Betterment is a leading, technology-driven financial services company that offers investing and retirement solutions for retail investors and investment advisors as well as financial wellness solutions, including a 401(k) for small and medium-sized businesses. Our team is passionate about our mission: to empower people to build wealth with confidence and ease. We're headquartered in NYC, and offer hybrid NY-based (four days / week in-office) and select, non-NY-based remote positions.
About the roleThe AI Platform team enables product teams across Betterment to build useful AI-powered features quickly, enjoyably, and responsibly. As Sr Software Engineer, you will work with a team of senior/staff engineers delivering an expanding set of AI capabilities as well as shared infrastructure, LLM evaluation frameworks, and internal libraries.
You will help build core pieces of our AI product development strategy, working closely with engineering leadership. You will collaborate with product and compliance partners to ensure Betterment's AI capabilities are developed with the rigor that our customers and regulators expect.
By joining us in the early days of our AI product efforts, you will have significant influence over how the organization delivers exciting features into the Betterment product across all lines of business.
This role is based out of our NYC office. Below we've reflected the base salary range for this position. Actual salaries may vary depending on factors including but not limited to location, experience, and performance. The range listed is just one component of Betterment’s total compensation package for employees.
- New York City: $170,000 - $205,000
This job may also be eligible for variable compensation in the form of a company incentive bonus.
A Day in the Life:- Work with a team of senior/staff engineers building the foundation that enables all Betterment teams to deploy AI features.
- Help deliver Betterment's AI platform strategy – the shared infrastructure, evaluation frameworks, internal libraries, and guardrails that allow product teams to build AI features with confidence and speed.
- Contribute to high-leverage projects that expand our organization’s AI technical capabilities, where AI organically enhances existing product value.
- Embed with product teams to ship customer-facing AI functionality to production. Develop broad Betterment domain expertise in the process.
- Collaborate with legal and compliance leaders to scale processes that enable teams to build AI functionality quickly and responsibly within a regulated financial services environment.
- Mentor junior engineers, sharing your experience to expand their impact and accelerate their growth.
- A contributor capable of establishing the strategic vision for Betterment’s AI systems while also working hands-on alongside senior and staff IC colleagues to build it into reality.
- Experience with LLM systems, including prompt engineering, agentic workflows, and evaluation systems.
- Experience operating AI features in production, ensuring quality and auditability via online and offline validation, automated monitoring, and human-in--the-loop oversight.
- Comfort operating at the frontier. The ability and drive to stay current with emerging tools, techniques, and best practices within the rapidly evolving AI ecosystem.
- Clear judgment about when to use AI and when not to, maintaining a grounded, pragmatic perspective on what we should ship to production today.
- Fullstack development experience including React, GraphQL, and one or more server-side languages (Ruby, Java, TypeScript, C#, Python, etc.)
- Experience collaborating across discipline and team boundaries.
- An open-minded approach when navigating the tension between moving fast, customer quality, and regulatory requirements.
We change lives
Be a part of a community of innovators working to transform financial outcomes for real people. Your work will make an impact, always laddering up to our mission; to empower people to build wealth with confidence and ease.
We set audacious goals
We set them for the company, our customers, and ourselves, and we won’t stop until we reach them. We don’t just show up; we give our all, then celebrate our wins.
We value all perspectives
When we collaborate, we're at our best. We believe diverse perspectives lead to better outcomes and strive to uphold our supportive and inclusive community.
We simplify financial services
We’re financial services pioneers, always finding new ways to improve, optimize, and enhance. Constant improvement is in our DNA.
Our Commitment to Your Total Well-being:
- We offer a competitive suite of benefits, including medical, dental, and vision coverage; life and AD&D insurance; short- and long-term disability; infertility support and WPATH-aligned transgender health benefits; an Employee Assistance Program (EAP); transit benefits and FSA and HSA options
- Ownership: Equity for all employees, including new hire and refresher grants.
- Time: Flexible paid time off, paid parental leave, and a fully paid four-week sabbatical in your sixth year.
- Growth: Company-paid professional coaching for all employees.
- Wealth: Day-one 401(k) match plus matching on qualified student loan payments.
We’ll take a few weeks to review all applications. If we’d like to spend more time with you, we’ll reach out to arrange next steps, which will include 3-4 sets of meetings with your future colleagues.
In the interview process, we’ll look to learn more about your skills, experiences, capabilities, and motivators. Many of our questions will be aimed at understanding how you might operate here at Betterment. Depending on the role, we may ask you to complete a case study exercise or technical assessments, as we want to collect a robust set of data points to better inform our decisions.
On average, it takes us around 3-5 weeks to make a hiring decision, depending on your availability and sense of urgency. As a best practice, we aim to interview at least 2-3 final round candidates before making a hiring decision. Please note that, as we usually receive an overwhelming number of applications for open positions, we’re unable to offer individual feedback during the interview process.
We recognize that interviewing for a new role is a big deal. We appreciate you considering Betterment as the next step in your career, and our Recruiting Team is here to support and advocate for you through the interview process!
Betterment is dedicated to providing accommodations to candidates upon request. If you need accommodations at any point throughout the interview process, please reach out to your recruiter.
Please note that in any materials you submit, you may redact or remove age-identifying information such as age, date of birth, or dates of school attendance or graduation. You will not be penalized for redacting or removing this information.
Come join us!
We’re an equal opportunity employer and comply with all applicable federal, state, and local fair employment practices laws. We strictly prohibit and do not tolerate discrimination against employees, applicants, or any other covered persons because of race, color, religion, creed, national origin or ancestry, ethnicity, sex, gender (including gender nonconformity and status as a transgender or transsexual individual), sexual orientation, marital status, age, physical or mental disability, citizenship, past, current or prospective service in the uniformed services, predisposing genetic characteristic, domestic violence victim status, arrest records, or any other characteristic protected under applicable federal, state or local law.
Skills Required
- Experience with LLM systems, including prompt engineering and evaluation systems
- Experience operating AI features in production, ensuring quality and auditability
- Fullstack development experience including React and server-side languages
- Experience collaborating across discipline and team boundaries
- Strong judgment about AI deployment in a regulated environment
Betterment Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Betterment and has not been reviewed or approved by Betterment.
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Retirement Support — Day-one 401(k) matching and student-loan matching are highlighted, with employees paying zero management fees on company accounts. Feedback suggests these financial-wellness features are unusually robust for a mid-size fintech.
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Leave & Time Off Breadth — Flexible PTO and a four-week sabbatical at year six are positioned as meaningful time-away benefits. Feedback suggests these provisions contribute to positive work-life balance perceptions.
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Equity Value & Accessibility — Equity grants for all employees (new-hire, performance, and refreshers) are emphasized as part of total compensation. Feedback suggests ownership opportunities add meaningful value alongside salary.
Betterment Insights
What We Do
Betterment is the largest independent digital investment advisor in the U.S., offering investing and retirement solutions alongside their everyday services for spending and saving. Using cutting-edge technology, expert advice, automated money management tools, and tax-smart strategies, they empower hundreds of thousands of customers to manage their money—for today, tomorrow, and someday.
Why Work With Us
At Betterment, we revolutionize the way people manage their money through innovative technology and personalized guidance. With a culture of empowerment, endless growth opportunities, and focus on a well-balanced life, working at Betterment means being part of our mission of making people’s lives better.
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