Staff Engineer I ( AI ‑ Native Tech Lead )

Overview

We are seeking a highly skilled and experienced Staff Engineer I to join our dynamic team in Payment Integrity. The Staff Software Engineer I (AI-Native Tech Lead) is a senior individual contributor responsible for providing technical leadership, architectural direction, and engineering rigor for a team building software using AI-native development practices.

 

This role focuses on how AI is used across the software development lifecycle, including design, architecture, implementation, testing, and delivery. The Staff Software Engineer I serves as a technical anchor for the team, ensuring AI-assisted development accelerates delivery without compromising quality, security, or maintainability.

 

This role is not focused on machine learning or model development. Instead, it centers on building high-quality, scalable software systems using modern AI-assisted engineering workflows, with humans retaining accountability for design, correctness, and production readiness.

Responsibilities

Technical Leadership & Architecture

• Lead the architecture and technical direction of new and existing applications within the team.
• Act as a key technical influencer, guiding sound engineering decisions and architectural tradeoffs.
• Design scalable systems, APIs, and services aligned with product and platform needs.
• Partner with engineering leadership on complex technical initiatives and cross-cutting concerns.

 

AI-Native Engineering Practices

• Help define, refine, and apply AI-native engineering practices across the software development lifecycle in partnership with engineering leadership.
• Guide teams in the effective and responsible use of AI-assisted development tools for coding, testing, refactoring, and documentation.
• Review, evaluate, and refine AI-generated code to ensure quality, security, performance, and long-term maintainability.
• Ensure AI-assisted development workflows are production-ready and aligned with established engineering standards and architectural constraints.

 

AI Governance & Quality Controls

• Establish and enforce clear boundaries for AI agent behavior within the team, including where automation is permitted, where human review is required, and what actions are explicitly disallowed.
• Collaborate with platform and DevOps partners to ensure CI/CD quality gates (testing, security scanning, validation) are enforced and appropriately adapted for AI-assisted development workflows.
• Provide team-level system architecture governance, ensuring designs align with architectural principles, standards, constraints, and long-term maintainability goals.

 

Quality, Standards & Continuous Improvement

• Conduct code and design reviews, providing actionable feedback and reinforcing engineering best practices.
• Identify and address technical debt, performance bottlenecks, and systemic quality issues.
• Drive continuous improvement in engineering practices, tooling, and developer workflows.
• Stay current with emerging technologies and AI-assisted development techniques relevant to software engineering.

 

Mentorship & Collaboration

• Mentor Senior Software Engineers and other team members in AI-enabled engineering practices.
• Foster a culture of technical excellence, ownership, and continuous learning.
• Collaborate closely with product leadership to align system design with product intent and delivery goals.
• Work effectively with cross-functional partners to deliver reliable, high-quality solutions.

 

This job description is intended to describe the general nature and level of work being performed and is not to be construed as an exhaustive list of responsibilities, duties and skills required. This job description does not constitute an employment agreement and is subject to change as the needs of Cotiviti and requirements of the job change.

Qualifications

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, engineering, a related field, or equivalent experience.
• 8+ years of software engineering experience with demonstrated technical leadership.
• Strong backend or full-stack development experience.
• Proven experience designing scalable systems and application architectures.
• Strong understanding of modern software engineering practices and design principles.
• Experience using AI-assisted development tools in real-world or production workflows.
• Ability to evaluate, refine, and productionize AI-generated code.
• Proficiency in one or more of the following: Java, C#, Python, a