Staff Software Engineer AI

Join an amazing team that is consistently recognized for our achievements and culture, including our most recent Forbes award of being one of America's Best Midsize Employers for 2026!

The ideal candidate brings deep expertise in building, developing, and deploying production-grade conversational AI solutions—well beyond prototyping—ensuring scalable, real-world impact. Additionally, they possess a human-centered AI approach, effectively partnering with SMEs to incorporate domain expertise into evaluation frameworks, metrics, and continuous model improvement. 

Position Summary:

As a Staff Software Engineer focused on Generative AI initiatives, you will provide technical leadership in identifying, implementing, and integrating Generative AI solutions to solve complex business problems. You will bridge the gap between traditional software engineering and AI technologies, leading teams to deliver AI-enhanced features and capabilities while mentoring engineers on practical AI adoption within existing software systems.

An in-person interview may be required during the hiring process

State specific pay scales for this role are as follows:

$101,167 to $204,439 (CA, NJ, NY, WA, HI, AK, MD, CT, RI, MA)

$91,970 to $185,853 (NV, OR, AZ, CO, WY, TX, ND, MN, MO, IL, WI, FL, GA, MI, OH, VA, PA, DE, VT, NH, ME)

$82,773 to $167,268 (UT, ID, MT, NM, SD, NE, KS, OK, IA, AR, LA, MS, AL, TN, KY, IN, SC, NC, WV)

The expected base salary for this position will vary depending on a number of factors, including relevant experience, skills and location.

In CA: Typical hiring range is $137,523 to $191,004

Essential Job Functions: 

• Apply Generative AI techniques to solve complex business problems by identifying opportunities where AI can enhance existing software systems and create new intelligent features.
• Integrate Generative AI models and capabilities into production software applications, bridging the gap between Generative AI research and practical software engineering implementation.
• Evaluate and select appropriate Generative AI  models, tools, and techniques for specific use cases, considering factors like performance, cost, maintainability, and business impact.
• Write high-quality code that combines traditional software engineering with AI components, ensuring robust integration, proper error handling, and comprehensive test coverage.
• Review and translate product requirements into technical solutions that leverage AI effectively, designing systems that seamlessly blend AI capabilities with core application functionality.
• Lead design and code reviews for AI-enhanced applications, ensuring best practices in both software engineering and AI implementation while maintaining Mercury standards.
• Lead multiple sprint teams to deliver AI-powered features and improvements, addressing technical challenges in integrating AI into existing software systems.
• Collaborate with product managers, data scientists, and engineering teams to identify AI opportunities and translate them into practical software solutions.
• Mentor engineers on how to effectively incorporate AI into their software development practices, promoting understanding of AI capabilities and limitations.
• Drive practical AI adoption across teams by demonstrating how to effectively combine software engineering principles with AI technologies.
• Collaborate with product managers to estimate effort for AI-enhanced features, prioritize AI integration opportunities, and deliver measurable business value through AI implementation.

Education: 

Minimum:

• Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science, Information Systems or other related fields Or equivalent combination of education and experience.

Preferred: 

• Master’s Degree in Data Science.

Experience:

Minimum:

• 7+ years software engineering experience with proven experience in cutting-edge Technologies and/or those used at Mercury.
• 3+ years hands-on experience leading multi-team engineering initiatives for building features in a distributed application systems environment.

Preferred: 

• 5 or more years of experience with Data Science, NLP, AI, etc.
• 5 or more years of experience working on production ready conversational AI related initiatives including leveraging closed and open source models and libraries including enterprise platform
• Experience with Agentic AI, RAG, Prompt, human in the loop evaluation 
• Experience with product data analytics

Knowledge and Skills:

• Proficient in programming in one or more industry-standard languages (e.g., Java, Python, Go, C++, JavaScript).
• Proficient in leveraging various data structures, algorithms, and design patterns. Experienced in relational databases, NoSQL, and caching solutions.
• Skilled in APIs using modern protocols like REST and gRPC.
• Experienced in message queuing, data streaming, workflow, and integration frameworks (such as Apache Kafka, Apache NiFi, Amazon SQS, MS MQ, Apache Camel, etc.). Knowledgeable in microservices architecture.
• Experienced in containerization technologies like Docker and Kubernetes. Proficient in cloud platforms such as AWS, Google Cloud, or Azure.
• Experienced in leveraging DevSecOps to improve engineering efficiency.
• Proficient in designing and implementing high-quality distributed application systems that are modular, configurable, maximize reuse, and are fast, effective, user-friendly, secure, compliant, scalable, and maintainable.
• Experienced in leveraging analytics data and experimentation to design and improve systems for speed, scalability, and effectiveness.
• Excellent problem-solving skills leading to innovative solutions.
• Strong communication skills. Strong ability to collaborate and influence cross-functional teams and stakeholders across multiple functional areas to address impediments and deliver desired results.
• Demonstrated leadership skills through mentoring and providing technical guidance to multiple teams within a functional area.
• Experienced in championing operational excellence and best practices with a focus on quality, performance, scalability, maintainability, and observability.
• Experienced in driving technical strategy and vision for multiple teams.

Why choose a career at Mercury?

At Mercury, we have been guided by our purpose to help people reduce risk and overcome unexpected events for more than 60 years. We are one team with a common goal to help others. Everyone needs insurance and we can’t imagine a world without it.

Our team will encourage you to grow, make time to have fun, and work together to make great things happen. We embrace the strengths and values of each team member. We believe in having diverse perspectives where everyone is included, to serve customers from all walks of life.

We care about our people, and we mean it. We reward our talented professionals with a competitive salary, bonus potential, and a variety of benefits to help our team members reach their health, retirement, and professional goals.

Learn more about us here: https://www.mercuryinsurance.com/about/careers

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We offer many great benefits, including:

• Competitive compensation
• Flexibility to work from anywhere in the United States for most positions
• Paid time off (vacation time, sick time, 9 paid Company holidays, volunteer hours)
• Incentive bonus programs (potential for holiday bonus, referral bonus, and performance-based bonus)
• Medical, dental, vision, life, and pet insurance
• 401 (k) retirement savings plan with company match
• Engaging work environment
• Promotional opportunities
• Education assistance
• Professional and personal development opportunities
• Company recognition program
• Health and wellbeing resources, including free mental wellbeing therapy/coaching sessions, child and eldercare resources, and more

Mercury Insurance is an equal opportunity employer.  All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, status as a protected veteran, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local law.