Requirements:

• 5+ years shipping production software, owning features end to end.
• Able to debug across the stack: a streaming client, application code, SQL, and the boundaries between services.
• Real depth with LLM application development: tool calling, context management, retrieval, streaming.
• Strong React and TypeScript, fluency in Python, and willingness to work in Kotlin/Spring when the answer lives on the platform side.
• Solid Postgres and data modeling instincts, including a feel for what makes retrieval good or bad.
• Taste in evaluation: you know the difference between fixing a failing eval and gaming one.
• Product judgment about what makes an agent feel trustworthy, fast, and worth coming back to.
• Comfort with ambiguity and high ownership on a small team.
• You use current models seriously and have your own ideas about how agent systems should work.

Nice to Haves:

• Agent evals and LLM observability tooling (Langfuse, Braintrust, LangSmith).
• Vector and geospatial search in Postgres (pgvector, PostGIS).
• Shipping AI into a native mobile surface: streaming, cold starts, bad networks.
• Frontier model APIs: tool use, prompt caching, extended thinking.
• Restaurants, hospitality, travel, or another domain where recommendations carry real-world consequences.
• Datadog, Amplitude, LaunchDarkly, AWS, or Terraform.

Pay Transparency Notice & Benefits :

Depending on your work location and experience the target annual salary for this position can range from: $180,000-$220,000 USD. This range does not include the equity component of the overall compensation package. Disclosure in accordance with New York City's Pay Transparency Law.

Commitment to Equal Opportunity

Blackbird Labs is committed to diversity in its workforce and is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, creed, gender, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, sex, gender expression or identity, sexual orientation or any other basis protected by applicable law. Blackbird will also consider for employment qualified applicants with criminal histories in a manner consistent with applicable law. For US applicants, you may view the Know Your Rights notice here. Additionally, Blackbird participates in the E-Verify program.

Join us and find out what the best work of your career could look like here at Blackbird.