Senior Staff Software Engineer

Position Overview

As a Senior Staff Software Engineer on Diligent's Platform AI team, based out of our technical center of excellence in Vancouver, you will drive the architecture and technical direction of the services that bring AI research and models into production across Diligent's global product suite.

You will partner with AI researchers, product managers, and Staff Engineers as peers - leading through influence across the Platform AI organization rather than through reporting authority, on secure, scalable AWS Serverless solutions that translate ML and LLM research into commercial-quality, production systems.

Key Responsibilities

• Drive technical direction and architecture for ML/LLM systems across multiple AI platform teams, partnering with Staff Engineers rather than managing ICs in isolation.
• Design secure, scalable, fault-tolerant AI/ML solutions using AWS Serverless technology - event-driven, highly observable, with infrastructure as code.
• Evaluate and prototype new AI technologies (LLM frameworks, model providers, agentic tooling) to guide build-vs-buy decisions across the organization.
• Serve as the go-to contact for architecture problems and questions across the Platform AI org, and regularly present and guide architecture discussions department-wide.
• Mentor Staff Software Engineers and Applied Scientists through constructive code review and design partnership.
• Collaborate with Applied Scientists and Product teams to productize AI capabilities, translating multi-quarter AI strategy into execution roadmaps and representing engineering's perspective to senior leadership.
• Design, build, and scale search and retrieval systems - including OpenSearch and semantic/vector search - that power discovery, retrieval-augmented generation, and other AI-driven product features.
• Lead through ambiguity, helping teams navigate undefined problems to successful delivery.

Required Experience/Skills

• 10-15+ years of professional experience developing and owning high-scale, secure cloud applications, including a demonstrated track record operating at Staff level across multiple teams.
• Strong proficiency in Python and its data science libraries/frameworks (pandas, NumPy, scikit-learn), with code that adheres to SOLID principles.
• Experience with infrastructure-as-code practices in AWS (CDK, Terraform, or CloudFormation) or similar.
• Hands-on experience with LLMs, including prompt engineering, fine-tuning, model evaluation, and RAG-based functionality.
• Hands-on experience with search technologies, including OpenSearch/Elasticsearch, semantic search, and vector embeddings.
• Experience with the full AI-based solution lifecycle, from research prototype to production system.
• Demonstrated mentorship experience, including mentoring senior/staff-level engineers.
• Passion for learning and sharing your knowledge with others.
• Excitement for understanding our customers and their governance challenges, so we can improve decision-making around the world.

Preferred Experience/Skills

• Bachelor's, Master's, or PhD in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Mathematics, or a related field.

Pay Range

$151,000—$189,000 CAD

About Us

Diligent is the AI leader in governance, risk and compliance (GRC) SaaS solutions, helping more than 1 million users and 700,000 board members to clarify risk and elevate governance. The Diligent One Platform gives practitioners, the C-Suite and the board a consolidated view of their entire GRC practice so they can more effectively manage risk, build greater resilience and make better decisions, faster. 

At Diligent, we're building the future with people who think boldly and move fast.  Whether you're designing systems that leverage large language models or part of a team reimaging workflows with AI, you'll help us unlock entirely new ways of working and thinking.  Curiosity is in our DNA, we look for individuals willing to ask the big questions and experiment fearlessly - those who embrace change not as a challenge, but as an opportunity.  The future belongs to those who keep learning, and we are building it together.  At Diligent, you’re not just building the future - you’re an agent of positive change, joining a global community on a mission to make an impact.

Learn more at diligent.com or follow us on LinkedIn and Facebook

What Diligent Offers You  

• Creativity is ingrained in our culture. We are innovative collaborators by nature. We thrive in exploring how things can be differently both in our internal processes and to help our clients
• We care about our people.  Diligent offers a flexible work environment, global days of service, comprehensive health benefits, meeting free days, generous time off policy and wellness programs to name a few
• We have teams all over the world. We may be headquartered in New York City, but we have office hubs in Washington D.C., Vancouver, London, Galway, Budapest, Munich, Bengaluru, Singapore, and Sydney.
• Diversity is important to us. Growing, maintaining and promoting a diverse team is a top priority for us. We foster and encourage diversity through our Employee Resource Groups and provide access to resources and education to support the education of our team, facilitate dialogue, and foster understanding.

Diligent created the modern governance movement. Our world-changing idea is to empower leaders with the technology, insights and connections they need to drive greater impact and accountability - to lead with purpose. Our employees are passionate, smart, and creative people who not only want to help build the software company of the future, but who want to make the world a more sustainable, equitable and better place. 

Headquartered in New York, Diligent has offices in Washington D.C.,  London, Galway, Budapest, Vancouver, Bengaluru, Munich, Singapore and Sydney.  To foster strong collaboration and connection, this role will follow a hybrid work model. If you are within a commuting distance to one of our Diligent office locations, you will be expected to  work onsite at least 50% of the time.  We believe that in-person engagement helps drive innovation, teamwork, and a strong sense of community.

Diligent is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate based on race, color, religious creed, sex, national origin, ancestry, citizenship status, pregnancy, childbirth, physical disability, mental disability, age, military status, protected veteran status, marital status, registered domestic partner or civil union status, gender (including sex stereotyping and gender identity or expression), medical condition (including, but not limited to, cancer related or HIV/AIDS related), genetic information, or sexual orientation in accordance with applicable federal, state and local laws. We also consider qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with legal requirements. See also Diligent's EEO Policy  and US EEOC’s Know Your Rights. We are a drug free workplace. 

We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities and disabled veterans in our job application procedures. If you need assistance or an accommodation due to a disability, you may contact us at [email protected]. 

To support a fair and consistent hiring process, we use AI and digital automated tools to assist our recruitment team in organizing candidate data, surfacing relevant applications, coordinating interview scheduling and summarizing interview notes. All final screening, evaluation, and hiring decisions are made by humans on our team. To learn more about how we collect, protect, and process your information, please review our Candidate Privacy Policy.  

At Diligent, we recognize the value of a diverse global workforce. Visa sponsorship may be available for select positions based on business needs and specific role requirements. Sponsorship decisions are evaluated on a case-by-case basis, and eligibility should not be assumed for all opportunities. 

Recruitment agencies: Diligent does not accept unsolicited agency resumes. Please do not forward resumes to our jobs alias, Diligent employees or any other organization location. Diligent is not responsible for any fees related to unsolicited resumes