Staff Engineer, Applied AI

Posted 4 Days Ago
Be an Early Applicant
3 Locations
In-Office
225K-265K Annually
Senior level
Mobile • Social Media
Match Group is the global dating app leader creating meaningful connections for people around the world.
The Role
Own the design, roadmap, security, observability, and production operations of Tinder’s internal AI agent platform. Build gateways, MCP connectors, identity and delegation systems, fine-grained authorization, guardrails, audit trails, evaluation workflows, cost attribution, and reliable runtime infrastructure. Partner with Security and internal engineering teams, lead incident response and on-call operations, establish connector standards, and mentor engineers building on the platform.
Summary Generated by Built In
Our Mission

As humans, there are few things more exciting than meeting someone new. At Tinder, we’re inspired by the challenge of keeping the magic of human connection alive. With tens of millions of users, hundreds of millions of downloads, 2+ billion swipes per day, 20+ million matches per day, and a presence in 190+ countries, our reach is expansive—and rapidly growing. 

We work together to solve complex problems. Behind the simplicity of every match, we think deeply about human relationships, behavioral science, network economics, AI and ML, online and real-world safety, cultural nuances, loneliness, love, sex, and more.


Our Values
  • Take the Lead: We don't ghost our work or each other. Just as users don't leave their matches hanging, we don't let each other down.
  • Move Fast: We have a bias for action and urgency. Something that could be done tomorrow would be better if done today.
  • Better Together: We keep connection at the heart of dating and at the heart of how we work. Just as our users are better when they connect with others, so are we when we collaborate.
  • Real Talk: We say the hard thing the human way. Just as we ask our users to behave with kindness and candor in our community, we expect Team Tinder to do the same.
  • Safety First: We act with integrity, transparency, and consistency so people feel safe—whether they're swiping, matching, or working alongside us.
  • Spark Fun: We have fun to unlock creativity, fuel innovation, and help us build better experiences for daters.

The Team or Role

Agents now do real work at Tinder. They review code, security risks, accessibility, make UI improvements, help marketing teams with their workflows, and run inside engineers' coding tools and in Slack. Every one of them reaches our internal systems through our agent platform: a gateway, a growing set of MCP connectors, and the identity, policy and observability layers around them.

We're hiring the engineer who owns that platform's design and functions by closely collaborating with internal teams on real use cases. You'll make it safe by default for agents that can read sensitive data and take consequential actions, fast and reliable enough that teams want to build on it, and simple enough that the next connector or agent takes days, not weeks.

Where you’ll work:
This is a hybrid role and requires in-office collaboration three times per week in our Palo Alto, California office.  

In this role, you will:

  • Work closely with internal teams to build real solutions for challenges they are facing day to day.

  • Own the design of the agent platform across gateway, connectors, identity, policy, guardrails, observability and cost, and write the roadmap for how it evolves.

  • Design identity and delegation for agents: acting on behalf of a user, agent-owned identities for unattended jobs, short-lived scoped credentials, and every action traceable to a responsible human.

  • Build access control beyond tool allowlists: per-action, per-argument and per-data-class policy, human approval for irreversible actions, and policy that's reviewable and tested.

  • Build guardrails enforced at the tool boundary, not in prompts, against prompt injection through tool output, confused-deputy access, data exfiltration and over-broad scopes.

  • Make agent behavior observable: traces of tool calls and decisions, audit trails investigators can use, evals that catch regressions when models or prompts change, and per-team cost attribution.

  • Set the bar for connectors and third-party MCP servers: onboarding, review, versioning, sandboxing and safe defaults.

  • Run the platform as production and own its on-call: latency budgets, failure modes, rate limits and quotas, kill switches and incident response.

  • Partner with Security, our forward deployed engineers and platform teams, and mentor the engineers who build on and contribute to the platform.

You'll need:

  • Great communication and collaboration skills, experience working with real challenges of customer

  • 8+ years building backend, infrastructure or platform systems that other teams depend on, with recent hands-on work on LLM agents, tool use or MCP.

  • Experience shipping identity or authorization systems: OAuth 2.0 and OIDC, token exchange or delegation, service identity, and policy models (RBAC, ABAC or relationship-based).

  • An attacker's mindset about agent systems, and the ability to explain why prompt-level defenses aren't enough.

