wave of AI innovation – one that reflects the breath and the best of humanity.

Join us to enjoy a competitive salary, benefits, and remote working within our impactful, mission-driven culture. At Prolific, our compensation packages for eligible roles include base salary, equity, and benefits. Many roles also include the opportunity to earn a cash variable element, such as a bonus or commission. Each job posting shows a salary range that reflects the minimum and maximum target for new hires, based on the role’s location as well as your skills, experience, and relevant education or training. You can check the job posting’s subtitle to see where the position is based. Your recruiter will also be happy to share the specific salary range for your preferred location during the hiring process.

For pay transparency, the base salary range for this full-time role in San Francisco is $250,000 - $300,000 per annum.

Links to more information on Prolific

Benefits 

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Privacy Statement

By submitting your application, you agree that Prolific may collect your personal data for recruiting and global organisation planning. Prolific's Candidate Privacy Notice explains what personal information Prolific may process, where Prolific may process your personal information, its purposes for processing your personal information, and the rights you can exercise over Prolific use of your personal information.