Applied AI Engineer, Agentic Systems at ShipBob

As an Applied AI Engineer at ShipBob, you will lead the shift from manual workflows to autonomous operations. You won’t just be building chatbots; you will be architecting agentic systems that reason, use tools, and execute complex business logic independently. This is an "AI-First" engineering role where you will embed directly with business teams to map out operational friction and rapidly deploy end-to-end agentic solutions. From designing multi-agent orchestrations to building the "glue" code that connects LLMs to our core logistics APIs, you will be responsible for operationalizing AI at scale. We are looking for a high-agency builder who thrives in ambiguity and is obsessed with the transition from "software that waits for input" to "agents that take action." You're a first-principles thinker and meta-learner. The only constant in this role is change. You'll context-switch across projects and domains many times a month. Ambiguity doesn't slow you down. You make progress fast even with unclear requirements and moving targets. You optimize for surface area of technical skills, not depth in one stack. If you have a favorite framework you've been married to for years, this probab

Details

equity range: San Francisco, CA, US / Chicago, IL, US / Remote (San Francisco, CA, US; Chicago, IL, US)
experience: 3+ years
job type: Contract
job url: https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/shipbob/jobs/YMAwqY5-applied-ai-engineer-agentic-systems
location: Contract
role: Description As an Applied AI Engineer at ShipBob, you will lead the shift from manual workflows to autonomous operations. You won’t just be building chatbots; you will be architecting agentic systems that reason, use tools, and execute complex business logic independently. This is an "AI-First" engineering role where you will embed directly with business teams to map out operational friction and rapidly deploy end-to-end agentic solutions. From designing multi-agent orchestrations to building the "glue" code that connects LLMs to our core logistics APIs, you will be responsible for operationalizing AI at scale. We are looking for a high-agency builder who thrives in ambiguity and is obsessed with the transition from "software that waits for input" to "agents that take action." Who You Are You're a first-principles thinker and meta-learner. The only constant in this role is change. You'll context-switch across projects and domains many times a month. Ambiguity doesn't slow you down. You make progress fast even with unclear requirements and moving targets. You optimize for surface area of technical skills, not depth in one stack. If you have a favorite framework you've been married to for years, this probably isn't the role. We're looking for someone who gets genuinely excited when they have to learn a new API, pick up an unfamiliar tool, or dive into a platform they've never touched. You'll context-switch across different technologies constantly and that should energize you, not drain you. You write most of your code with AI. You spend your coding time prompting Cursor, Claude Code, or Codex. You can manage multiple AI coding sessions simultaneously. You understand AI's limitations and own correctness and security. You love prototyping and shipping fast. You've either done a lot of hackathons or built personal projects that solved real problems. Be prepared to share them—we'll talk about them a lot. You're a scrappy builder who can take an idea from 0→1 faster than m

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ShipBob