Senior AI Software Engineer Jobs in Virginia

INTRODUCTION

Let’s face it, a company whose mission is human transformation better have some fresh thinking about the employer/employee relationship. We do. We can’t cram it all in here, but you’ll start noticing it from the first interview. Even our candidate experience is different. And when you get an offer from us (and accept it), you get way more than a paycheck. You get a personal BetterUp Coach, a development plan, a trained and coached manager, the most amazing team you’ve ever met (yes, each with their own personal BetterUp Coach), and most importantly, work that matters. This makes for a remarkably focused and fulfilling work experience. Frankly, it’s not for everyone. But for people with fire in their belly, it’s a game-changing, career-defining, soul-lifting move. Join us and we promise you the most intense and fulfilling years of your career, doing life-changing work in a fun, inventive, soulful culture. If that sounds exciting—and the job description below feels like a fit—we really should start talking.

ABOUT THE ROLE

This is applied agent engineering: tool-using AI systems built on real business data, embedded in the workflows people live in every day, trusted enough to be part of how the work actually gets done. This is foundational work. It shapes how BetterUp wins in the AI era, and how many more people grow through what we build. You'll embed with HR, Sales, Customer Success, Coach Operations, Legal, and Finance to do three things:
- Understand how people actually work, with sufficient detail to build the right solutions
- Apply AI to fit the workflow as it is, not as a redesign would have it
- Reimagine what comes next, once you've earned the team's trust

ABOUT BETTERUP

We are a company of AI builders. Across every function, people are shipping their own agents, Claude skills, and projects. We have the latitude to act and an explicit push from leadership to do it. This role exists to multiply our team's leverage and to rebuild BetterUp from first principles around what AI makes possible.

WHAT YOU'LL OWN

The split is roughly 30% product, 70% engineering. On the product side, you'll map workflows, define success metrics, and decide what's worth automating versus what's worth redesigning.

ON THE ENGINEERING SIDE

- Build the infrastructure for reliable, powerful agents: MCP servers, stateful sub-agents, agent skills, and instrumentation that ensures durable success
- Integrate across the systems BetterUp runs on: Slack, Jira, Salesforce, Okta, Workday, Google Workspace, AWS
- Set the bar for effective, safe and reliable agentic access. This work touches coaching data, employee data, and partner data, and BetterUp is a company built on trust
- Build reusable skills and tools that the rest of the company can leverage
- Multiply your impact: review other builders' integrations, share patterns, raise the floor on what non-engineers can ship safely

WHO YOU ARE

You experiment with new models, agent frameworks, and orchestration patterns on your own time because you can't help it. Claude, the Anthropic SDK, and MCP are already in your toolkit. You've replaced parts of your own work or life with agents you built yourself, you read model release notes the day they drop, you pay for the tools out of pocket, and you have a strong opinion about why one agent framework beats another for a given problem. You publish your work where you can: open-source, write-ups, demos, or conference talks.

YOU ALSO BRING

- 7+ years of engineering experience, with a track record of shipping real systems at scale
- The ability to sit with a non-technical operator, understand their actual workflow rather than what they think the solution is, and translate it into a working agent or automation
- A founder's bias for action and a senior engineer's obsession with quality
- Full-lifecycle ownership, from the first discovery call to the tenth production bug
- Comfort when the problem isn't fully scoped, and a preference for finding the right work over waiting for it

HOW TO APPLY

You'll work inside an AI Transformation team with a clear mandate, real budget, and direct executive support. And you'll work with peers across every function who are just as obsessed and just as capable. Apply with a link to a portfolio, GitHub, or working agent. Anything that shows what you build when you're not being told what to build.

BENEFITS

At BetterUp, we are committed to living out our mission every day and that starts with providing benefits that allow our employees to care for themselves, support their families, and give back to their community.
- Access to BetterUp coaching; one for you and one for a friend or family member
- A competitive compensation plan with opportunity for advancement
- Medical, dental, and vision insurance
- Flexible paid time off
- Per year:
- All federal/statutory holidays observed
- 4 BetterUp Inner Workdays
- 5 Volunteer Days to give back
- Learning and Development stipend
- Company wide Summer & Winter breaks
- Year-round charitable contribution of your choice on behalf of BetterUp
- 401(k) self contribution

The base salary range for this role is as follows:

$165,000 – $230,000

HYBRID WORK POLICY & HUB LOCATIONS

BetterUp is a hybrid company that values in-person collaboration. Our US hub locations include: Austin, TX; New York City, NY; San Francisco, CA; and Arlington, VA.
- Hybrid Expectation: You will be expected to work from your local office at least 2 days per week (or 8 days per month) and should be able to realistically commit to this structure before applying. This hybrid role will require travel up to 25% of the time for client engagements.
- If you are not located near a hub: You will work as a fully remote employee. This remote role will require travel up to 50% of the time for client engagements and internal BetterUp purposes. This role is open to candidates across the US. Please review the above carefully and ensure the applicable model works for your situation before applying.

We are dedicated to building diverse teams that fuel an authentic workplace and sense of belonging for each and every employee. We know applying for a job can be intimidating, please don’t hesitate to reach out — we encourage everyone interested in joining us to apply.

BetterUp Inc. provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, genetics, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status. In addition to federal law requirements, BetterUp Inc. complies with applicable state and local laws governing nondiscrimination in employment in every location in which the company has facilities. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation, and training.

At BetterUp, we compensate our employees fairly for their work. Base salary is determined by job-related experience, education/training, residence location, as well as market indicators. The range below is representative of base salary only and does not include equity, sales bonus plans (when applicable) and benefits. This range may be modified in the future.

Protecting your privacy and treating your personal information with care is very important to us, and central to the entire BetterUp family. By submitting your application, you acknowledge that your personal information will be processed in accordance with our Applicant Privacy Notice. If you have any questions about the privacy of your personal information or your rights with regards to your personal information, please reach out to support@betterup.co.