Senior Software Engineer, AI-Accelerated Digital Commerce

$129K - $198K Sunnyvale, CA, US Senior AI Software Engineer

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Skills & Technologies

LangchainRag

About This Role

AI job market dashboard showing open roles by category

Job Description

Work Arrangement:

This role is cate *go* rized as hybrid. This means the successful *can* didate is expected to report to Austin, TX, Warren, MI, Sunnyvale, CA, or Mountainview, CA, three times per week, at minimum.

About the team

Our team builds the digital commerce experiences that support how customers discover, buy, subscribe to, and manage GM products and services. We work across qualification, catalog, cart, checkout, billing, payments, subscriptions, orders, and customer account journeys, partnering closely with product, design, architecture, and operations teams to deliver reliable, scalable experiences. We are looking for engineers who pair strong software fundamentals with practical AI\-assisted development habits to move faster, raise quality, and help the broader team work better.

The Role

We are hiring a Sr Software Engineer with demonstrated ability to use AI as a force multiplier for software development in digital commerce environments. This role is ideal for a hands\-on engineer who can use AI\-assisted workflows to improve delivery speed and quality, build reliable low\-latency services, and strengthen team productivity through better engineering practices.

What you'll do

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  • Build and enhance customer\-facing digital commerce experiences across areas such as qualification, checkout, billing, payments, subscriptions, catalog, cart, orders, and customer account journeys
  • Use AI\-assisted workflows to accelerate implementation, code review, testing, debugging, and documentation
  • Apply strong judgment to evaluate AI output for correctness, security, maintainability, and production readiness
  • Develop and support modern web applications and services using technologies such as React, Next.js, Node.js, Java, and related frameworks
  • Design and evolve APIs and service architectures with an emphasis on performance, reliability, maintainability, and cost
  • Partner with cross\-functional teams to translate product needs into scalable technical solutions
  • Contribute to stronger engineering excellence through testing, automation, observability, and high\-quality code review practices
  • Share reusable workflows and practical habits that help the broader team work more effectively

Your Skills \& Abilities (Required Qualifications)

  • At least 5\-7 years experience coding, debugging, and code review using OOP languages (Java, NodeJS)
  • Practical experience using AI across coding, testing, debugging, documentation, and understanding existing codebases
  • Ability to use AI with structured engineering practices such as specs, reviews, tests, and observability
  • 5\-7 years API and system design capability (Microservices)
  • Hands\-on experience across relevant technologies such as React, Next.js, Node.js, Java, and modern web application architecture
  • Strong engineering discipline across test automation, operational automation, and DevOps practices
  • Ability to balance speed, reliability, maintainability, and cost

What Will Give You A Competitive Edge (Preferred Qualifications)

  • Experience in digital commerce or other customer\-facing digital platforms
  • Experience in areas such as qualification, checkout, billing, payments, subscriptions, orders, catalog, cart, or customer account flows
  • Exposure to commerce platforms or vendors such as Shopify or similar ecosystems
  • Exposure to technologies or patterns such as Model Context Protocol (MCP), LangChain, retrieval\-augmented generation (RAG) patterns, vector databases, AI agents, or evaluation frameworks
  • Experience helping teams adopt newer AI development workflows in practical, non\-overengineered ways

Additional Information:

This job may be eligible for relocation benefits.

COMPENSATION : The compensation information is a good faith estimate only. It is based on what a successful applicant might be paid in accordance with applicable state laws. The compensation may not be representative for positions located outside of the California Bay Area.

  • The salary range for this role is 129,400 to 198,400\.
  • The actual base salary a successful candidate will be offered within this range will vary based on factors relevant to the position.
  • Bonus Potential: An incentive pay program offers payouts based on company performance, job level, and individual performance.
  • Benefits: GM offers a variety of health and wellbeing benefit programs. Benefit options include medical, dental, vision, Health Savings Account, Flexible Spending Accounts, retirement savings plan, sickness and accident benefits, life insurance, paid vacation \& holidays, tuition assistance programs, employee assistance program, GM vehicle discounts and more.

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About GM

Our vision is a world with Zero Crashes, Zero Emissions and Zero Congestion and we embrace the responsibility to lead the change that will make our world better, safer and more equitable for all.

Why Join Us

We believe we all must make a choice every day – individually and collectively – to drive meaningful change through our words, our deeds and our culture. Every day, we want every employee to feel they belong to one General Motors team.

Benefits Overview

From day one, we're looking out for your well\-being–at work and at home–so you can focus on realizing your ambitions. Learn how GM supports a rewarding career that rewards you personally by visiting Total Rewards resources .

Non\-Discrimination and Equal Employment Opportunities (U.S.)

