Staff AI Engineer

We believe that mental health is just as important as physical health. We recognize that mental health issues can be complex and multifaceted, and we are dedicated to treating the whole person, not just the symptoms.

We aim to create a world where mental health is no longer stigmatized or marginalized, but rather is embraced as an integral part of one's overall well-being. 

We believe that by providing quality care that is both evidence-based and compassionate, we can empower individuals to take charge of their mental health and achieve their full potential. We are passionate about making a positive impact on the lives of those struggling with mental health issues and we strive to be a force for positive change in the field of mental healthcare.

Rula is a remote-first company. We currently hire in most U.S. states, with the exception of Hawaii.

About the Role

At Rula, we’re building AI with purpose. Our work sits at the intersection of cutting-edge technology and human empathy, focused on one goal: creating a future where high-qualty mental healthcare is the standard for all. To bring this to life, we’re bringing AI-assisted therapy that supports, not replaces, providers, helps patients get the right care faster, and raises the standard for what compassionate digital care can be.

As a Staff AI Engineer - AI Foundation, you’ll define the core technical systems that make this possible. You’ll architect and scale production-grade Generative AI powering patient conversations, provider decision support, and clinical operations. From RAG pipelines and multi-agent orchestration to LLM integrations, vector search, and evaluation frameworks, you’ll build the infrastructure that turns experimentation into reliable, real-world impact in healthcare.

This role is both deeply hands-on and highly influential. You’ll work across AI research, platform engineering, product, and clinical teams to design systems that are safe, observable, and built for scale in a regulated environment. You’ll set technical direction, mentor other engineers, and help shape Rula’s AI roadmap, leading at the frontier of AI and healthcare, where your work directly contributes to better outcomes and meaningful change in people’s lives.

Required Qualifications

• 8+ years of software engineering, including 7+ years of experience with public cloud (AWS, GCP, etc.), 5+ years designing and scaling distributed systems.

• 5+ years of deep experience in Python and at least one backend language (preferably JavaScript, TypeScript, Java, or Go)

• 1+ years of proven track record building production-grade AI systems, such as training, inference, evaluation, and safeguards that power AI product features at scale

• Strong expertise in LLM integration patterns (RAG, function calling, agents, memory routing, etc.), AI orchestration frameworks (eg. LangChain, LlamaIndex, DSPy, Haystack), and vector databases (eg. Pinecone, Weaviate, FAISS, Milvus).

• Deep understanding of AIOps, data pipelines, evaluation, and observability systems for continuous model improvement.

• Strong and effective communication skills.

• Bachelor’s degree or above in Computer Science, Machine Learning, or related field.

Preferred Qualifications

While having the preferred qualifications enhances your candidacy, having all of them is not mandatory. We encourage all interested applicants to apply, even those who may not meet every preferred requirement.

• Experience delivering secure and compliant AI solutions in regulated environments (HIPAA, GDPR, etc.)

• Hands-on experience with foundation models (OpenAI, Anthropic, Bedrock, Gemini, etc.)

• Familiarity with human-in-the-loop systems and clinical decision support frameworks.

• Experience designing evaluation pipelines for human alignment, factual accuracy, or model interpretability.

• Contributions to open-source AI frameworks or applied research in NLP, healthcare AI, or GenAI safety.

• Experience working in a highly regulated industry such as finance or healthcare

• Experience contributing to early-stage team growth (0 → 1)

We're serious about your well-being! As part of our team, full-time employees receive:

• 100% remote work environment: Working hours to support a healthy work-life balance, ensuring you can meet both professional and personal commitments (must be based in United States, currently not hiring in Hawaii)

• Attractive pay and benefits: Full transparency of pay ranges regardless of where you live in the United States

• Comprehensive health benefits: Medical, dental, vision, life, disability, and FSA/HSA

• 401(k) plan access: Start saving for your future

• Generous time-off policies: Including 2 company-wide shutdown weeks each year for self-care (for most employees)

• Paid parental leave: Available for all parents, including birthing, non-birthing, adopting, and fostering

• Employee Assistance Program (EAP): Support for your mental and physical health

• New hire home office stipend: Set up your workspace for success

• Quarterly department stipend: Fund team-building activities or in-person gatherings

• Wellness events and lunch & learns: Explore a variety of engaging topics

• Community and employee resource groups: Participate in groups that celebrate employee identity and lived experiences, fostering a sense of community and belonging for all

Our team

We believe that diversity, equity, and inclusion are fundamental to our mission of making mental healthcare work for everyone.  We are dedicated to having a culture of inclusion that will support our employees in feeling safe, seen, heard, and valued.