Staff AI Engineer
Company websitekastle.ai (Kastle, opens in new tab)
Base salary $250K to $350K
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 (2 h ago) · observed since
About this job
About Kastle
Kastle is building the AI employee for banks. We work with some of America's largest financial institutions, helping them scale their contact center and compliance operations using autonomous AI Agents that process payments, originate loans, and help customers get a world class experience during the biggest financial decisions of their lives. We've processed over $2 billion in transactions and are backed by Insight Partners and Y Combinator. If you are interested in building AI that is applied in the real world where precision, reliability, and performance matter and redefine access to credit across the world, apply below.
We just raised a $24M Series A and are growing fast!
About the Role
As a Founding Applied AI Engineer, you'll be instrumental in building the technical foundation of Kastle's AI platform. You'll fine-tune large language models, design AI workflows for highly regulated enterprises, and ensure our voice agents deliver precise, compliant, and effective borrower interactions.
This role is ideal for an engineer who is passionate about applied AI, eager to solve real-world challenges, and excited to build the technical foundation of an early-stage AI startup.
What You'll Do
AI Model Integration: Fine-tune and deploy LLMs for real-time voice-based borrower interactions
Prompt Engineering: Design and iterate on prompt strategies to optimize AI performance and compliance
Evaluate LLMs and AI Agents: Build high quality evals using our proprietary datasets to benchmark AI agent performance and run experiments
Custom AI Solutions: Train and implement domain-specific AI models for consumer lending
Scalability & Compliance: Ensure AI solutions meet regulatory standards (FDCPA, RESPA, TILA) and scale efficiently
Data Pipelines & APIs: Build robust AI-driven workflows that integrate seamlessly with loan servicing platforms
Continuous Optimization: Monitor performance metrics and continuously improve agent quality and borrower experience
What We're Looking For
3+ years building and deploying ML/AI systems in production environments
Strong proficiency in Python and deep learning frameworks (TensorFlow, PyTorch)
Experience with LLM orchestration frameworks (LangChain, LlamaIndex, or similar)
Track record of shipping end to end AI systems that is at the core of company operations
Strong product mindset and ability to translate business requirements into AI solutions
Excellent communication skills to collaborate across product, engineering, and compliance teams
Why join Kastle
Opportunity to work with a world class team building a generational AI company that will redefine how every loan in America is made and managed
Ability to move fast while your work impacting millions of customers. Add a new feature in a few days and ship it to top 10 lenders the next week.
Competitive Compensation + Meaningful Equity at a high growth company
High ownership and direct input on product direction, company culture, and how the FDE function scales
Other Perks and Benefits
Free Health and Wellness Membership
Robust medical, vision, & dental coverage
401(K) plan offering
Paid Company Meals
Company offsites to get to know the team
Source: Kastle on Ashby · View original posting (opens in new tab)
Pay in context
This role's base floor ($250,000) is above 81% of the 1,493 Data & ML roles in California listed on this site; 19 others list the same floor. Their median floor is $190,000; the middle half runs from $160,000 to $229,900.
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 listingStaff AI Engineer$250K to $350K
Staff Engineer$250K to $320K
Head of Talent$200K to $250K
Senior Product Manager$200K to $250K
Infrastructure Engineer$180K to $275K
Founding Growth Lead$170K to $200K
Forward Deployed Engineer$170K to $250K
Chart as a table
| Role | Published base |
|---|---|
| Staff AI Engineer (this listing) | $250K - $350K |
| Staff Engineer | $250K - $320K |
| Head of Talent | $200K - $250K |
| Senior Product Manager | $200K - $250K |
| Infrastructure Engineer | $180K - $275K |
| Founding Growth Lead | $170K - $200K |
| Forward Deployed Engineer | $170K - $250K |
Observed changes
- Began meeting the published-salary criteria
- First observed on the employer's board
- Observed since
- Employer-stated posting date
- 2025-11-22
Where this pay comes from
Location as the employer wrote it: San Francisco
USD 250,000 – 350,000 · 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.
