Key skills

GoPythonArtificial Intelligence and Machine Learning SystemsLarge Language Models (LLMs)Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG)LLM Evaluation and Prompt DesignAPI-Driven ServicesCloud Infrastructure AWSCloud Infrastructure GCPCloud InfrastructureCloud Infrastructure AzureVector DatabasesInference SystemsSQLModel Context Protocol (MCP)Architectural LeadershipGolangAIMLLLMOpenAIAnthropicRAGHugging FaceReactAngularAWSAzureGCPBigCommerceLeadershipPrototypingSales

About this role

Commerce is an open, AI-driven commerce ecosystem and the parent company of BigCommerce, Feedonomics, and Makeswift, helping businesses solve complex commerce challenges through connected tools, systems, and data. The Lead Software Engineer - AI will define the architectural direction for AI services, build production-grade Go and LLM-based systems, establish engineering standards, and mentor senior engineers while partnering with Product and Engineering leadership.

Responsibilities:

Define and evolve the architectural direction for AI services and initiatives
Lead high-level and low-level design for major AI programs
Establish architectural patterns and technical guidelines that other engineers follow
Build and evolve scalable, API-driven AI services in Go
Develop LLM-based solutions, including classification, extraction, structured generation, and RAG workflows
Drive rapid experimentation and prototyping (often in Python), ensuring clear paths to production-ready implementations
Define and enforce standards for evaluation, cost-awareness, and operational reliability across AI systems
Mentor Senior AI Engineers through design reviews and technical guidance
Collaborate with Staff Engineers when broader architectural alignment is required
Work directly with Product Managers and stakeholders to clarify goals and define measurable success criteria
Balance hands-on engineering with architectural oversight
Ensure architectural consistency and adherence to established design standards
Raise the technical bar through thoughtful reviews and shared engineering standards

Requirements:

7+ years of professional software engineering experience
Strong proficiency in Go (GoLang) and experience building production-grade, API-driven services
Proficiency in Python for experimentation, prototyping, and scripting
3+ years of experience building and deploying AI/ML systems in production environments
Strong experience with modern LLM ecosystems (e.g., OpenAI, Anthropic, Hugging Face)
Deep understanding of LLM-based solution patterns, including Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), structured outputs, schema-driven generation, and agents/orchestration workflows
Familiarity with MCP (Model Context Protocol) servers and orchestration approaches
Experience evaluating LLM performance in production contexts, including prompt design, quality measurement, and model comparison
Experience designing and operating scalable API services at scale
Strong experience with cloud infrastructure (AWS, GCP, or Azure)
Experience with vector databases and inference systems
Strong SQL skills and familiarity with modern data storage technologies
Experience working with large taxonomies or structured classification systems
Experience in e-commerce, product catalogs, or sales channel data models
Familiarity with frontend frameworks (React, Angular)