Staff Software Engineer - AI
DroneDeploy
Listing collected from DroneDeploy's career site. NextChapter is independent of DroneDeploy.
Austin, TX · $169k–$232k a year · Posted October 29, 2026
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Where Austin, TX ranks
Where Austin, TX placed in our monthly rankings, month by month. Each month stays online at its own address.
November 2026
- #1Best cities for professional services pay after cost of living$168k · of 25
- #1Cities with the most jobs that do not need a four-year degree in the Southwest493 jobs · of 38
- #1Best cities for pay after cost of living in the Southwest$168k · of 15
- #1Best cities for pay after cost of living in Texas$168k · of 8
- #1Best cities for software and engineering jobs in the Southwest1,931 openings · of 33
- #1Best all-round cities for mid-career professionals in the Southwest92 / 100 · of 15
Rankings about data & analytics jobs
- Best cities for data and analytics jobs #1 New York (1,713 openings)
- Best cities for data and analytics pay after cost of living #1 Foster ($232k)
- Most requested AI skills in data and analytics jobs #1 Machine learning engineering (17.1%)
- AI tools named most often in data and analytics jobs #1 Databricks (7.6%)
- Employers with the most data and analytics jobs #1 Amazon (711 roles)
Data & Analytics jobs · Top Data & Analytics employers · All rankings
Pay compared with the market
This listing pays about $200,165 a year. Across 425 open staff software engineer listings that state pay, the middle half runs $222,500 to $271,000 and the median is $242,500. That is 17% below the median, below the middle half of those listings.
Listed pay is what employers advertise, not what people are paid.
Staff Software Engineer salaries by state · Check your own pay
How AI is used in this kind of work
Among software developers, AI is already used for some of the tasks. Measured exposure for software developers: 29% (some).
Share of this job’s tasks that AI is already used for at work, from real usage. It is not a forecast of job loss, and a low number means no use seen yet. Source: Anthropic Economic Index.
Skills this job asks for
Say which you have and which you want to build. We use it to match you to jobs like this one.
About the job
We’re looking for a Staff Software Engineer - AI to join Procore’s Data and AI organization. In this role, you’ll design and build production-grade AI capabilities that improve how construction professionals find information, make decisions, and complete their work. Your primary goal will be to provide technical leadership and turn advances in generative AI into secure, reliable, and scalable customer experiences.
As a Staff Software Engineer - AI , you’ll partner with product managers, designers, data scientists, and software engineers to define technical strategy and deliver AI-powered features from concept through production. Use your expertise in AI systems, software architecture, and cross-functional technical leadership to solve complex problems and raise engineering standards across the organization.
This hybrid position reports into the Engineering Manager and will be based in our Austin, Texas office. We’re looking for someone to join us immediately.
What you’ll do:
Define the technical strategy and architecture for scalable, secure, and reliable AI-powered products.
Lead the design and delivery of production-grade generative AI, agentic, retrieval, and evaluation systems.
Partner with product, design, data science, and engineering teams to translate customer needs into technical solutions.
Establish engineering standards for AI quality, observability, security, privacy, and responsible use.
Evaluate emerging AI models, frameworks, and techniques through rigorous experimentation and measurement.
Mentor engineers and provide technical guidance across teams and complex initiatives.
Identify technical risks, resolve ambiguous problems, and make pragmatic trade-offs that accelerate delivery.
Communicate technical decisions, outcomes, and recommendations clearly to engineering leaders and business stakeholders.
What we’re looking for:
Demonstrate 8+ years of software engineering experience, including experience leading complex, cross-functional technical initiatives.
At least 2+ years hands-on experience building and operating production AI or machine-learning systems.
Apply strong knowledge of generative AI, large language models, retrieval-augmented generation, agentic systems, and evaluation methods.
Design distributed systems and cloud-native services using modern software engineering and architecture practices.
Communicate effectively with technical and nontechnical partners while influencing decisions without direct authority.
Approach ambiguous problems with curiosity, sound judgment, customer focus, and a collaborative mindset.
Hold relevant cloud or machine-learning certifications where applicable; certifications are preferred but not required.
Bachelor’s degree in computer science, engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
Additional Information
Base Pay Range: 168,560.00 - 231,770.00 USD Annual
This role may also be eligible for Equity Compensation and/or Bonus Incentive Compensation. Procore is committed to offering competitive, fair, and commensurate compensation. Actual compensation will be based on a candidate’s job-related skills, experience, education or training, and location.
This position requires access to technology, software, and data that is controlled or restricted under U.S. law, regulation, executive order, or government contract.
For Los Angeles County (unincorporated) Candidates:
Procore will consider for employment all qualified applicants, including those with arrest or conviction records, in accordance with the requirements of applicable federal, state, and local laws, including the City of Los Angeles’ Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance, the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers, and the California Fair Chance Act.
A criminal history may have a direct, adverse, and negative relationship on the following job duties, potentially resulting in the withdrawal of the conditional offer of employment: 1. appropriately managing, accessing, and handling confidential information including proprietary and trade secret information, as well as accessing Procore's information technology systems and platforms; 2. interacting with and occasionally having unsupervised contact with internal/external customers, stakeholders, and/or colleagues; and 3. exercising sound judgment.