General Motors is committed to being a workplace that is not only free of unlawful discrimination, but one that genuinely fosters inclusion and belonging. We strongly believe that providing an inclusive workplace creates an environment in which our employees can thrive and develop better products for our customers.

All employment decisions are made on a non\-discriminatory basis without regard to sex, race, color, national origin, citizenship status, religion, age, disability, pregnancy or maternity status, sexual orientation, gender identity, status as a veteran or protected veteran, or any other similarly protected status in accordance with federal, state and local laws.

We encourage interested candidates to review the key responsibilities and qualifications for each role and apply for any positions that match their skills and capabilities. Applicants in the recruitment process may be required, where applicable, to successfully complete a role\-related assessment(s) and/or a pre\-employment screening prior to beginning employment. To learn more, visit How we Hire .

Accommodations

General Motors offers opportunities to all job seekers including individuals with disabilities. If you need a reasonable accommodation to assist with your job search or application for employment, email us or call us at 1\-800\-865\-7580\. In your email, please include a description of the specific accommodation you are requesting as well as the job title and requisition number of the position for which you are applying.

Salary Context

This $129K-$198K range is below the median for AI Software Engineer roles in our dataset (median: $183K across 194 roles with salary data).

Role Details

Title Senior Software Engineer, AI-Accelerated Digital Commerce
Location Sunnyvale, CA, US
Category AI Software Engineer
Experience Senior
Salary $129K - $198K
Remote No

About This Role

AI Software Engineers build the applications and systems that AI models run inside. They own the API layers, data pipelines, frontend integrations, and infrastructure that turn a model into a product users interact with. Every AI company needs engineers who can build the software around the AI.

The challenge is building reliable systems around inherently unreliable components. Models are probabilistic. They'll give different answers to the same question. They hallucinate. They're slow. They're expensive. Your job is to build an application layer that handles all of this gracefully while delivering a product that users trust and enjoy.

Across the 3,708 AI roles we're tracking, AI Software Engineer positions make up 7% of the market. At General Motors (GM), this role fits into their broader AI and engineering organization.

AI Software Engineer roles are among the most numerous in the AI job market. Every company deploying AI needs software engineers who understand AI integration patterns. The demand is broad, spanning startups to enterprises, across every industry adopting AI capabilities.

What the Work Looks Like

A typical week includes: building API endpoints that serve model inference with caching and fallback logic, designing the data pipeline that feeds context to a RAG system, implementing streaming responses in the frontend, debugging a race condition in the async inference pipeline, and optimizing database queries for the vector search layer. It's full-stack engineering with AI at the center.

AI Software Engineer roles are among the most numerous in the AI job market. Every company deploying AI needs software engineers who understand AI integration patterns. The demand is broad, spanning startups to enterprises, across every industry adopting AI capabilities.

Skills Required

Langchain (10% of roles) Rag (23% of roles)

Full-stack engineering skills with AI integration experience. Python and TypeScript are the most common requirements. You'll need to understand API design, database architecture, and how to build reliable systems around probabilistic outputs. Experience with streaming, async processing, and caching patterns is increasingly important as real-time AI applications proliferate.

Knowledge of vector databases, embedding APIs, and LLM integration patterns (function calling, structured outputs, retry logic) differentiates AI software engineers from general software engineers. Understanding cost optimization (caching strategies, model routing, batched inference) is valuable since inference costs can dominate application economics.

Strong postings describe the product you'll be building, the AI integration patterns you'll work with, and the scale requirements. Look for companies that have existing AI features and need engineers to improve and expand them, not companies that are 'planning to add AI' someday.

Compensation Benchmarks

AI Software Engineer roles pay a median of $219,250 based on 424 positions with disclosed compensation. Senior-level AI roles across all categories have a median of $230,000. This role's midpoint ($163K) sits 25% below the category median. Disclosed range: $129K to $198K.

Across all AI roles, the market median is $217,500. Top-quartile compensation starts at $272,100. The 90th percentile reaches $325,000. For comparison, the highest-paying categories include AI Safety ($300,000) and Research Engineer ($280,000). By seniority level: Entry: $120,000; Mid: $200,000; Senior: $230,000; Director: $272,150; VP: $250,000.

General Motors (GM) AI Hiring

General Motors (GM) has 6 open AI roles right now. They're hiring across AI/ML Engineer, AI Software Engineer. Positions span Sunnyvale, CA, US, Mountain View, CA, US, Remote, US. Compensation range: $198K - $331K.

Location Context

Across all AI roles, 14% (508 positions) offer remote work, while 3,180 require on-site attendance. Top AI hiring metros: New York (1,045 roles, $220,000 median); San Francisco (810 roles, $277,088 median); Los Angeles (397 roles, $215,000 median).

