Staff Engineer – Agentic AI

Job overview

The Staff Engineer – Agentic AI role is onsite in San Francisco, CA. Salary is $160,000–$250,000 per year. Clera is an early-stage AI startup in mechanical engineering software serving Fortune 100 hardware engineering customers. The engineer owns the agent intelligence layer that turns engineering intent into reliable, cost-efficient workflows across desktop engineering tools. The role combines technical leadership, production implementation, evaluation, and user research to improve agent task success and product delivery.

What you'll do

• Lead development of the agent intelligence layer for CAD, CAE, and PLM workflows
• own agent architecture and evaluation infrastructure
• define capabilities from user stories and benchmark real workflows
• manage per-task token budgets and workflow costs
• conduct user interviews and validate user stories
• write production code, review designs, and guide a small technical team
• collaborate with integrations, product, and customers during proofs of concept.

What we're looking for

Skills & competencies

staff engineer

agentic ai

san francisco ca

clera

llm agents

python

cad

cae

plm

evaluation frameworks

technical leadership

$160k–$250k/year

Work arrangement

• Weekend coverage required

Benefits & perks

• Equity participation in an early-stage Series A company.

Why this role

Requires 7+ years in software engineering, including at least 2 years building agentic LLM systems, strong Python and LLM tooling experience, and experience leading a small technical team. Visa sponsorship is not available.

About the employer

Clera is hiring for this role. Industry: Custom Computer Programming Services. Sector: 54.