Level

Applied Intuition

Software Engineer - Kafka

Applied Intuition is hiring a Software Engineer - Kafka in Sunnyvale, United States. It pays $153k-$222k a year and Level rates it ; you can apply on Applied Intuition.

Level's read on this job

  • Level rates this software engineer role Works on AI ●●●○: the daily work is on AI products, without building the model.
  • The posting mentions AI research among its tools and skills.
  • Level classes it as a mid-level role.
  • Applied Intuition has 327 other open roles on Level.

AI in this role

ai-research

Applied Intuition, Inc. is powering the future of physical AI. Founded in 2017 and now valued at $15 billion, the Silicon Valley company is creating the digital infrastructure needed to bring intelligence to every moving machine on the planet. Applied Intuition services the automotive, defense, trucking, construction, mining and agriculture industries in three core areas: tools and infrastructure, operating systems, and autonomy. Eighteen of the top 20 global automakers, as well as the United States military and its allies, trust the company’s solutions to deliver physical intelligence. Applied Intuition is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, with offices in Washington, D.C.; San Diego; Ft. Walton Beach, Florida; Ann Arbor, Michigan; London; Stuttgart; Munich; Stockholm; Bangalore; Seoul; and Tokyo. Learn more at applied.co.

We are an in-office company, and our expectation is that full-time employees primarily work from their Applied Intuition office 5 days a week. However, we also recognize the importance of flexibility and trust our employees to manage their schedules responsibly. This may include occasional remote work, starting the day with morning meetings from home before heading to the office, or leaving earlier when needed to accommodate family commitments. This in-office expectation does not apply to contractor positions

About the role

As the data engine team, our goal is to provide a central data and machine learning platform that can be used across all verticals of the company. We’re looking for generalist engineers that want to build the foundations of a new workflow that spans:

  1. Data ingestion from a production fleet

  2. Data processing and storage (TBs/car/day)

  3. Labeling infrastructure

  4. Machine learning infrastructure

This group has a massive scope to define how product verticals across the company are deployed at scale for our customers given data and machine learning infrastructure is at the heart of the autonomy problem. We’re still very early in development so if you are interested in the “0-1” stage of building up a new team that interacts with teams across the company, this is a good fit.

At Applied Intuition, you will:

  • Design and build large-scale data platforms to support our AI research and autonomy stack development, handling petabytes of multimodal sensor data from real-world driving scenarios

  • Work on data curation and tagging platforms that enable efficient dataset discovery, labeling workflows, and quality assessment across diverse driving conditions

  • Build high-performance data processing systems using modern distributed computing frameworks to transform raw sensor data into training-ready formats

  • Use the following technologies: Apache Spark, Apache Hudi, Trino, Apache Kafka, Flyte, Kubernetes, Python, Golang, Java

We're looking for someone who has:

  • A Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or equivalent

  • 2+ years of professional experience

  • Strong backend engineering experience

  • Problem-solving skills and experience working with cross-functional teams in fast-paced environments

Nice to have:

  • Hands-on experience with modern data stack technologies including Apache Spark, Hudi, Trino, Kafka, or similar distributed data processing frameworks

  • Knowledge of data lake architectures, streaming systems, and workflow orchestration platforms like Flyte

Compensation at Applied Intuition for eligible roles includes base salary, equity, and benefits. Base salary is a single component of the total compensation package, which may also include equity in the form of options and/or restricted stock units, comprehensive health, dental, vision, life and disability insurance coverage, 401k retirement benefits with employer match, learning and wellness stipends, and paid time off. Note that benefits are subject to change and may vary based on jurisdiction of employment.

Applied Intuition pay ranges reflect the minimum and maximum intended target base salary for new hire salaries for the position. The actual base salary offered to a successful candidate will additionally be influenced by a variety of factors including experience, credentials & certifications, educational attainment, skill level requirements, interview performance, and the level and scope of the position.

Don’t meet every single requirement? If you’re excited about this role but your past experience doesn’t align perfectly with every qualification in the job description, we encourage you to apply anyway. You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles.

Applied Intuition is an equal opportunity employer and federal contractor or subcontractor. Consequently, the parties agree that, as applicable, they will abide by the requirements of 41 CFR 60-1.4(a), 41 CFR 60-300.5(a) and 41 CFR 60-741.5(a) and that these laws are incorporated herein by reference. These regulations prohibit discrimination against qualified individuals based on their status as protected veterans or individuals with disabilities, and prohibit discrimination against all individuals based on their race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or national origin. These regulations require that covered prime contractors and subcontractors take affirmative action to employ and advance in employment individuals without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, protected veteran status or disability. The parties also agree that, as applicable, they will abide by the requirements of Executive Order 13496 (29 CFR Part 471, Appendix A to Subpart A), relating to the notice of employee rights under federal labor laws.

FOR US-BASED ROLES: Applied Intuition is committed to providing an accessible and inclusive application and interview experience to applicants who are disabled veterans and other applicants with disabilities or medical conditions. Reasonable accommodations are available, requesting an accommodation will not affect your candidacy in any way, and you are not required to disclose the nature of your disability or medical condition in order to make a request.
If you require an accommodation please contact careers@applied.co. We will work with you!

How we rate this

Software Engineer - Kafka at Applied Intuition rates 66 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.

Classification

Works on AI. The daily work is on AI products, without building the model.

  1. ●●●● Builds AI80 to 100
  2. ●●●○ Works on AI60 to 79
  3. ●●○○ Uses AI40 to 59
  4. ●○○○ 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

AI Research

Also common in software engineer jobs at this level

Pay

This job starts at
$153k
Typical software engineer job
$168k

This posting starts 9% below the typical software engineer job. See software engineer jobs

Questions you could be asked

  1. Tell me about a research question you investigated. What did you find?
  2. Describe a typical day in a role like this one: which parts run through AI directly?
  3. If you removed AI from this role, what would be left, and how do you decide what still needs a human?

Adapt your resume

  • List these exact terms on your resume: AI Research. 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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