Career Path

Common paths into AI Software Engineer roles include Software Engineer, Full-Stack Developer, Backend Engineer.

From here, career progression typically leads toward Staff Engineer, AI Architect, Engineering Manager.

If you're a software engineer, you're already 80% there. Learn the AI integration patterns: RAG, streaming inference, function calling, structured outputs. Build a project that demonstrates you can wrap an AI model in a production-quality application with proper error handling, caching, and user experience. That's the portfolio piece that gets you hired.

What to Expect in Interviews

Technical screens look like standard software engineering interviews with an AI twist. Expect system design questions about building reliable applications around probabilistic models: handling streaming responses, implementing retry logic for API failures, and designing caching strategies for LLM outputs. Coding rounds test standard algorithms plus practical integration patterns like async processing and rate limiting.

When evaluating opportunities: Strong postings describe the product you'll be building, the AI integration patterns you'll work with, and the scale requirements. Look for companies that have existing AI features and need engineers to improve and expand them, not companies that are 'planning to add AI' someday.

AI Hiring Overview

The AI job market has 3,708 open positions tracked in our dataset. By seniority: 102 entry-level, 1,705 mid-level, 1,469 senior, and 432 leadership roles (Director, VP, C-Level). Remote roles make up 14% of the market (508 positions). The remaining 3,180 roles require on-site or hybrid attendance.

The market median for AI roles is $217,500. Top-quartile compensation starts at $272,100. The 90th percentile reaches $325,000. Highest-paying categories: AI Safety ($300,000 median, 21 roles); Research Engineer ($280,000 median, 147 roles); AI Architect ($254,798 median, 67 roles).

AI Software Engineer roles are among the most numerous in the AI job market. Every company deploying AI needs software engineers who understand AI integration patterns. The demand is broad, spanning startups to enterprises, across every industry adopting AI capabilities.

The AI Job Market Today

The AI job market spans 3,708 open positions across 16 role categories. The largest categories by volume: AI/ML Engineer (2,605), Data Scientist (310), AI Software Engineer (259). These three account for the majority of open positions, though smaller categories often have higher per-role compensation because of specialized skill requirements.

The seniority mix tells a story about where AI teams are in their maturity. Entry-level roles (102) are outnumbered by mid-level (1,705) and senior (1,469) positions, reflecting that most companies are past the 'build a team from scratch' phase and need experienced engineers who can ship production systems. Leadership roles (Director, VP, C-Level) total 432 positions, representing the bottleneck between technical execution and organizational strategy.

Remote work availability sits at 14% of all AI roles (508 positions), with 3,180 requiring on-site or hybrid attendance. The remote share has stabilized after the post-pandemic correction. Senior and specialized roles (Research Scientist, ML Architect) are more likely to be remote-eligible than entry-level positions, partly because experienced hires have more negotiating power and partly because these roles require less hands-on mentorship.

AI compensation is structured in clear tiers. The market median sits at $217,500. Top-quartile roles start at $272,100, and the 90th percentile reaches $325,000. These figures include base salary with disclosed compensation. Total compensation (including equity, bonuses, and sign-on) runs 20-40% higher at companies that offer those components.

Category matters for compensation. AI Safety roles lead at $300,000 median, while Prompt Engineer roles sit at $140,000. The spread between highest and lowest-paying categories reflects the premium on specialized technical skills versus broader analytical roles.

The most in-demand skills across all AI postings: Python (1,890 postings), Aws (1,103 postings), Azure (877 postings), Rag (855 postings), Gcp (631 postings), Prompt Engineering (560 postings), Pytorch (545 postings), Claude (498 postings). Python dominates, appearing in the vast majority of role descriptions regardless of category. Cloud platform experience (AWS, GCP, Azure) is the second most common requirement. The newer entrants to the top skills list (RAG, vector databases, LLM APIs) reflect the shift from traditional ML toward generative AI applications.

Frequently Asked Questions

Based on 424 roles with disclosed compensation, the median salary for AI Software Engineer positions is $219,250. Actual compensation varies by seniority, location, and company stage.
Full-stack engineering skills with AI integration experience. Python and TypeScript are the most common requirements. You'll need to understand API design, database architecture, and how to build reliable systems around probabilistic outputs. Experience with streaming, async processing, and caching patterns is increasingly important as real-time AI applications proliferate.
About 14% of the 3,708 AI roles we track offer remote work. Remote availability varies by company and seniority level, with senior and leadership roles more likely to offer location flexibility.
General Motors (GM) is among the companies actively hiring for AI and ML talent. Check our company profiles for detailed breakdowns of open roles, salary ranges, and hiring trends.
Common next steps from AI Software Engineer positions include Staff Engineer, AI Architect, Engineering Manager. Progression depends on whether you lean toward technical depth, people management, or product strategy.

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