AI Software Development Engineer (AI SDE3)

Job Title: AI Software Development Engineer (AI SDE3)

Location: JP-13-Tokyo

Experience: 4-6 Years

Overview:

The AI Software Development Engineer – Level 3 (AI SDE3) is responsible for independently designing, building, and optimizing AI-enabled application components across frontend, backend, and data workflows. This role combines strong software engineering capability with applied AI implementation expertise, contributing to architectural decisions, solving complex technical problems, and guiding implementation quality across the engineering team.

The AI SDE3 works closely with Technical Leads, Forward Deployed Engineers, Business Architects, and Technical Program Managers to translate business and technical requirements into scalable, production-ready software solutions. The role is expected to operate with high ownership, drive technical problem-solving independently, and contribute to system architecture, AI workflow design, and engineering best practices.

Responsibilities:

• Design and implement complex application features across frontend, backend, and AI workflow layers
• Independently develop and maintain backend services and APIs using Python and FastAPI
• Build frontend interfaces and interaction layers using React, Next.js/Remix, and Tailwind CSS
• Implement real-time streaming workflows using Server-Sent Events (SSE) or similar technologies
• Design and implement LLM-integrated applications, including business workflow automation and knowledge retrieval systems
• Build and optimize Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) pipelines, including advanced retrieval strategies, hybrid search, and re-ranking techniques
• Develop and maintain evaluation loops to measure AI output quality, retrieval effectiveness, and guardrail compliance
• Design and implement guardrails and control mechanisms to improve safety, reliability, and output consistency
• Contribute to architecture decisions related to service decomposition, integration patterns, and scalability
• Build and optimize data pipelines, data transformation workflows, and data quality validation mechanisms
• Implement and optimize CI/CD pipelines, deployment automation, and infrastructure provisioning workflows
• Ensure systems meet security requirements, including authentication, authorization, and access control enforcement
• Implement observability standards including logging, monitoring, tracing, and alerting
• Review code, mentor junior engineers, and enforce engineering quality standards
• Translate business and product requirements into technical specifications and implementation plans
• Troubleshoot complex issues across application, AI, and infrastructure layers

Qualifications:

Experience

• 4 to 6 years of software development experience
• Experience building production-grade software systems, including exposure to AI-enabled or data-driven systems
• Proven ability to independently own features and contribute to architectural decisions

Architecture & System Design

• Strong understanding of microservices architecture patterns and service decomposition
• Experience implementing Test Driven Development (TDD) and structured testing practices
• Strong understanding of database design principles across SQL and NoSQL systems
• Ability to design scalable, maintainable, and resilient application components

Frontend Development

• Strong experience in React development
• Experience building responsive interfaces using Tailwind CSS
• Familiarity with Next.js or Remix frameworks
• Understanding of SSE (Server-Sent Events) for real-time communication and streaming interactions

Backend Development

• Strong hands-on experience with Python development
• Strong expertise in FastAPI and modern API development practices
• Strong understanding of REST API principles, service integration, and backend architecture
• Experience building scalable backend workflows and asynchronous processing patterns

AI / ML Engineering

• Strong understanding of LLM integration patterns and AI application workflows
• Hands-on experience implementing advanced RAG architectures
• Experience with Hybrid Search and Re-ranking strategies for retrieval optimization
• Experience designing and maintaining evaluation loops for model quality and response consistency
• Experience implementing Guardrails for safe and reliable AI behavior

Data Engineering

• Experience in data exploration and profiling
• Experience building and maintaining data pipelines
• Understanding of data quality validation and data integrity practices
• Familiarity with structured and semi-structured data handling patterns

DevOps & Cloud Engineering

• Strong working knowledge of Docker and Kubernetes
• Experience implementing and maintaining CI/CD pipelines
• Hands-on experience with Infrastructure-as-Code (Terraform)
• Understanding of cloud-native deployment patterns and release management

Security & Observability

• Strong understanding of IAM, OAuth2, and secure API design
• Familiarity with network policies and service security controls
• Experience implementing monitoring and observability using Prometheus, Grafana, and OpenTelemetry

Engineering Practices

• Strong debugging and troubleshooting capability across application and AI layers
• Strong understanding of testing strategies and engineering quality practices
• Experience in collaborative development and version control workflows
• Ability to document technical decisions, designs, and implementation patterns clearly

Soft Skills

• Strong ownership and accountability for delivery outcomes
• Ability to communicate technical trade-offs and architecture decisions clearly
• Strong collaboration and adaptability in cross-functional teams
• Leadership capability in guiding junior engineers and supporting team delivery
• Strong problem-solving mindset with structured scenario analysis
• Ability to translate business requirements into technical implementation plans
• Reliability mindset with focus on system stability and maintainability
• Openness to feedback and continuous improvement

Nice to Have

• Experience with LLM orchestration frameworks such as LangChain or similar
• Exposure to vector databases and semantic search systems
• Experience working with cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP)
• Experience in AI-first product or platform engineering environments
• Experience supporting enterprise-scale AI implementations
• Japanese language proficiency preferred for client-facing or Japan-based roles

Language Requirements

• English: Working proficiency required
• Japanese: Working proficiency required