Principal AI Engineer

## About Figure Figure (NASDAQ: FIGR) is transforming capital markets through blockchain. We’re proving that blockchain isn’t just theory - it’s powering real products used by hundreds of thousands of consumers and institutions. By combining blockchain’s transparency and efficiency with AI-driven automation, we’ve reimagined how loans are originated, funded, and traded in secondary markets. From faster processing times to lower costs and reduced bias, our technology is helping borrowers, investors, and financial institutions achieve better outcomes. Together with our 170+ partners, we’ve originated over $22 billion in home equity loans (HELOCs) on our blockchain-native platform, making Figure the largest non-bank provider of home equity financing in the U.S. Figure’s ecosystem also includes YLDS, an SEC-registered yield-bearing stablecoin that operates as a tokenized money market fund, and several other products and platforms that are reshaping consumer finance and capital markets. We’re proud to be recognized as one of [Forbes’ Most Innovative Fintech Startups in 2025](https://www.forbes.com/lists/fintech50/) and [Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies in Finance and Personal Finance](https://www.fastcompany.com/91269557/finance-personal-finance-most-innovative-companies-2025).

## What You'll Do You’ll work across the AI stack, with particular focus on building systems that directly impact business outcomes. ### Modeling & Decision Systems - Design and build AI systems using the right approach for the problem, including generative AI, classical ML, optimization, or deterministic logic - Work directly on model behavior, evaluation, and decision quality - Apply first-principles thinking to determine where LLMs provide leverage and where other approaches are better suited ### Production AI Services - Build backend services and APIs that expose model capabilities reliably in production - Design real-time and batch AI services that integrate into core business workflows - Own service performance, reliability, and maintainability in production - Improve evaluation, monitoring, and operational feedback loops for deployed systems ### Data & Feature Pipelines - Build reliable pipelines from on-chain events, warehouse data, and transaction systems - Design scalable feature and data workflows that support production models and decision systems - Ensure data quality, lineage, and operational robustness across the lifecycle of AI systems ### AI Infrastructure & Platform - Contribute to shared infrastructure for model and AI service serving - Improve observability, autoscaling, reliability, and deployment patterns across AI systems - Help build reusable tooling, patterns, and platform capabilities that make the broader team more effective - Support infrastructure managed through Terraform, CI/CD pipelines, containerized services, and cloud-native systems ### Technical Leadership - Partner with leadership to translate business priorities into durable technical systems - Help shape architecture and engineering standards across the team - Raise the technical bar through sound judgment, strong design, and pragmatic execution - Contribute as a high-agency technical leader without losing hands-on depth

## What We Look For ### Must-Haves - 8+ years of experience building production ML, AI, or data-intensive software systems - Strong Python skills, with the ability to design clean, maintainable production services - Strong data skills, including SQL, data modeling, and experience building reliable pipelines - Experience building and operating real-time serving systems, including APIs, model serving, autoscaling, and production monitoring - Experience working across multiple layers of the stack, including modeling, data, backend systems, and infrastructure - Experience with at least one major cloud platform (GCP, AWS, or Azure) - Experience with containerization and production deployment workflows - Experience with infrastructure as code (Terraform or similar) and CI/CD systems (GitHub Actions or similar) ### Strong Signals - Deep hands-on experience building production AI or ML systems end to end - Ability to work directly on model behavior and evaluation, not just surrounding infrastructure - Strong first-principles thinking and sound technical judgment - Ability to translate ambiguous business problems into robust technical systems - Strong business intuition and a pragmatic instinct for choosing the right solution rather than the most fashionable one - Track record of building reusable systems, patterns, and tooling rather than one-off features - Experience in regulated environments such as fintech, healthcare, or similar domains ### Nice-to-Haves - Experience with Kubernetes or other container orchestration systems - Experience with distributed compute frameworks such as Ray or Spark - Experience building AI or ML platform components such as feature stores, model registries, serving layers, or observability systems - Experience with LLM systems and orchestration frameworks - Familiarity with LLM ops, including gateway proxies, token management, and caching - Background in capital markets, lending, or fintech - Blockchain or on-chain data experience

## Salary - Base Compensation Range: $176,000.00 - $264,000/yr - 25% annual bonus target, paid quarterly - Company equity in the form of RSUs ## Benefits - Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage, with 100% employer-paid premiums for employees and their dependents on select plans - Company HSA, FSA, Dependent Care FSA, 401(k), and commuter benefits - Employer-paid life and disability insurance - 11 observed holidays and PTO plan - Up to 12 weeks of paid family leave - Continuing education reimbursement

Figure Markets is a cryptocurrency trading platform offering zero-fee trading, crypto-backed loans up to 75% LTV, and yield opportunities through its YLDS stablecoin and real-world assets like home equity lines of credit. It provides decentralized MPC wallets for self-custody and operates 17+ trading pairs paired with USD and stablecoins. Spun out from Figure Technologies, a leading non-bank lender founded in 2018 that manages over $11.9 billion in loans, with $600 million put on-chain monthly.