AI Engineer
Quick facts
- Pay
- $350,000 - $500,000
- Type
- Full-time
- Location
- New York City, New York
- Skills
- Python, TypeScript
- Industry
- Information Technology — 671 open jobs
- Visa in listing
- H-1B, OPT
- Apply
- Free to apply — never pay anyone for a job offer or visa sponsorship
Job description
Our client is a 15-person consumer AI company building an agentic travel platform that understands individual preferences and can plan and book real-time travel experiences. Its product connects conversational intelligence with live inventory from major travel and hospitality brands, allowing users to discover and book verified options in one conversation.
We are hiring an AI Engineer to own the conversational intelligence layer end to end. You will turn large language model capabilities into reliable product behavior across agent loops, prompt architecture, tool calling, state, memory, streaming, and error recovery.
What you'll do
- Own the full agent architecture, including prompts, tool calling, multi-step reasoning, and streaming
- Productionize conversational state and memory systems that interpret user preferences
- Build ranking, retrieval, and recommendation experiences that surface useful, personalized results
- Improve multi-turn reliability through refinement loops, error recovery, and graceful degradation
- Design the rendering layer between agent output and the consumer product experience
- Manage model-provider strategy, caching, structured outputs, and fallback behavior
- Define and operate evaluation systems for ranking, retrieval, and agent behavior
- Debug production failure modes and continuously improve quality using evidence from real users
Requirements
- At least four years of experience as a full-stack or backend-leaning software engineer
- Experience shipping LLM-powered ranking, retrieval, or recommendation systems into production
- Hands-on ownership of systems where models interpret user preferences and surface results
- Real evaluation experience, including defining, running, and iterating on quality metrics
- Comfort across prompting, embeddings, retrieval, memory, preferences, and product-facing agent workflows
- Strong ability to explain specific production failures you diagnosed and corrected
- An AI-native development workflow and a track record of learning and shipping quickly
- Willingness to work regularly from New York City
Bonus points
- Experience in travel, search relevance, personalization, memory, or consumer recommendations
- Experience at a high-growth startup or top technology company
- Proficiency in TypeScript, with Python also welcome
- Significant side projects involving AI agents or production-grade LLM systems
- A strong academic or equivalent technical signal
Benefits
- Total compensation of $350K-$500K
- Competitive equity
- Direct ownership of a core consumer AI product surface
- Visa transfers, including OPT or H-1B transfers, may be considered case by case
- Hybrid in New York City
- Full-time position
- Close collaboration with a small, fast-moving team
Visa sponsorship record
No public sponsorship records foundWe didn't find H-1B, H-1B1, E-3 or green card (PERM) filings under the name Raydar in the Department of Labor and USCIS data. That doesn't mean the job can't be sponsored — the company may file under a different legal name, be new to sponsorship, or sponsor a visa that isn't in these datasets (for example H-2B or J-1).
Tip: ask the recruiter early, in writing, which visa they sponsor and whether they cover the legal and filing fees.
Which visas can work for this job
Occupation: Software Developers (SOC 15-1252).
- Mentioned in the listing
H-1B, OPT
- H-1B cap-exempt employer
Regular cap-subject employer — a new H-1B needs to win the lottery in March (unless you already hold cap-counted H-1B status).
- TN (citizens of Canada and Mexico)
This kind of role may fit the USMCA profession “Computer Systems Analyst (or Engineer, for engineering-degree holders)” — it depends on the actual duties. No lottery, no cap; you need the matching degree or license.
- E-3 (Australia) and H-1B1 (Chile, Singapore)
Same degree requirement as H-1B, but no lottery and a separate quota that is rarely filled.
- O-1 (extraordinary ability)
For candidates with awards, publications, press, a high salary or critical roles at distinguished organizations. No cap, no lottery; the employer files a petition.
- STEM OPT extension (F-1 students)
Requires an E-Verify employer. We didn't find this company in the E-Verify list — ask HR.
Salary vs prevailing wage
Level IV (fully competent)Software Developers · New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ. Annual prevailing wages set by the Department of Labor (OFLC).
| Level | Prevailing wage | H-1B lottery odds* |
|---|---|---|
| Level I | $109,845 | ~15% |
| Level II | $137,717 | ~31% |
| Level III | $165,589 | ~46% |
| Level IV | $193,461 | ~61% |
This job pays $350,000–$500,000 a year — that's Level IV (fully competent). In the wage-weighted H-1B lottery a Level IV registration gets 4 entries; estimated selection chance about 61% — better than average.
* Odds are DHS projections for the FY2027 wage-weighted lottery (actual results vary by year and employer). Since the FY2027 cap season the H-1B lottery is weighted by wage level: Level I = 1 entry, II = 2, III = 3, IV = 4. The level is set by the offered wage against the prevailing wage for the occupation and worksite. Separately, a $100,000 fee for new H-1B petitions for workers outside the US was announced in 2025; as of September 2026 a federal court ruling keeps it unenforceable while appeals continue — check the current status.
Sources: U.S. Department of Labor OFLC disclosure data (H-1B/H-1B1/E-3 LCA, PERM), OFLC prevailing wage data, USCIS H-1B Employer Data Hub, E-Verify participating employers. Data loaded: LCA FY2024–FY2026, PERM, USCIS Data Hub, OFLC wages; updated 2026-10-03. Employers are matched by name, so records of companies with similar names can occasionally be mixed up. This is general information, not legal advice — talk to an immigration attorney about your case.