Senior Software Engineer - Core AI
Navan
About the Role
We're seeking a Senior Software Engineer to build our Composable AI Microservice Architecture—a fleet of hyper-specialized AI services. You will design and develop intelligent, production-grade agents that transform raw LLMs into task-specific services with high agency and deterministic precision. This is a high-velocity building role where you'll ship production code that augments high-leverage human workflows across the company.
What You'll Do
- Develop specialized AI microservices. Design and build the core logic for task-specific AI agents using AWS Bedrock Agents, Google ADK, or Anthropic Claude SDK, owning the full implementation from data serialization, memory to agentic tool-use, MCP (Model Context Protocol) gateway integrations, and multi-step reasoning.
- Drive optimization-first development. Improve service quality through a rigorous hierarchy: context engineering and skills scripting for optimal knowledge delivery, logic and tooling design for real-world interaction, and prompt and behavioral tuning for specific, repeatable behaviors.
- Build for the fleet. Ensure every service you build is "Core AI Ready" by fully integrating with observability and evals frameworks like LangSmith, Braintrust for agent tracing, drift detection, versioning, and success metrics.
- Lead systemic experimentation. Design and run controlled experiments across different models and datasets using evals frameworks and benchmarking tools to prove that your improvements are attributable and reproducible.
- Collaborate on architecture. Work closely with AI Ops to ensure your services are deployable at scale using autonomous agent runtimes, agent sandboxing (E2B, AWS Lambda), and AWS AgentCore infrastructure, and with the Platform team to deliver "Demo to Prod" leverage.
What We're Looking For
- Product-minded AI building experience. You are a Senior or Staff-level engineer who loves building features that people actually use, understanding that valuable AI solves specific human workflow problems.
- Data-first engineering mindset. You are skilled at data engineering and serialization, knowing that a well-formatted context and the right data are more valuable than endless prompt tweaking.
- Agentic systems specialization. You have experience building agentic flows using frameworks like AWS Agent Core, Google Vertex ADK, or custom autonomous agent runtimes, and know how to balance agency with precision.
- Experimentation and evaluation expertise. You trust benchmarks over intuition and are comfortable building observability pipelines and writing custom evals to measure agent performance, reliability, and success metrics.
- High-velocity shipping ability. You thrive in production environments where success is measured by the number of high-leverage human workflows you successfully augment, not research papers published.
The posted pay range represents the anticipated low and high end of the compensation for this position and is subject to change based on business need. To determine a successful candidate’s starting pay, we carefully consider a variety of factors, including primary work location, an evaluation of the candidate’s skills and experience, market demands, and internal parity.
For roles with on-target-earnings (OTE), the pay range includes both base salary and target incentive compensation. Target incentive compensation for some roles may include a ramping draw period. Compensation is higher for those who exceed targets. Candidates may receive more information from the recruiter.
About Navan
Navan (Nasdaq: NAVN) is the leading all-in-one business travel, payments, and expense management platform that makes travel easy for frequent travelers. From finding flights and hotels to automating expense reconciliation, with 24/7 support along the way, Navan delivers an intuitive experience travelers love and finance teams rely on. See how Navan customers benefit and learn more at navan.com.
Culture of Excellence
Our team is our competitive edge — a high-performance group of smart, driven people committed to winning together. This dedication to excellence is why we’ve been recognized as a Best Place to Work by Built In (2023–2026), a G2 Best Global Software Company (2025-2026), a CNBC Disruptor 50 (2022-2025), and a Forbes Fintech 50 (2022-2025). At Navan, we provide an environment where top talent excels, offering the autonomy and fast-paced trajectory needed to build a defining career and do the best work of your life.
Our Benefits
Navan offers a comprehensive benefits program designed to support your well-being, financial security, and life outside of work. Our benefits, thoughtfully tailored by country to meet local needs, include healthcare coverage, insurance offerings, and wellness resources for you and your family.
We support long-term financial growth through retirement savings programs and opportunities to participate in our equity plans, so you can share in Navan’s success. To promote balance, we offer flexible time off, country-specific holidays, and paid parental leave for all new parents. Additional benefits include connectivity and commuting support, mental health resources, and exclusive travel-related perks. Wherever you’re based, our benefits evolve with you.
Workplace Policy
Navan believes in the value of in-person connections, whether that’s sitting down to have lunch with one another, taking a walking 1:1, or collaborating in a room together. The connections forged through face-to-face interactions improve company culture and drive business results. Navan invests in global office spaces — in the U.S., Europe, and Asia, among others — that feel welcoming. In-office perks such as company-provided lunches and happy hours create a strong team environment to help you do your best work. Our employees work from the office four days a week. Please expect this policy for all roles that are tied to an office.
Equal Opportunity
Navan is an equal opportunity employer. We make all employment decisions based solely on merit. We provide equal employment opportunity to all applicants and employees without discrimination on the bases of race, religion, color, national origin, gender (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, or other applicable legally protected characteristics. We prohibit any such discrimination or harassment. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including hiring.
Accommodations
Navan complies with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), as amended by the ADA Amendments Act, and all applicable state or local law. Navan will reasonably accommodate qualified individuals with a disability in connection with applications for employment as required by law.
If you need any assistance or accommodations due to a disability, you are welcome to email us at [email protected].
Candidate Privacy Notice
Please review Navan's Candidate Privacy Notice here.
Job Search Best Practices
We have been made aware of recruitment scams involving fraudulent attempts to lure job seekers into sending money or personal information in return for fake job offers or coerce them into purchasing equipment by electronic funds transfer (Zelle, Venmo, etc.) Legitimate Navan recruiters will never ask for money in any recruitment or onboarding activities. All available job openings at Navan will be posted on Navan’s website and all Navan recruiters will be reachable through an email address ending in “@navan.com” or “@navan.tech” or "@talent.navan.com".