Software Engineer
Company websitevariance.com (Variance, opens in new tab)
Base salary $160K to $250K
Employer-published annual base salary, USD. Advertised base range in San Francisco, CA
You apply on the employer's own site. Six Figure Work does not handle applications.
- LocationSan Francisco, CA
- WorkplaceOn-site
- Status at last checkSource accepting applications when checked
- Last checked (3 h ago) · observed since
About this job
Role
At Variance, we are teaching machines to make the hardest judgement calls at scale. That means building AI agents for the high-precision gray-area of risk investigations, fraud, and identity reviews.
We’re a small, talent-dense team in San Francisco, tackling problems that touch billions of events and entities. Our customers include several Fortune 500s, global marketplaces, and regulated financial services. If you thrive on extreme ownership, moving fast, and working directly with founders, you’ll feel at home here.
You’re a fit if you:
Have 1-3 years of experience of professional software engineering experience
Care deeply about craftsmanship and have strong opinions about building high-quality products
Are comfortable with our tech stack: React/Next.js, TypeScript, MySQL, and ClickHouse for agent context, though we value strong fundamentals over experience with any specific technology
Enjoy owning features end-to-end, from backend systems to polished UI to production
Thrive in fast-moving environments with short iteration cycles and a high degree of responsibility
Are excited by the prospect of building AI interfaces for high-stakes decisions that protect people from fraud, scams, and abuse
What you’ll do
Build and ship features end-to-end with iteration cycles measured in hours, not quarters
Work across the stack to turn ambiguous problems into reliable product experiences
Partner directly with the founders on massive-scale, frontier problems
Scale our product into new industries and workflows through fast pilots and live demos
Design systems where AI must decide in real time, balancing precision, speed, and user trust
Help improve the product through rapid feedback, experimentation, and strong execution
Our culture
We believe in ownership, urgency, and craft. We enjoy spirited debate, wild ideas, and building things we’re proud of. We’re fully in-person in San Francisco.
What we offer
Competitive salary and meaningful equity
Health care: we offer platinum-level medical, dental, and vision insurance
Unlimited PTO, sick leave, and parental leave
Up to $100 in reimbursement for personal health & wellness expenses each month
401(k) plan
Source: Variance on Ashby · View original posting (opens in new tab)
Pay in context
This role's base floor ($160,000) is above 34% of the 4,192 Software Engineering roles in California listed on this site; 100 others list the same floor. Their median floor is $176,500; the middle half runs from $149,200 to $204,000.
Only jobs on this site count, and each one publishes a base salary of $100,000 or more, so this compares six-figure jobs with each other, not with the whole market. Computed Nov 6, 2026.
This listingSoftware Engineer$160K to $250K
Research Engineer, Evals$180K to $300K
Senior Software Engineer$200K to $300K
Chart as a table
| Role | Published base |
|---|---|
| Software Engineer (this listing) | $160K - $250K |
| Research Engineer, Evals | $180K - $300K |
| Senior Software Engineer | $200K - $300K |
Observed changes
- First observed on the employer's board
- Began meeting the published-salary criteria
- Observed since
- Employer-stated posting date
- 2026-03-30
Where this pay comes from
Location as the employer wrote it: San Francisco
USD 160,000 – 250,000 · 1 YEAR · Salary
- Method
- Structured pay field published by the employer
- Checked
- Rule set
- us-base-v2
The employer's job board publishes this pay as a dedicated data field. We read the field directly; no interpretation was needed.
What we verified
- The pay figures come from the employer's own listing, quoted exactly above.
- The pay is an annual base salary in US dollars with a minimum of at least $100,000.
- The role was publicly listed on the employer's job board when last checked.
We do not verify what the employer will actually offer, whether the employer is still recruiting for the role, or anything beyond what the employer published. Full methodology.
