Senior Software Engineer, AI

About Us

At Cast & Crew, we’ve empowered creativity and supported the global entertainment industry for decades. Together with our family of brands - Backstage, CAPS, Checks & Balances, Final Draft, Media Services, Sargent-Disc, and The TEAM Companies – we operate as a combined entertainment technology and services provider offering industry standard screenwriting accounting software, digital payroll products, data & reporting, and a host of creative tools.  The industry continues to move faster than ever, and the need for our expertise, our technology, and our people has never been greater.  We are a production’s best ally every step of the way. #OneCastOneCrew

Position Overview
We are looking for a highly skilled Senior AI Software Engineer to design and build smart, user-facing AI features that make complex business workflows simple, intuitive, and insightful. In this hands-on role, you’ll work across the full AI/ML stack to bring intelligent experiences—such as context-aware chatbots, AI-driven data explanations, automated task guidance, and interactive forecasting dashboards—to life.
This is a unique opportunity to shape how users interact with data, make decisions, and complete critical tasks across payroll, compliance, and labor management systems—using cutting-edge AI tools like LLMs, embeddings, and Model Context Protocol (MCP).

Key Responsibilities

AI-Powered Feature Development

• Design and develop context-aware AI assistants and chatbots that help users navigate complex workflows and answer domain-specific questions.
• Build AI-guided task assistants that proactively surface recommendations, fill in missing data, or automate next steps in real-time.
• Implement explainable AI (XAI) features that help users understand insights, predictions, or system decisions transparently.

Interactive Analytics, Forecasting & Dashboards

• Develop AI-driven dashboards and prediction engines that provide instant insights into user actions, financial trends, labor forecasts, and potential compliance risks.
• Build self-service AI tools that allow users to ask natural language questions of their data and receive visual, interpretable responses.
• Collaborate with UX and product teams to embed these insights directly into the application experience.

Architecture & Integration

• Build scalable backend services in Python, TypeScript, and Node.js, integrating with LLMs, vector stores, and analytics engines.
• Use Model Context Protocol (MCP) to manage and preserve context across chat, prediction, and recommendation workflows.
• Leverage cloud-native tools (AWS Lambda, SageMaker, Bedrock, DynamoDB) to deploy and scale AI features.

Engineering & Collaboration

• Write clean, production-quality code and participate in architectural reviews, technical design, and agile ceremonies.
• Work closely with data scientists, designers, and other engineers to prototype and ship AI-powered product experiences.
• Continuously evaluate emerging AI tools, LLM frameworks, and APIs to push the product’s intelligence capabilities forward.

Required Qualifications

• 5–8 years of professional software engineering experience, with significant hands-on AI/ML application development.
• Strong programming skills in Python, TypeScript, and Node.js, including experience building and integrating backend APIs.
• Experience building with LLMs, embeddings, and prompt engineering, especially for chat, recommendations, or summarization tasks.
• Familiarity with Model Context Protocol (MCP) or similar frameworks for managing long-lived AI context.
• Proficiency in cloud platforms (preferably AWS) and data technologies (e.g., PostgreSQL, Redis, DynamoDB).
• Passion for delivering intuitive, AI-enhanced user experiences through strong cross-functional collaboration.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience building AI features in productized environments—such as guided workflows, task automation, or user-facing insights.
• Familiarity with LangChain, Semantic Kernel, or similar orchestration frameworks.
• Knowledge of forecasting models, causal inference, or time-series prediction in business/product contexts.
• Experience building natural language interfaces over structured business data.
• Background in payroll, HR tech, fintech, or operational compliance is a plus.

Special Work Conditions    

• Sedentary – Involves sitting most of the time but may involv