Job description

ABOUT TRAVERSAL Traversal traversal.com is the AI Site Reliability Engineer (AI SRE) for the enterprise. Production complexity was already outpacing what engineering teams could manage manually, and AI-generated code is accelerating that gap. Traversal is built for that challenge, autonomously understanding and reasoning across even the largest, most complex production environments to diagnose, fix, and prevent incidents. Our mission is to free engineers from endless firefighting and give them more time to focus on creative, high-impact work. Today, Traversal operates in mission-critical environments at some of the world’s largest enterprises. Our roots remain deeply embedded in AI research, and we’ve brought together researchers from institutions including MIT, Harvard, Berkeley, Columbia, and Cornell with world-class technical staff and operators from companies like Google, Meta, Datadog, ServiceNow, and Citadel Securities to take on one of the hardest problems for AI to solve. Traversal is backed by Sequoia Capital, Kleiner Perkins, Hanabi, NFDG, and American Express Ventures. THE ROLE As a Full-Stack AI Engineer at Traversal, you’ll play a key role in designing and building the core product surfaces powered by our AI Site Reliability Engineer. This role is ideal for engineers who enjoy owning complex systems end-to-end—from user interface through backend services and infrastructure. You’ll help translate advanced AI capabilities into reliable, production-grade product experiences used by engineers operating large-scale systems. The right person for this role combines strong product intuition with deep engineering judgment and is comfortable working across the stack, from distributed systems and data pipelines to highly interactive front-end applications. You’ll partner closely with product, AI researchers, and infrastructure engineers to shape the architecture of the platform and build features that enable real-time incident detection, root cause analysis, and automated remediation across complex production environments. RESPONSIBILITIES - Product Ownership: Drive end-to-end development of core product capabilities, translating AI-driven insights into intuitive workflows that empower engineers and reduce cognitive load. - Technical Architecture: Design scalable system architectures spanning frontend, backend services, and data infrastructure to support real-time observability and automated operations. - API & Platform Development: Design and implement high-performance APIs and service layers that power the product and enable seamless integration between AI systems, backend services, and the user interface. - User Experience: Build highly interactive interfaces for exploring operational data, rapidly iterating with users to refine product workflows and usability. - Data Systems: Design efficient strategies for storing, processing, and retrieving large-scale operational data using technologies like PostgreSQL, Redis, and distributed systems. - AI Integration: Collaborate with AI engineers and researchers to operationalize model outputs in production systems, building reliable pipelines, authentication systems, and platform abstractions that enable AI-powered features. - Technical Leadership: Help shape engineering best practices, influence technical direction, and raise the bar for system design, performance, and maintainability across the codebase. REQUIREMENTS - 8+ years building and operating complex full-stack systems in production environments - Strong proficiency in Python and modern backend frameworks such as FastAPI or similar - Deep experience building modern frontend applications using React and TypeScript - Experience designing and operating scalable backend services and APIs - Experience deploying and operating applications in cloud environments (AWS), including containerized workloads using ECS or Kubernetes - Experience working with data-intensive systems, including relational databases such as Postgres and distributed storage systems - Strong product instincts and the ability to translate technical capabilities into intuitive user-facing functionality - Ability to operate effectively in early-stage startup environments with high ownership and evolving priorities NICE TO HAVE - Experience building data-heavy interfaces, including time-series visualization or operational dashboards - Experience working with observability platforms, infrastructure tooling, or developer platforms - Familiarity with AI/LLM-powered products or agentic systems - Background working on large-scale, distributed, or data-driven applications COMPENSATION We offer competitive compensation, startup equity, health insurance, and additional benefits. The U.S. base salary range for this full-time, in-person role in New York is $150,000 - $300,000, plus equity and benefits. Our salary ranges are based on location, level, and role. Individual compensation is determined by experience, skills, and job-related knowledge. WHY YOU SHOULD JOIN US Traversal is a place to take on hard, meaningful problems with real ownership from day one. You’ll work alongside people who challenge you to grow, learn constantly, and help define a new category of infrastructure software. We think long term, move quickly, and hold a high bar without taking ourselves too seriously. We offer competitive salary and equity packages, health insurance, fertility benefits, a great tech setup stipend and flexible time off. Plus in-office snacks, team happy hours and outings, an annual company offsite, and plenty of built in time to collaborate across teams. Traversal is fully in-office, 5 days a week, based in New York near Madison Square Park. We have a collaborative, hard-working culture and are energized by building the future of AI-powered software maintenance.

Requirements

Must-haves

Product Ownership: Drive end-to-end development of core product capabilities, translating AI-driven insights into intuitive workflows that empower engineers and reduce cognitive load.
Technical Architecture: Design scalable system architectures spanning frontend, backend services, and data infrastructure to support real-time observability and automated operations.
API & Platform Development: Design and implement high-performance APIs and service layers that power the product and enable seamless integration between AI systems, backend services, and the user interface.
User Experience: Build highly interactive interfaces for exploring operational data, rapidly iterating with users to refine product workflows and usability.
Data Systems: Design efficient strategies for storing, processing, and retrieving large-scale operational data using technologies like PostgreSQL, Redis, and distributed systems.
Technical Leadership: Help shape engineering best practices, influence technical direction, and raise the bar for system design, performance, and maintainability across the codebase.
8+ years building and operating complex full-stack systems in production environments
Strong proficiency in Python and modern backend frameworks such as FastAPI or similar
Deep experience building modern frontend applications using React and TypeScript
Experience designing and operating scalable backend services and APIs
Experience deploying and operating applications in cloud environments (AWS), including containerized workloads using ECS or Kubernetes
Experience working with data-intensive systems, including relational databases such as Postgres and distributed storage systems
Strong product instincts and the ability to translate technical capabilities into intuitive user-facing functionality
Ability to operate effectively in early-stage startup environments with high ownership and evolving priorities
Traversal is fully in-office, 5 days a week, based in New York near Madison Square Park. We have a collaborative, hard-working culture and are energized by building the future of AI-powered software maintenance.

Nice-to-haves

Experience building data-heavy interfaces, including time-series visualization or operational dashboards
Experience working with observability platforms, infrastructure tooling, or developer platforms
Familiarity with AI/LLM-powered products or agentic systems
Background working on large-scale, distributed, or data-driven applications

Application prep

Use the role’s language and application details while tailoring your materials.

Keywords to mirror

aiapipythonreacttypescriptawskubernetespostgresllm

Platform: ashby
Effort: quick

Benefits

Benefits detected in the listing.

Health Insurance