Staff Software Engineer

Business Overview

KINESSO is the technology-driven performance marketing agency that sits at the very heart of IPG Mediabrands, providing actionable growth for both our agency partners and clients. We turn 'action' into 'outcome' for our clients, leveraging our unique capabilities in optimization, analytics, AI, and experimentation. KINESSO has brought together the collective power of what was formerly Matterkind, Reprise, P3, and Kinesso under one collective entity that will serve as the most powerful delivery engine in the industry. We have extensive offerings spanning across performance marketing and data and technology. Fueled by a deep understanding of consumer behavior, we offer an end-to-end engine of planning and optimization while also delivering on data-driven strategy for social platforms, actionable growth in e-commerce, and creating curated marketplaces specific to each client's function and needs. The company has more than 6,000 employees operating in more than 60 countries. Learn more at www.KINESSO.com.

Position Summary

We are seeking a Staff Software Engineer to spearhead the design and development of a next-generation AI Chat Application that will serve as an enterprise-wide assistant. This application will support a diverse range of organizational functions—including HR, Finance, Business Strategy, Ad Tech, and MarTech—empowering employees with intelligent, context-aware AI capabilities to streamline daily work.

As the Staff Software Engineer, you will guide the technical direction, mentor engineers, and partner with cross-functional teams to deliver a scalable, secure, and high-performing platform.

Responsibilities

• Lead Architecture & Development: Define and implement the architecture for an AI-driven chat platform leveraging Python, GCP, and AI services.
• Team Leadership: Mentor and guide a team of engineers, driving technical excellence, collaboration, and delivery.
• LLM Integration: Build and optimize solutions with LLM foundational models to support natural language understanding, contextual reasoning, and multi-domain workflows.
• Partner with Product Owners: Collaborate closely with product owners to assess technical feasibility, translate business needs into actionable engineering requirements, and ensure alignment with overall product strategy.
• Scalability & Reliability: Ensure the system is designed with enterprise-grade security, scalability, and compliance in mind.
• Innovation: Explore and adopt emerging practices in prompt engineering, multi-agent coordination (MCP/LLM agents), and applied AI to continuously evolve the platform.

Required Skills & Experience

• 12+ years of software engineering experience building production-grade applications.
• 7+ years of experience with Java (Python experience strongly preferred).
• 3+ years of experience leading or managing engineering teams.
• Strong grasp of object-oriented programming, data structures, algorithms, and design patterns.
• Experience designing and building scalable APIs (REST, GraphQL, gRPC) and modular, extensible architectures.
• Hands-on experience with relational and NoSQL databases (e.g., MSSQL, PostgreSQL, DynamoDB).
• Familiarity with messaging and event-driven platforms like Kafka, Temporal for real-time systems.
• Strong expertise in GCP and integrating AI services with LLM foundational models.
• Experience with AI-powered developer tools (e.g., GitHub Copilot, Claude) to improve productivity and code quality.
• Strong troubleshooting, communication, and documentation skills, with a bias for secure, observable, and maintainable solutions.
• Comfortable working in Agile/Scrum environments with cross-functional teams.

Desired Skills & Experience

• Experience with context engineering and fine-tuning AI/LLM outputs.
• Familiarity with Model Context Protocol (MCP) for LLM agent orchestration.
• Knowledge of LLM agent frameworks for building multi-step, reasoning-driven AI systems.
• Experience in enterprise-grade security and compliance frameworks.

 

We See You  

At IPG Mediabrands, we are unified behind a commitment to fostering a culture of inclusion and belonging. Together, we shine through a set of shared values and behaviors. We take pride in our responsibility to our clients, communities, and to each other. We embrace differences and recognize the unique value that each of us brings to our community.  

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