---
title: 'Senior Software Engineer II, AI Labs & Foundations at Instacart'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/senior-software-engineer-ii-ai-labs-foundations-instacart-united-states-58rwbc1j70c8'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-06'
---

# Senior Software Engineer II, AI Labs & Foundations at Instacart

- **Company:** Instacart
- **Location:** United States
- **Compensation:** $192k–$243k
- **Work type:** remote
- **Posted:** 2026-09-02
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-06
- **Apply:** https://instacart.careers/job/?gh_jid=8053797

## Job description

We're transforming the grocery industry

At Instacart, we invite the world to share love through food because we believe everyone should have access to the food they love and more time to enjoy it together. Where others see a simple need for grocery delivery, we see exciting complexity and endless opportunity to serve the varied needs of our community. We work to deliver an essential service that customers rely on to get their groceries and household goods, while also offering safe and flexible earnings opportunities to Instacart Personal Shoppers.

Instacart has become a lifeline for millions of people, and we’re building the team to help push our shopping cart forward. If you’re ready to do the best work of your life, come join our table.

Instacart is a Flex First team

There’s no one-size fits all approach to how we do our best work. Our employees have the flexibility to choose where they do their best work—whether it’s from home, an office, or your favorite coffee shop—while staying connected and building community through regular in-person events. [Learn more about our flexible approach to where we work.](https://www.instacart.careers/flex-first)

## Overview

Join Instacart's mission to transform grocery shopping through frontier AI. As a Senior Software Engineer on AI Labs & Foundations, you will design, build, and operate the high-scale production systems that power our most ambitious AI experiences—from Cart Assistant, our conversational shopping agent, to voice AI interactions and beyond. This is a high-impact opportunity to work at the intersection of robust software engineering and cutting-edge production AI/ML, directly shaping products used by millions of customers every day.

We are hiring a Senior Software Engineer who will participate in the design and delivery of production AI systems, identify high-leverage technical opportunities, and contribute hands-on to AI-native products across Instacart's platform. We value bottom-up ideas, high engineering quality, and close partnership with Product, Data Science, ML, and Infrastructure teams. If you enjoy inventing, navigating ambiguity, prototyping fast, and turning wild ideas into real, scalable products, this is the team for you.

AI Labs & Foundations sits at the intersection of frontier AI research and production engineering. Our portfolio spans the full stack of AI innovation at Instacart, including building and launching Cart Assistant, pioneering voice AI interactions, and constructing the foundational systems that power these cutting-edge experiences. We are a fast-moving, collaborative team that thrives on 0-to-1 thinking, shares learnings openly, and ships with urgency by prototyping fast and testing rigorously.

## About the Job

- Design, build, and operate production AI-powered systems and agentic experiences (including Cart Assistant and voice AI) that directly impact how millions of customers shop.
- Build foundational systems for cutting-edge AI experiences, ranging from embedding infrastructure and voice AI pipelines, to client facing components and integrations, by prototyping bold ideas and productizing what works.
- Integrate foundation models via APIs and open-source frameworks; apply techniques like retrieval-augmented generation and vector search where appropriate.
- Own projects end-to-end: requirements, technical design, implementation, testing, deployment, observability, and iterative improvement focused on reliability, latency, and cost efficiency.
- Collaborate with cross-functional partners in product, design, data science, and infrastructure to ship AI features end-to-end.
- Drive engineering excellence, including thoughtful system design, rigorous code review, and technical leadership that includes defining and promoting best practices for AI/ML production engineering across the team.

## About You

Minimum Qualifications:

- Proven senior software engineer who has built, shipped, and operated production systems at scale. You make architectural calls, own what you build, and deliver through ambiguity.
- Hands-on experience with AI or ML in production. You've shipped LLM-powered features or integrated foundation model APIs into a live product, demonstrating the necessary expertise at the intersection of robust software engineering and deep production ML.
- Experience owning services end-to-end, including CI/CD, automated testing, observability (logging, metrics, tracing), and on-call participation.
- Strong communicator who partners well across disciplines - you want to get to the right answer, not just defend the first one.
- Golang, Python, or Typescript language experience
- Excitement and ability to leverage cutting-edge development tools, including AI assistance (e.g., Copilot, Cursor, Claude), to maximize velocity.

Preferred Qualifications:

- 5 to 8+ years of industry experience.
- A track record of 0-to-1 work taking unconventional ideas from prototype through rapid iteration to production.
- Experience building conversational agents, multi-turn dialogue systems, or agentic LLM applications.
- Experience with STT/TTS or natural language interfaces, LLM fine tuning, ML transfer learning, model training and the vocabulary of measurement of model performance.
- Experience with embedding systems, vector search, or retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) with vector databases (e.g., Pinecone, Weaviate, FAISS, or Elasticsearch).
- Experience with cloud platforms (AWS or GCP), containers (Docker), and orchestration (Kubernetes).
- Experience with event-driven or distributed systems (e.g., Kafka).
- Demonstrated mentorship and technical leadership within cross-functional teams.

