Software Engineer, AI & Automation

Software Engineer, AI & Automation — Ace Marketing Services

Location: In-person in Winter Park, FL, five days per week

Reports to: Stephan, Systems, Automation, and Data

Employment: Full-time, hourly W-2 employee

Compensation: $55–$65 per hour, depending on experience and demonstrated ability; no performance bonus

About Ace

Ace is an Orlando-area creator marketing and growth agency. Our in-office team operates high-volume creator portfolios using internal software, automation, connected platforms, reporting, and AI-assisted workflows. We are a small team where engineers own working outcomes from the first requirement through production support.

The Role

We are hiring a Software Engineer, AI & Automation to work alongside Stephan and build, improve, and support the software that runs Ace's internal operations.

This is a hands-on coding role. You will build and maintain dashboards and internal web tools, connect systems through APIs and webhooks, improve data and reporting workflows, investigate failures, and use AI development tools where they help. You will be expected to read an existing codebase, build new features from incomplete business requirements, test your work, release it safely, monitor it, and support it after launch.

The right person can create a practical internal application from the ground up and improve software that is already in use. This is not a business-analysis, project-management, prompt-writing, or no-code-only role.

What You Will Own

Dashboards and internal web applications

Build dashboards, portals, administrative tools, and workflow interfaces from initial requirements through production use.

Write maintainable front-end and back-end code in Python and/or JavaScript or TypeScript.

Design clear interfaces for operations teams and make complex system states easy to understand and act on.

Add authentication, permissions, forms, validation, search, filtering, reporting, and exports when the business workflow requires them.

Improve existing code without breaking the daily work that depends on it.

APIs, data, and integrations

Build and maintain REST APIs, webhooks, scheduled jobs, third-party integrations, and database-backed workflows.

Design and query relational data using SQL.

Handle duplicate events, missing records, rate limits, expired access, partial failures, and upstream service changes.

Reconcile dashboard results to the controlling source and prevent misleading information from silently reaching the team.

Testing, release, and reliability

Reproduce defects, identify root causes, implement repairs, and verify the affected business outcome.

Write useful automated tests and use controlled test data before changing a live workflow.

Release changes with appropriate review, monitoring, rollback, and recovery steps.

Add logs, alerts, health checks, ownership, and documentation so failures are found and resolved quickly.

Improve systems that currently depend too heavily on one person's knowledge or access.

AI-assisted engineering

Use ChatGPT, Claude, Codex, or comparable tools to accelerate development, debugging, testing, documentation, and investigation where useful.

Review AI-generated code for correctness, security, privacy, maintainability, licensing concerns, and unintended behavior.

Build practical AI-assisted features when the business problem calls for them, with source checks and human approval for consequential actions.

Keep production changes and sensitive information in approved company environments.

Documentation and team support

Maintain setup instructions, diagrams, data definitions, release notes, recovery steps, and handoff documentation.

Explain confirmed facts, unknowns, risks, and decisions in plain language.

Train approved teammates on the correct workflow and leave tested backup coverage for critical systems.

The Engineering Boundary

Stephan owns the technical direction and priorities for Ace's systems, automation, and data environment. This role owns the software work assigned within that direction: implementation, testing, release, monitoring, repair, documentation, and verified handoff.

The Founder & CEO retains company priorities, finance, compensation, exceptions, and offers. Final hiring decisions are made by the hiring team.

This role may recommend tools or architectural changes, but it does not make unapproved purchases, expose confidential data, or make consequential production changes without the required review.

Tools and Working Style

Required

Strong hands-on software-development ability in Python and/or JavaScript or TypeScript.

Evidence that you personally built and supported a production dashboard, internal portal, web application, or similarly substantial software system.

Practical experience with front-end interfaces, back-end services, REST APIs, authentication, webhooks, databases, and SQL.

Ability to read unfamiliar code, reproduce a defect, identify the root cause, make a safe repair, and verify the result.

Experience using Git-based version control, code review, tests, deployments, logs, monitoring, and rollback or recovery.

Genuine day-to-day use of ChatGPT, Claude, Codex, or a comparable AI assistant for software development, debugging, testing, documentation, or investigation, with human verification of the result.

Sound judgment with credentials, permissions, production access, and sensitive information.

Clear communication with technical and nontechnical teammates.

Ability to work onsite in Winter Park five days per week.

Helpful

Python web frameworks such as Flask or FastAPI.

React, Next.js, or another modern web-interface framework.

PostgreSQL, Supabase, SQLite, or comparable relational databases.

Cloud deployment, serverless functions, job runners, and scheduled data pipelines.

Browser automation, Google Workspace integrations, reporting systems, or high-volume agency operations.

Experience replacing fragile local processes with observable, recoverable cloud services.

We do not expect one person to have used every product in Ace's environment. We care more about demonstrated software ownership, sound engineering judgment, and the ability to learn the remaining tools.

What We Are Looking For

A record of personally building and maintaining production software rather than describing only team, vendor, template, prototype, or AI-generated work.

Ability to take an application or major feature from requirements through data design, implementation, testing, release, monitoring, and support.

Strong debugging habits: reproduce the problem, inspect evidence, prove the cause, protect users, repair the issue, and verify recovery.

Practical judgment about security, privacy, permissions, source accuracy, data integrity, failure handling, and rollback.

Comfort translating incomplete operating needs into clear technical requirements and a working interface.

Ownership after launch, including monitoring, documentation, maintenance, and support for the people using the system.

Based in the Orlando area or committed to relocating before the start date. This position is not remote or hybrid.

How Success Is Measured

Success is measured by whether Ace's software becomes more useful, reliable, and supportable:

dashboards and portal improvements reach production with appropriate testing and monitoring;

new internal tools solve real operating problems and are adopted by the people who use them;

recurring integration and data failures decrease;

reporting becomes more accurate, traceable, and timely;

failures are detected, diagnosed, recovered, and communicated faster;

AI-assisted code is reviewed and verified before use; and

critical systems have clear documentation and tested backup coverage.

Compensation And Active Benefits

$55–$65 per hour, depending on experience and demonstrated ability.

Full-time, hourly W-2 employment. All working time must be recorded; overtime is handled in accordance with applicable law.

Hourly base pay only; there is no performance bonus.

Ace offers eligible full-time employees health, dental, vision, and life insurance, plus a 401(k) with employer match, subject to active plan rules.

What To Expect In The Hiring Process

After application review, selected candidates complete a role-specific TestGorilla assessment that includes a coding exercise, a timed dashboard build-and-edit exercise, and a conversational AI interview. Candidates with sufficiently strong evidence then complete a 30-minute interview with Katana, including a safe walkthrough of existing non-confidential work. The hiring team reviews the application, assessment, Katana interview, and references before making the final decision. Katana conducts the only scheduled human interview.

Candidates must not share former-employer source code, credentials, client or employee information, production data, private prompts, access details, or security weaknesses. Generalized examples and personal portfolio work are welcome.

Ace Marketing Services, Inc. is an equal-opportunity employer. We consider all qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other protected characteristic. We provide reasonable accommodation to applicants with disabilities; requests may be sent to [email protected].

By submitting your application, you acknowledge that Ace Marketing Services, Inc. will use your information to evaluate your candidacy and communicate with you about this role. We retain applicant information for up to 12 months after the role closes. You may request deletion or stop future contact at any time by emailing [email protected].

Read our Applicant Privacy Notice: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1agpBkjNZIsTZ_W4qh8tK6bkos_5ag8Hfx9IuCGtiETc/edit