Software Engineer - Core Product

Salient is one of the fastest-growing AI startups in consumer finance. In less than two years, we’ve achieved product-market fit, scaled to 8-figure ARR, and emerged as one of the undisputed leaders in financial voice AI.

A few fast facts:

• Backed by YC and raised the largest Series A for a B2B startup from a16z

• Reached product-market fit in <2 years and scaled to 8-digit ARR

• 19-person team building a speech AI agent that handles millions of real customer calls per day, and fully deployed in production across major financial institutions (not just PoCs)

• We’re on a mission to pass the Turing test for conversational speech in a telephony setting

• In-person office culture in San Francisco, CA

About the Role

We're seeking a Software Engineer - Core Product to help us reshape how millions of loans are serviced through artificial intelligence. As a Product Engineer at Salient, you'll build and enhance our AI platform that automates and improves every aspect of loan servicing - from payment processing to fraud prevention to customer support. You will be responsible for both the 0→1 MVP development and the 1→10 growth and scaling of a product. You'll work directly on features that help lenders better serve their customers while improving compliance and reducing risk.

Responsibilities

• Develop complete features across both frontend and backend layers of our application

• Write clean, maintainable, and efficient code with appropriate test coverage

• Troubleshoot and debug complex issues across the technology stack

• Optimize application performance and scalability

• Own both product manager and software engineer responsibilities

• Balance technical considerations with user needs and business goals

• Incorporate customer feedback into product and features

Requirements

• 4+ years of software engineering experience

• Strong Python proficiency

• Proven track record of shipping user-focused products

• Excellence in cross-functional collaboration and communication

• Deep empathy for user needs and passion for user experience

• Enjoy being hacky - getting something out to the customer as soon as possible

• Experience building scalable systems

• We’re hiring for full stack and backend roles

• Ability to work 4 days a week from our San Francisco office (open to candidates willing to relocate)

Nice to Have

• Experience in highly regulated industry

• Combination of both big tech and start-up experience

• Knowledge of auto loan servicing

As an early-stage company building at the frontier of AI, we work with high intensity and commitment. While schedules can vary by role/team, many weeks will demand extra focus, flexibility and time particularly during major launches and high impact sprints. We're seeking those who are aligned to and able to commit to that expectation which includes 4 days per week in our San Francisco Office.