#LI-Remote Instacart provides highly market-competitive compensation and benefits in each location where our employees work. This role is remote and the base pay range for a successful candidate is dependent on their permanent work location. Please review our Flex First remote work policy [here](https://instacart.careers/flex-first/).

Offers may vary based on many factors, such as candidate experience and skills required for the role. Additionally, this role is eligible for a new hire equity grant as well as annual refresh grants. Please read more about our benefits offerings [here](https://instacart.careers/taste-of-instacart/).

For US based candidates, the base pay ranges for a successful candidate are listed below.

CA, NY, CT, NJ $230,000—$242,500 USD

WA $220,000—$232,000 USD

OR, DE, ME, MA, MD, NH, RI, VT, DC, PA, VA, CO, TX, IL, HI $211,000—$222,500 USD

All other states $192,000—$202,500 USD

## About Instacart

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Instacart is the leading online grocery platform in North America, offering same-day delivery and pickup services from over 700 retail partners.
- **Entity Type**: Private (venture-backed)
- **Headquarters**: San Francisco, California, USA
- **Founded**: 2012
- **Founders**: Max Mullen (co-founder) [instacart.careers](https://www.instacart.careers/flex-first)

## Core Business
- Primary industries: Online grocery delivery, internet & web services
- Target customers: B2C consumers; also B2B partnerships with retailers and brands
- Mission: “Our mission is to create a world where everyone has access to the food they love and more time to enjoy it together.” [glassdoor.com](https://www.glassdoor.com/Overview/Working-at-Instacart-EI_IE714486.11,20.htm)

## Products & Services
- **Instacart Platform**: Same-day delivery and pickup from grocery stores, superstores, and local shops. Customers order via mobile app or website.
- **Instacart+**: Premium membership offering reduced delivery fees, lower service fees, and special perks.
- **Retail Partnerships**: Instacart powers e‑commerce and fulfillment for over 700 retailers across the U.S. and Canada.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not publicly available (private company).
- **Key Metric**: Annual revenue not disclosed; employee count between 1,001 and 5,000 per Glassdoor. [glassdoor.com](https://www.glassdoor.com/Overview/Working-at-Instacart-EI_IE714486.11,20.htm)
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Not listed in provided sources – state “Not publicly available” per search results.
- **Growth Signals**: 47% of job seekers rate their interview experience positively; 59% of employees would recommend the company. [glassdoor.com](https://www.glassdoor.com/Overview/Working-at-Instacart-EI_IE714486.11,20.htm) The company highlights a “high-impact environment” where you can “do in two years what might take five at another company.” [instacart.careers](https://www.instacart.careers/taste-of-instacart)

## Competitive Advantages
- **Network effects**: Largest online grocery platform in North America with deep integrations across major retailers.
- **Scale & brand recognition**: Highly trusted name in grocery delivery, with a large base of both consumers and shoppers.
- **Flex First model**: A remote-friendly culture that allows hiring top talent across the U.S. and Canada, reducing geographic constraints.

## Strategic Focus
- **Flex First & distributed work**: Empowering employees to work from home or offices, with periodic “Team Jams” for in‑person collaboration. [instacart.careers](https://www.instacart.careers/flex-first)
- **Continued platform growth**: Expanding retailer partnerships and improving the shopping experience for customers, shoppers, and brands.
- **Employee experience**: Investing in learning & development, wellness, and community impact programs to attract and retain talent.

## Why Work Here
- **Flex First philosophy**: Employees can work remotely from anywhere in the U.S. (excluding Alaska and territories) or Canada (Ontario, Alberta, British Columbia) with no mandatory return-to-office date. Offices remain open for optional use. [instacart.careers](https://www.instacart.careers/flex-first)
- **Comprehensive benefits** (from the “Taste of Instacart” page): [instacart.careers](https://www.instacart.careers/taste-of-instacart)
  - Flexible time off and “Four Year Fill‑Up” (four consecutive weeks of leave around the 4‑year mark)
  - Family‑building benefits (fertility, adoption, surrogacy support)
  - Learning & development programs with an annual allowance
  - 401(k) matching in the U.S. / RRSP in Canada, student loan assistance, financial planning
  - Work‑from‑home stipend and internet reimbursement
  - Monthly “Treat Yourself” stipend for wellness or personal care
  - Mental and physical wellness programs, medical/dental/vision coverage
  - Free Instacart+ membership
  - Community volunteer programs (Instacart Serves, donation matching, “Carrot Credits”)
- **Culture**: 59% of employees on Glassdoor would recommend the company; Glassdoor ratings show 3.5★ overall, with 3.3★ for culture & values and 3.6★ for career opportunities. [glassdoor.com](https://www.glassdoor.com/Overview/Working-at-Instacart-EI_IE714486.11,20.htm) The company describes itself as a place where you can “shape the career that nourishes you.”

## Sources
1. [Glassdoor – Instacart Overview](https://www.glassdoor.com/Overview/Working-at-Instacart-EI_IE714486.11,20.htm)
2. [Instacart Careers – Home](https://www.instacart.careers/)
3. [Instacart Careers – Flex First](https://www.instacart.careers/flex-first)
4. [Instacart Careers – Taste of Instacart](https://www.instacart.careers/taste-of-instacart)

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