  • Experience operating gateways, proxies or other services in the critical request path, including on-call, observability and incident response.

  • Strong skills in Python or TypeScript, and daily use of AI coding tools with a clear sense of where they fail.

  • A track record of working well with security teams and impatient internal customers, turning "no" into a safe "yes, like this."

Nice to have:

  • Experience with policy engines or workload identity.

  • Built or operated an LLM gateway, model router or MCP server in production.

  • Familiarity with OpenTelemetry and tracing for non-deterministic systems.

  • Contributions to agent identity or MCP authorization standards.

  • Engineering background in application protection, identity and access management, or threat detection and incident response.

As a full-time employee, you’ll enjoy:
  • Flexible Vacation, 10 Sick Days
  • Time off to volunteer and charitable donations matched up to $15,000 annually 
  • Comprehensive health, vision, and dental coverage
  • 100% 401(k) employer match up to 10%, Employee Stock Purchase Plan (ESPP)
  • 100% paid parental leave (including for non-birthing parents) and family forming benefits
  • Investment in your development: mentorship through our MentorMatch program, access to 6,000+ online courses through Udemy, and an annual $3,000 stipend for your professional development
  • Investment in your wellness: access to mental health support via Modern Health, paid concierge medical membership, pet insurance, fitness membership subsidy, and commuter subsidy
  • Free subscription to Tinder Gold

Commitment to Inclusion
 
At Tinder, we don’t just accept difference, we celebrate it. We strive to build a workplace that reflects the rich diversity of our members around the world, and we value unique perspectives and backgrounds. Even if you don’t meet all the listed qualifications, we invite you to apply and show us how your skills could transfer. Tinder is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace where we welcome people of all sexes, gender identities, races, ethnicities, disabilities, and other lived experiences. Learn more here: https://www.lifeattinder.com/dei
 
If you require reasonable accommodation to complete a job application, pre-employment testing, or a job interview or to otherwise participate in the hiring process, please speak to your Talent Acquisition Partner directly.
 
#Tinder

Skills Required

  • Strong communication and collaboration skills, including experience solving real customer or internal team challenges
  • 8+ years building backend, infrastructure, or platform systems used by other teams
  • Recent hands-on experience with LLM agents, tool use, or MCP
  • Experience shipping identity or authorization systems, including OAuth 2.0, OIDC, token exchange or delegation, service identity, and policy models such as RBAC or ABAC
  • Ability to assess agent-system threats and explain why prompt-level defenses are insufficient
  • Experience operating gateways, proxies, or critical-request-path services, including on-call, observability, and incident response
  • Strong Python or TypeScript skills
  • Daily use of AI coding tools and understanding of their limitations
  • Ability to collaborate effectively with security teams and internal customers
  • Experience with policy engines or workload identity
  • Production experience building or operating an LLM gateway, model router, or MCP server
  • Familiarity with OpenTelemetry and tracing for nondeterministic systems
  • Contributions to agent identity or MCP authorization standards
  • Engineering background in application protection, identity and access management, or threat detection and incident response

Match Group Compensation & Benefits Highlights

The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Match Group and has not been reviewed or approved by Match Group.

  • Retirement Support — Employer matching on retirement savings and access to an employee stock purchase program are highlighted as standout elements. Feedback suggests this creates strong long-term financial support as part of total rewards.
  • Parental & Family Support — Fully paid parental leave, fertility and family-forming support, and childcare resources are emphasized across materials. Feedback suggests these benefits meaningfully support different family needs.
  • Leave & Time Off Breadth — Generous PTO, numerous paid holidays, wellness and volunteer time, and other special leave options are consistently described. Feedback suggests the breadth of time-off options helps sustain work-life balance.

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The Company
HQ: Dallas, TX
1,400 Employees
Year Founded: 1995

What We Do

Match Group is home to some of the world’s most popular dating and social discovery apps, including Tinder, Hinge, Match, and more. Match Group’s mission is to spark meaningful connections for every single person worldwide. Our diverse portfolio of apps enables connections across a diverse range of ages, genders, backgrounds, and dating goals. Our services are available in over 40 languages to users all over the world.

Why Work With Us

Match Group is united by a mission to help people find meaningful connections and fight loneliness. We’re not just building products. We’re creating friendships, marriages, and families around the world. Our culture is fueled by purpose, creativity, and a passion for what we can build together.

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