--- title: 'AI Engineer, Agent Platform at NewsBreak' canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/ai-engineer-agent-platform-newsbreak-mountain-view-9msexa5z842h' type: 'job' last_seen: '2026-10-19' --- # AI Engineer, Agent Platform at NewsBreak - **Company:** NewsBreak - **Location:** Mountain View, CA - **Compensation:** $120k–$220k - **Posted:** 2026-05-27 - **Last confirmed live:** 2026-10-19 - **Apply:** https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/newsbreak/jobs/4683873006 ## Job description ## About NewsBreak Founded in 2015, NewsBreak is the Content Intelligence platform shaping the future content economy. With over 40 million monthly active users, our flagship platform delivers highly personalized local news and information powered by advanced AI, recommendation systems, and adtech. Recognized by Fast Company as #32 on the Top Workplaces for Innovators, we're proud to be Great Place to Work® certified and home to a dynamic team of technologists, product innovators, and business leaders who are passionate about solving meaningful challenges at scale. Together, we reached unicorn status in 2021, and we remain committed to continuing this high-growth trajectory with the right team to fulfill our mission: building the infrastructure layer for content intelligence. If you’re inspired to dream big, innovate fast, and make a difference, we’d love to hear from you! For more information, visit [www.newsbreak.com/about](http://www.newsbreak.com/about) ## About the Role We're building the agent platform that powers NewsBreak's next-generation AI products — from local-news synthesis agents that millions of Americans wake up to, to paid-growth agents that autonomously decide what to advertise and where. One platform, several agentic products, real users, real spend, real consequences. We're hiring our first dedicated Agent Platform engineer to own this layer end-to-end. You'll join a small, focused team that ships weekly, works closely with product, and takes eval and observability seriously. Our codebase already runs multiple agents in production — and you'll help build what comes next. ## Responsibilities - Build the agent runtime that orchestrates context assembly, tool invocation, model routing, and workflow tracking across multiple agentic products — the foundational layer that other teams build on top of - Design the eval and observability harness that runs thousands of agent traces per day, surfaces regressions before they ship, and turns production failures into actionable improvements - Own the context engineering layer — retrieval, ranking, compression, and memory — that determines what makes it into a model call; contribute informed opinions on RAG vs. long-context vs. structured tool returns - Integrate and benchmark new foundation models as they become available; make principled decisions about model selection across agents based on capability and cost - Build user-facing surfaces — playgrounds, agent traces, control panels — and ship them to production; the internal product team relies on these tools daily - Collaborate closely with product to take new agent concepts from early brief to working v1 in weeks ## Requirements - Demonstrable experience shipping an AI product with real users — a side project, internal tool, open-source agent, or startup MVP you can speak to concretely - Active, hands-on familiarity with modern AI development tooling (Cursor, Claude Code, Codex, v0, or equivalents) and a clear sense of how and when to apply them - Ability to work end-to-end independently: backend, frontend, deployment, instrumentation, and iteration — without needing a fully defined spec to get started - Developed perspective on AI agent design: context management, tool-calling protocols, eval strategy, and the tradeoffs between fine-tuning, prompting, and scaffolding - Strong proficiency in Python (or Go / Node) with solid backend engineering experience — APIs, databases, queues, caches — and an understanding of how system design needs evolve with scale - Sufficient frontend capability (React or Next.js) to ship functional internal tools independently - Product sensibility: willingness to push back when something feels off, and a habit of thinking about the end user alongside the technical architecture ## Preferred Qualifications - Experience building or operating a multi-agent system in production (orchestration, sub-agents, MCP, skills) - Hands-on experience with eval frameworks (LM-eval, custom harnesses, LLM-as-judge), prompt iteration workflows, or fine-tuning (LoRA / RLHF / DPO) - A public artifact — GitHub repo, technical blog, paper, or demo — that reflects how you approach problems - Experience integrating LLMs with complex, real-world data (news, ads, geo, user behavior) at scale ## Benefits We offer a competitive benefits package: - Health, dental, and vision care for you and your family (100% coverage for employee) - Top-tier 401(K) plan with company matching - Paid time off and paid holidays - FSA, HSA and commuter benefits programs - Team activity budget The US base salary range for this full-time position is listed below. Pay may vary based on a number of factors including job-related skills, level, experience, geographic location and relevant education or training. At NewsBreak, we design our overall rewards package to attract top talents. Depending on the position, the role may also be eligible for discretionary bonus and options. Your recruiter can share more details during the hiring process. Annual Base Pay Range $120,000—$220,000 USD [CPRA Privacy Notice for California Candidates](https://docs.google.com/document/d/15apsJLgHq1p5NJR3fzFmdctKX4QIzzf2/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=110601223912453011659&rtpof=true&sd=true) ## About NewsBreak ## Company Overview - **One-liner**: NewsBreak is a Content Intelligence platform that delivers hyper-local news and information to over 40 million monthly active users across the U.S. using advanced AI, recommendation systems, and adtech. - **Entity Type**: Private (Series C, reached unicorn status in 2021) - **Headquarters**: Mountain View, California, United States - **Founded**: 2015 - **Founders**: Jeff Zheng (CEO) ## Core Business - **Primary industry/industries**: Content Intelligence, Local News & Information, AI-Powered Recommendation Systems, Advertising Technology (Adtech) - **Target customers**: B2C (consumers seeking local news), B2B (publishers, content creators, local businesses), and Enterprise (advertisers and agencies) - **Mission or purpose statement**: Building the infrastructure layer for content intelligence, helping people live safer, more vibrant, and more truly connected lives by connecting and empowering local users, local content creators, and local businesses at scale. ## Products & Services - **NewsBreak Platform**: A flagship mobile app and website that delivers personalized local news and information from over 10,000 sources to more than 40 million monthly active users across the U.S. - **NBot**: An AI-powered agentic assistant that lets users personalize any digital engine (apps, platforms, websites) using natural language. - **Publishing Platform (mp.newsbreakapp.com)**: B2B tools that help publishers, content creators, and local businesses engage audiences with monetization and audience-reach solutions. - **Creator Program**: A platform for local content creators to distribute their work and monetize their audience. - **Adtech & Monetization Solutions**: Targeted advertising solutions for local businesses, helping them connect with local audiences. ## Market Standing - **Valuation/Market Cap**: Unicorn status (valuation over $1 billion) achieved in 2021. Latest valuation not publicly disclosed. - **Total Funding**: $115 million in Series C funding led by Francisco Partners (2021). Total funding amount not fully disclosed. - **Key Metric**: 40+ million monthly active users (MAU) - **Notable Investors/Partners**: Francisco Partners (lead investor in Series C) - **Growth Signals**: Reached unicorn status in 2021; recognized by Fast Company as #32 on the Top Workplaces for Innovators (2025); Great Place to Work® certified; growing workforce with active hiring across engineering, product, and business roles. ## Competitive Advantages - **Content Intelligence Infrastructure**: A proprietary AI-powered platform that personalizes local news and information at scale, creating a unique data moat. - **Hyper-Local Focus**: Serves over 10,000 local news sources, filling a critical gap in the declining local news market. - **Large, Engaged User Base**: 40+ million MAU provides a strong network effect for both content creators and advertisers. - **Advanced AI & Recommendation Systems**: Deep expertise in NLP, recommendation algorithms, and agentic AI (NBot) differentiates them from traditional news aggregators. - **B2B & B2C Dual Model**: Generates revenue from both consumers (via engagement) and businesses (via advertising and publishing tools). ## Strategic Focus - **Content Intelligence Leadership**: Doubling down on AI to build the "infrastructure layer" for content intelligence, enabling smarter connections between people, businesses, and information. - **AI-Powered Innovation**: Continued development of agentic AI (NBot), LLM post-training, and AI-driven advertising agents to enhance personalization and monetization. - **Local Market Dominance**: Expanding the network of local publishers, creators, and businesses to strengthen the hyper-local ecosystem. - **Monetization Growth**: Scaling adtech and B2B tools to increase revenue from both SMBs and enterprise advertisers. ## Why Work Here - **Culture of Innovation**: Recognized by Fast Company as one of the Best Workplaces for Innovators (2025), with a culture that values curiosity, autonomy, and collaboration. Employees work in decentralized, autonomous teams with real ownership over product areas. - **High-Growth Environment**: A unicorn company on a high-growth trajectory, offering accelerated professional growth for those who "think big, move fast, and create real-world impact." - **Great Place to Work® Certified**: 92% of employees are proud to be making a difference, 94% felt welcomed when they joined, and 84% say it's a great place to work (compared to 57% at a typical U.S. company). - **Benefits**: Competitive healthcare benefits (flexible medical care, premium dental/vision), 401(k) matching, and a focus on mental, physical, and financial well-being. - **Remote/Hybrid Policy**: HQ is in Mountain View, CA, with a presence in New York and Bellevue, WA. Job postings list specific locations, suggesting a hybrid or on-site model for most roles. - **Engineering Culture**: Emphasis on ML, AI, recommendation systems, and adtech. Teams work with cutting-edge tech (LLMs, agentic AI, NLP) and are encouraged to pursue applied research, collaborate with academic institutions, and attend industry events. ## Sources 1. [NewsBreak Careers Page](https://careers.newsbreak.com/) 2. [NewsBreak Job Board (Greenhouse)](http://job-boards.greenhouse.io/newsbreak) 3. [NewsBreak LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/company/newsbreak) 4. [PRNewswire - Fast Company Best Workplaces for Innovators 2025](https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/newsbreak-recognized-among-the-worlds-best-workplaces-for-innovators-by-fast-company-302552097.html) 5. [Great Place to Work - NewsBreak Profile](https://www.greatplacetowork.com/certified-company/7088585) ## Other roles at NewsBreak - [Senior Accountant – General Ledger & Revenue Operations](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-accountant-general-ledger-revenue-operations-newsbreak-mountain-view-94wsm63wez93) — Mountain View, CA - [Partner Rewards & Experience](https://feeny.ai/job/partner-rewards-experience-newsbreak-mountain-view-pps2gd56vs9d) — Mountain View, CA - [Short Drama Creative Editor Intern](https://feeny.ai/job/short-drama-creative-editor-intern-newsbreak-mountain-view-8f370yss8cgv) — Mountain View, CA - [Senior Product Manager, ReelBee Consumer App](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-product-manager-reelbee-consumer-app-newsbreak-mountain-view-x6b3d3wkaaft) — Mountain View, CA - [Short Drama Creative Editor Intern](https://feeny.ai/job/short-drama-creative-editor-intern-newsbreak-mountain-view-j13debd2fdkz) — Mountain View, CA - [Head of User Acquisition, Short Drama](https://feeny.ai/job/head-of-user-acquisition-short-drama-newsbreak-mountain-view-c455be7y192j) — Mountain View, CA - [Content Operations & Curation](https://feeny.ai/job/content-operations-curation-newsbreak-mountain-view-ca2gtsq9yd68) — Mountain View, CA - [Head of Content & Supply](https://feeny.ai/job/head-of-content-supply-newsbreak-mountain-view-gvxbqrrtyhg5) — Mountain View, CA - [Senior Product Manager, Local Ads and Monetization](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-product-manager-local-ads-and-monetization-newsbreak-bellevue-g20pkbyw7e3s) — Bellevue, WA / Mountain View, CA - [Agency Partner Manager, Scaled Growth (Global)](https://feeny.ai/job/agency-partner-manager-scaled-growth-global-newsbreak-mountain-view-xxmsbj0gtk0j) — Mountain View, CA