Applied AI Engineer
AI in this role
PermitFlow is redefining how America builds. We’re an applied AI company serving the nation’s builders, tackling one of the largest information challenges in the economy: understanding what can be built, where, and how. Our AI agent workforce helps the fastest-growing construction companies navigate everything from permitting and licensing to inspections and project closeouts – accelerating housing, clean-energy, and infrastructure development across the country.
Despite being a $1.6T industry, construction still suffers from massive delays, wasted capital, and lost opportunity. PermitFlow has already delivered unprecedented speed, accuracy, and visibility to over $20B in development, helping contractors reduce compliance time, de-risk projects, and scale with confidence.
As the U.S. enters a new capex supercycle across data centers, factories, housing, and renewables, joining PermitFlow means building the AI infrastructure at the core of every construction project driving the next wave of reindustrialization.
We’ve raised over $90M, most recently completing our Series B, from top-tier investors including Accel, Kleiner Perkins, Initialized, Y Combinator, Felicis, and Altos Ventures, with backing from leaders at OpenAI, Google, Procore, ServiceTitan, Zillow, PlanGrid, and Uber.
Our HQ is in New York City with a hybrid schedule (3 in-office days per week). We prefer NYC-based candidates or those open to relocation.
Role OverviewAs an Applied AI Engineer, you will design and deploy the AI agents that power PermitFlow’s pre-construction platform. You will own the full lifecycle of intelligent agents—from model development to orchestration, productionization, and evaluation—while contributing to core platform engineering.
What You’ll DoDevelop and deploy AI agents that automate permitting workflows end-to-end
Orchestrate multiple models and tools to create reliable, multi-step AI systems
Build the internal tools and infrastructure that power and monitor these agents
Design and implement backend and frontend services, APIs, and data pipelines, integrating AI functionality into user-facing features when needed
Contribute to system architecture and core platform design with the engineering team
Design and maintain a suite of evaluations and benchmarks to measure agent accuracy, reliability, and cost-effectiveness
Optimize inference pipelines and backend systems for speed, scalability, and cost
3+ years in software or ML engineering post-BS/MS
Hands-on experience shipping production AI/ML systems or AI-powered products
Experience building multi-step ML systems, pipelines, or agentic workflows
Strong backend and API development skills, with some frontend experience
Track record of building reliable products with attention to quality and detail
Startup grit and comfort in fast-moving, evolving environments
Competitive salary and meaningful equity in a high-growth company
100% company-paid base medical, dental, and vision coverage for employees + healthcare FSA
401(k) savings plan
Unlimited PTO and paid family leave
Home office & equipment stipend
Daily in-office lunch and dinner provided
Commuter benefits (pre-tax transit and parking)
PermitFlow provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, genetics, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, or family status, as protected by applicable law.
We are committed to a diverse and inclusive workforce and welcome people from all backgrounds, experiences, perspectives, and abilities. All employment decisions are based on merit, qualifications, and business needs.
How we score this
Applied AI Engineer at PermitFlow scores 94 out of 100 on AI centrality, which makes it AI Level 4 of 4 (Builds AI) on this board. The level measures how much of the work is AI, not seniority.
AI Level 4. Building AI systems is the job itself: without AI, the role would not exist.
- AI Level 480 to 100
- AI Level 360 to 79
- AI Level 240 to 59
- AI Level 10 to 39
Bands come from how often the tools, models and workflows of the role are named in the posting itself. Open the description and count.
Prepare for this job
A free preview built only from this posting: what it asks for, what you could be asked in an interview, and how to adjust your resume.
Skills and AI tools this role asks for
Questions you could be asked
- How do you decide when an AI agent can act on its own versus asking for approval first?
- Walk me through how you've used OpenAI in your day-to-day work.
- How would you decide a model or AI system is ready to ship?
- Tell me about a time a model underperformed in production. How did you find out, and what did you change?
Adapt your resume
- List these exact terms on your resume: AI Agents and OpenAI. An applicant tracking system matches the wording, not the idea.
- Attach one line of real, concrete experience to at least one of them — a tool named with nothing behind it rarely survives a human read.
- Lead with what you built, trained or shipped — this role is judged on the AI system itself, not the tools around it.
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