Staff Software Engineer, Bee AI at bumbleinc

At Bumble, we’re on a mission to create a world where all relationships are healthy and equitable. The Bee AI team is reimagining how people meet by introducing an intelligent, AI-powered layer on top of Bumble Date - helping members connect in more curated, thoughtful, and human ways, while preserving the magic of matching and conversation at the core of the product. As a Staff Software Engineer, you’ll play a pivotal role in shaping this next generation of connection. Bee AI is already live and evolving quickly. If you’d like a glimpse into the experience we’re building, you can explore a recent preview here:[Upgrade to PRO to see link] We’re now scaling both the ambition and the systems behind it - building intelligent agents that guide conversations, enhance matchmaking, and continuously learn from interaction patterns. You’ll help define how AI shows up responsibly and meaningfully in people’s dating experiences, role modelling our values of Curiosity and Courage as you explore new frontiers. This is a highly impactful individual contributor role with broad influence across engineering, product, and data. You’ll operate as a technical leader, setting direction for how we build, evaluate, and scale AI agents - while fostering a culture that collaborates with purpose, takes ownership, and sees ideas through to real-world impact. What you'll do: • Lead the design and evolution of AI-powered backend systems that support conversation guidance, matchmaking, and personalised user experiences within Bee AI • Architect and scale agent-based systems, including prompt management, context orchestration, and evaluation frameworks, to ensure high-quality, reliable AI interactions • Establish best practices for building, testing, monitoring, and iterating on AI agents, creating a repeatable and scalable development lifecycle across the team • Drive experimentation and prototyping of new AI capabilities, translating early concepts into production-ready systems that deliver measurable user value • Partner cross-functionally with Product, Data, and Trust teams to shape AI-driven features that are both innovative and responsible, demonstrating Respect in how technology impacts people • Contribute deep expertise in Python (including PydanticAI) and Google Cloud Platform (GCP) to build robust, scalable, and observable services • Define and implement evaluation strategies for LLM-powered systems, including offline and online metrics, human-in-the-loop validation, and continuous improvement loops • Act as a technical advisor and thought leader, influencing architecture and long-term strategy across teams while embodying an agile mindset and taking ownership of outcomes About you: • Deep experience building and scaling backend systems, with strong expertise in Python and modern service-oriented or distributed architectures • Proven track record of designing and deploying AI/ML-powered products, particularly involving LLMs, agents, or recommendation/personalisation systems • Hands-on experience with prompt engineering, context management, and evaluation of AI systems, with a strong understanding of their limitations and trade-offs • Experience working with cloud platforms such as GCP, including deploying, monitoring, and scaling production systems • Ability to operate at a system level, setting technical direction and influencing across teams while remaining hands-on with implementation • Demonstrated ability to collaborate with purpose, take ownership of complex problems, and see solutions through from insight to real-world impact • Strong commitment to responsible and inclusive AI practices, applying human judgment to ensure fairness, safety, and quality in outputs • Typically requires 10+ years of experience, though we welcome candidates with alternative backgrounds that demonstrate equivalent skills. • High level of AI fluency - you actively leverage AI as a development partner, contribute to evolving best practices, and help others adopt AI effectively and responsibly Location: • This role is based in Austin, and we ask that you’re within a commutable distance to this office, so that you’re able to come onsite regularly to collaborate across engineering teams. • We have a hybrid environment that requires you to be in the office Monday - Wednesday. • Please note: We are unable to offer Visa sponsorship at this time About Us Bumble Inc. is the parent company of Bumble Date, BFF, and Badoo. The Bumble platform enables people to build healthy and equitable relationships, through Kind Connections. Founded by Whitney Wolfe Herd in 2014, Bumble was one of the first dating apps built with women at the center and connects people across dating (Bumble Date) and friendship (BFF). BFF is a friendship app where people in all stages of life can meet people nearby and create meaningful platonic connections and community based on shared interests. Badoo, which was founded in 2006, is one of the pioneers of web and mobile dating products.    AI Fluency AI is important to us. We’re excited by people who are curious and experimental, and who think thoughtfully about how AI can amplify their impact and outcomes. We encourage you to use AI responsibly as you prepare your application. Please don’t use it to fabricate experiences or answer questions live in interviews. We care deeply about authenticity and want to understand your real skills, judgment and voice, because building a meaningful, genuine connection with you matters to us.   Final Compensation Will be determined based on factors such as the selected candidate’s qualifications, relevant experience, skill set, and other job-related considerations. Benefits & PerksInsurance: Medical/dental/vision, 30-day eligibility. Bumble has multiple competitive offerings that will be available to you on the first of the month following date of hire. Unlimited PTO + 1 company-wide week off + Focus Fridays every week Fully paid life and long-term disability insurance 401k with 4% company match if you contribute 6%, 90-day eligibility Monthly wellness benefit and access to Noom, Unmind, and Your Money Line Maternity and Fertility benefit + 26 week paid parental leave Premium App Access Inclusion at Bumble Inc.  Bumble Inc. is an equal opportunity employer and we strongly encourage people of all ages, colour, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and non-binary people, veterans, parents, people with disabilities, and neurodivergent people to apply. We're happy to make any reasonable adjustments that will help you feel more confident throughout the process, please don't hesitate to let us know how we can help. In your application, please feel free to note which pronouns you use (For example: she/her, he/him, they/them, etc).   AI in Bumble Inc. Hiring  At Bumble, we may use AI tools to support parts of our recruitment process — such as helping us record, transcribe, and summarize conversations, and supporting job alignment by comparing resumes and job descriptions to highlight skills and potential roles that may be a good match. These tools help us work more efficiently and stay focused on you during our conversations. Importantly, all hiring decisions are made by people. AI is used only to support our team’s efficiency and improve the candidate experience — not to evaluate or decide on your candidacy. Participation in AI-supported interviews and conversations is completely voluntary and will not impact your candidacy. If you’d prefer to opt out, simply let your recruiter or interviewer know at the start of a call, or anytime during the interview or conversation. Summaries and related data are retained only as long as needed in line with our internal data retention policies. If at any point you’d like a transcription or summary deleted, please contact your recruiter directly. For further information on how we hold and manage your data, please refer to our Privacy Policy.