Remote Position

[Remote] AI Tooling Engineer

🌍 Remote · United States 💼 Full-time

Note: The job is a remote job and is open to candidates in USA. Whatnot is a live shopping platform where sellers build businesses across many product categories. The AI Tooling Engineer will build internal AI tools, prototypes, automations, and workflows, taking ambiguous cross-organizational opportunities from discovery through production. The role also defines reusable AI patterns, integrates tools with internal systems, and enables teams across the company to adopt AI effectively.

Responsibilities

  • Own ambiguous, cross-org AI bets end-to-end—identify the highest-leverage problems across the company, decide what to build, and drive it from prototype to durable production tool
  • Build and ship a high volume of internal apps, prototypes, and automations—going from a vague problem to a working tool in days, then iterating with users toward production quality
  • Define the reusable patterns the org builds on, including reference architectures, internal libraries, MCPs, and skills/plugins that let others move faster and safer
  • Embed directly with teams across CX, Trust & Safety, Ops, and GTM to find high-leverage problems, then build the solution alongside them
  • Integrate AI tools with internal systems and data sources via APIs, connectors, and event-driven workflows so automations act on real state, not toy inputs
  • Scale the leverage—package successful builds into reusable skills and playbooks, and level up the whole company through enablement sessions, boot camps, and mentorship of other builders
  • Stay ahead of the AI landscape, evaluating and bringing in new models, tools, and patterns as the ecosystem evolves, and making the build-vs-buy calls

Skills

  • • A prolific builder with senior judgment—you ship fast and iterate with real users, and you know where •not• to invest; you measure yourself by problems solved, tools adopted, and leverage created
  • • Deep applied-AI fluency—extensive hands-on experience building with the current generation of LLM products (Anthropic, OpenAI, Google) and popular agent frameworks (Cowork, Glean, Dust, etc) and the production patterns around them: prompt engineering, RAG, MCP, agents, and evals
  • • Systems-integration chops—you've connected AI to real data and tools through APIs, webhooks, and connectors, and you reason rigorously about reliability, latency, cost, and access controls
  • • A pattern-setter and force multiplier—you've defined how teams build, mentored other engineers, and raised the technical bar for an org, not just your own output
  • • A strong communicator—you can sit with non-technical users, translate their problems into software, and teach them to build for themselves
  • • Low ego, high agency—you see inefficiency, build the fix, and bring people along with you

Benefits

  • Offers Equity
  • Generous Holiday and Time off Policy
  • Health Insurance options including Medical, Dental, Vision
  • Work From Home Support
  • Home office setup allowance
  • Monthly allowance for cell phone and internet
  • Monthly allowance for wellness
  • Annual allowance towards Childcare
  • Lifetime benefit for family planning, such as adoption or fertility expenses
  • 401k offering for Traditional and Roth accounts in the US (employer match up to 4% of base salary)
  • Pension plans internationally
  • Monthly allowance to dogfood the app
  • 16 weeks of paid parental leave + one month gradual return to work

Company Overview

  • Whatnot is a live shopping marketplace that connects buyers and sellers through interactive livestreams, auctions, and online storefronts. It was founded in 2019, and is headquartered in Los Angeles, California, USA, with a workforce of 1001-5000 employees. Its website is https://www.whatnot.com.
  • Company H1B Sponsorship

  • Whatnot has a track record of offering H1B sponsorships, with 16 in 2026, 34 in 2025, 20 in 2024, 18 in 2023, 10 in 2022. Please note that this does not guarantee sponsorship for this specific role.
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