Senior AI Full Stack Engineer

Who We Are

Left Field Labs is the creative technology agency that builds what’s next. We partner with the world’s most ambitious brands to transform breakthrough technology into extraordinary human experiences. Since 2008, we’ve delivered end-to-end digital transformation services—from strategy to platform development to immersive experiences—for the biggest companies in the world, including Google, Amazon, and Meta.

What We Do

• Digital Experience: We architect seamless digital ecosystems that simplify complexity and drive measurable impact. Whether launching new platforms or evolving legacy systems, we strike the perfect balance between innovation and pragmatism
• Product Innovation: We build scalable platforms and products in lockstep with organizations, identifying and seizing new technology opportunities.
• Immersive: We create immersive, cross-media experiences that move beyond omnichannel thinking, blending digital, social, AI, and physical spaces to engage and delight.
• Applied AI: We transform AI from a tech tool to the infrastructure for business evolution—enhancing decision-making, unlocking new efficiencies, and expanding human capacity. The AI solutions power predictive intelligence, sharper decision-making, and game-changing innovation.

LFL in Partnership with illumend

LFL is closely collaborating with illumend, an AI-first partnership acceleration platform that’s building solutions in the insurance sector. The partnership leverages 15 years of insurance compliance expertise with LFL's creative technology and applied AI capabilities. The illumend platform aims to make meaningful risk management accessible to all businesses by providing an intuitive interface for non-insurance professionals to track compliance.

Who We Are Seeking

Left Field Labs is partnering with illumend to find an AI-native Senior Full Stack Engineer who ships production-grade code at high velocity, combining strong implementation skills with high ownership, architectural judgment, and reliable execution. This is a hands-on individual contributor role in a lean, fast-paced environment. Working closely with our Director of Engineering, you will own features across the entire product lifecycle—from initial concept and technical spec to production deployment, monitoring, and ongoing optimization.

AI is central to how we work. You are expected to fully embed AI development tools and agents (e.g., Claude Code, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, ChatGPT) into coding, refactoring, testing, review, troubleshooting, and documentation, using them to multiply your individual output while taking full responsibility for validating everything you ship. You will also actively share the workflows that make the whole engineering team faster.

What You Will Do

End-to-End Feature & Backend Ownership

• Participate in the entire product lifecycle, building complete, tested features across frontend (React, TypeScript, Next.js) and backend (Python, FastAPI, Node.js) services and PostgreSQL data models.
• Architect and evolve backend features and APIs, ensuring a cohesive flow from backend to frontend while anticipating future scaling challenges.
• Break down complex, ambiguous product requests into clear execution steps, refine technical specifications, and provide realistic estimates.

Platform Engineering & Architecture

• Own platform stability, maintenance, and observability across cloud infrastructure (AWS/GCP) and CI/CD pipelines (GitHub Actions).
• Ensure production code meets high standards for security, performance optimization (Lighthouse 90+), WCAG accessibility, and scalable data modeling using SQLAlchemy/PostgreSQL.
• Account for edge cases, error handling, complex animations/transitions (Motion/Framer Motion), and integration behavior before release.
• Make pragmatic technical decisions that prioritize stability, security, and ROI over novel or overly complex tech choices, and ruthlessly reduce technical clutter to keep systems simple.

Rapid Delivery & Domain Translation

• Rapidly digest complex B2B insurance compliance requirements (policy and coverage rules, certificates of insurance, contract requirements, risk assessment) and translate them into clean, scalable full-stack architecture.
• Abstract dense regulatory and policy logic into simple, consumer-grade experiences that non-insurance users can understand at a glance.
• Use AI tools to build and ship working, production-ready application features quickly, iterating on them based on user feedback and real-world performance.
• Go to the source: dig into raw customer data, technical edge cases, and API specs rather than relying on secondhand information.

AI-Native Workflows & Best Practices

• Apply AI coding tools and agents daily (e.g., Claude Code, Cursor, GitHub Copilot) across coding, refactoring, test generation, code reviews, documentation, and debugging.
• Use AI to draft technical specs, explore edge cases, generate boilerplate, and compress the path from idea to working, tested code.
• Rigorously review and validate AI-generated output for maintainability, security, and compliance with team standards.
• Identify, document, and share new AI engineering workflows to elevate team output and onboarding efficiency.

Cross-Functional Collaboration & Process Leadership

• Collaborate closely with product, design, and business stakeholders to translate business goals into technically robust solutions.
• Engage in technical planning, including sprint planning, capacity planning, effort estimation, and release management.
• Conduct thoughtful code reviews, maintain comprehensive documentation, and help mentor junior and peer engineers.

What You Will Need to be Successful

Core Technical Requirements

• Senior-level production experience with React, TypeScript, Next.js, and Tailwind CSS. Experience with design systems (Storybook, Atomic Design), WCAG accessibility standards, and animation libraries (Framer Motion)
• Strong experience with Python (FastAPI), Node.js, and RESTful/GraphQL API design
• Practical expertise in relational databases (PostgreSQL, SQLAlchemy), including migrations, schema design, and query optimization
• Experience with cloud platforms (AWS or GCP), automated testing frameworks, and CI/CD automation via GitHub Actions
• Mastery of modern AI coding assistants and agents (e.g., Claude Code, Cursor, GitHub Copilot) in daily engineering work, using them to generate boilerplate, draft specs, test edge cases, and multiply your delivery speed, backed by a clear methodology for reviewing and validating their output
• Track record of shipping complete, production-ready application features quickly without sacrificing quality

Professional Experience & Mindset

• Proven track record of taking broad requirements and converting them into high-quality, production-ready software with minimal supervision
• Strong feature ownership with an intuitive grasp of user experience and business context behind technical tickets
• Ability to quickly learn a complex, regulation-heavy B2B domain (insurance experience is a plus) and turn it into intuitive, user-friendly software
• Thrives in a lean, high-velocity environment with minimal bureaucracy; self-driven, adaptable, and comfortable owning features end-to-end
• Business pragmatism: you focus effort on high-impact customer value over engineering vanity projects, while holding the line on maintainability, security, and standard engineering practices
• Strong empathy for the user and the ability to simplify complex workflows down to their essence
• Excellent written and verbal English skills; ability to communicate technical risks early, raise blockers with proposed solutions, and write clear technical documentation

Equal Opportunities

Left Field Labs is an equal opportunity employer committed to providing equal employment opportunities to all applicants and team members, regardless of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, handicap, veteran status, marital status, criminal history, or any other category protected by applicable federal and state law. This includes the City of Los Angeles’ Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance related to an applicant's criminal history (LAMC 189.00). Left Field Labs makes reasonable accommodations for handicapped and disabled team members.

Left Field Labs is an E-Verify employer. E-Verify is an Internet based system operated by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in partnership with the Social Security Administration (SSA) that allows participating employers to electronically verify the employment eligibility of their newly hired employees in the United States.

Compensation

The salary range for this role is $130,000 to $175,000 and applies only to jobs performed in Culver City, California. This range represents the lowest to highest salary we reasonably and in good faith believe we would pay for this role at the time of this posting. Please note that we may ultimately pay more or less than the posted range, and the range may be modified in the future. An employee’s position within the salary range will be based on several factors, including but not limited to relevant education, qualifications, certifications, experience, skills, geographic location, performance, and business or organizational needs.