Senior Software Engineer, Recommendations
Lyft is hiring a Senior Software Engineer, Recommendations in Toronto, Canada. It pays $136k a year and Level rates it ; you can apply on Lyft.
Level's read on this job
- On Level's scale, this software engineer role is Works on AI ●●●○: the daily work is on AI products, without building the model.
- The posting mentions Claude, Copilot and Cursor among its tools and skills.
- Level classes it as a senior role.
- Lyft has 169 other open roles on Level.
AI in this role
Builds scalable backend systems and pipelines for rider recommendations within the Applied AI team.
At Lyft, our purpose is to serve and connect. We aim to achieve this by cultivating a work environment where all team members belong and have the opportunity to thrive.
Lyft is looking for software engineers from a scope of disciplines. We are growing our team with people who want to build, improve and incorporate technologies that make the lives of our community more enriched. As an engineer at Lyft, you'll collaborate with teams like product, data science, analytics, and operations on code that empowers us to iterate quickly, while focusing on delighting our passengers and drivers.
The Applied AI team is looking for a senior software Engineer to join the Recommendations team. You will build the backend systems that decide what we surface to riders. You will architect the pipelines and services that turn rider context and signals into the right offer at the right moment, driving a measurable impact on rider experience.
Responsibilities:
- Establish engineering best practices and patterns; help uplift the team's craft and drive a culture of engineering excellence
- Drive high-impact projects and innovate new solutions to deliver the best user experience
- Produce and drive scalable system design for large, complex features — from idea through execution and launch
- Mentor engineers on the team, providing technical guidance and supporting their growth
- Champion and evangelize the use of AI tools to accelerate engineering productivity across the team, sharing patterns and best practices that raise the bar for how the team builds
- Write well-crafted, well-tested, readable, maintainable code
- Participate in code reviews to ensure code quality and share knowledge across the team
- Participate in the team's on-call rotation; identify, triage, debug, and resolve issues across our applications and platforms
- Excellent communication skills and the ability to explain the various trade offs made in decisions
- Manage project priorities, deadlines, and deliverables.
Experience:
- BS/MS or equivalent in Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or related field or equivalent practical experience.
- 5+ years of software engineering/production infrastructure industry experience.
- Experience with Python and Go.
- Experience with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, or Azure), distributed systems, and databases such as PostgreSQL or DynamoDB
- Proficient and effective in using AI tools (e.g. Copilot, Claude Code, Cursor) to accelerate coding and engineering workflows
- Proficiency in object-oriented programming.
- Experience working with data structures or algorithms.
- Ability to work with a low-ego, highly collaborative, and cross-functional team.
- Bonus points: Experience building real-time serving systems for ML models, working with recommendation or ranking systems, feature stores, or online/offline experimentation frameworks.
Benefits:
- Extended health and dental coverage options, along with life insurance and disability benefits
- Mental health benefits
- Family building benefits
- Child care and pet benefits
- Access to a Lyft funded Health Care Savings Account
- RRSP plan to help save for your future
- In addition to provincial observed holidays, salaried team members are covered under Lyft's flexible paid time off policy. The policy allows team members to take off as much time as they need (with manager approval). Hourly team members get 15 days paid time off, with an additional day for each year of service
- Lyft is proud to support new parents with 18 weeks of paid time off, designed as a top-up plan to complement provincial programs. Biological, adoptive, and foster parents are all eligible.
- Subsidized commuter benefits
Lyft is committed to creating an inclusive workforce that fosters belonging. Lyft believes that every person has a right to equal employment opportunities without discrimination because of race, ancestry, place of origin, colour, ethnic origin, citizenship, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, marital status, family status, disability, pardoned record of offences, or any other basis protected by applicable law or by Company policy. Lyft also strives for a healthy and safe workplace and strictly prohibits harassment of any kind. Accommodation for persons with disabilities will be provided upon request in accordance with applicable law during the application and hiring process. Please contact your recruiter if you wish to make such a request.
Lyft highly values having employees working in-office to foster a collaborative work environment and company culture. This role will be in-office on a hybrid schedule — Team Members will be expected to work in the office at least 3 days per week, including on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. Lyft considers working in the office at least 3 days per week to be an essential function of this hybrid role. Your recruiter can share more information about the various in-office perks Lyft offers. Additionally, hybrid roles have the flexibility to work from anywhere for up to 4 weeks per year. #Hybrid
The expected base pay range for this position in the Toronto area is CAD $136,000 - CAD $170,000, not inclusive of potential equity offering, bonus or benefits. Salary ranges are dependent on a variety of factors, including qualifications, experience and geographic location. Your recruiter can share more information about the salary range specific to your working location and other factors during the hiring process.
Lyft may use artificial intelligence to screen applicants, however, Lyft employees make the ultimate selection and hiring decisions.
This job fills an existing vacancy.
How we rate this
Senior Software Engineer, Recommendations at Lyft rates 70 out of 100 for how much of the daily work is AI. That makes it Works on AI (AI Level 3 of 4). The level is about AI in the job, not seniority.
Works on AI. The daily work is on AI products, without building the model.
- ●●●● Builds AI80 to 100
- ●●●○ Works on AI60 to 79
- ●●○○ Uses AI40 to 59
- ●○○○ Little AI0 to 39
Levels come from how often the tools, models and workflows of the role are named in the posting itself. Read the description and count the AI tools, models and workflows it names.
Prepare for this job
Built from this posting and from similar jobs on Level.
Skills and AI tools this role asks for
Also common in software engineer jobs at this level
Pay
- This job starts at
- $136k
- Typical software engineer job
- $167k
This posting starts 19% below the typical software engineer job. See software engineer jobs
Questions you could be asked
- Tell me about a project where backend was part of your work. What did you do?
- Tell me about a project where distributed systems was part of your work. What did you do?
- Tell me about a project where recommendation systems was part of your work. What did you do?
- Tell me about a project where system design was part of your work. What did you do?
- Tell me about a project where software engineering was part of your work. What did you do?
Adapt your resume
- List these exact terms on your resume: Backend, Distributed Systems, Recommendation Systems, System Design, and Software Engineering. 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.
- Show where AI is part of your daily process, not a one-off project. This role expects it to be a running habit.
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