Applied AI Engineer

Department: Engineering

Location: New York City, NY

Compensation: $175K – $250K • Offers Equity

Employment Type: FullTime

PermitFlow is redefining how America builds. We’re an applied AI company serving the nation’s builders, tackling one of the largest information challenges in the economy: understanding what can be built, where, and how. Our AI agent workforce helps the fastest-growing construction companies navigate everything from permitting and licensing to inspections and project closeouts – accelerating housing, clean-energy, and infrastructure development across the country.

Despite being a $1.6T industry, construction still suffers from massive delays, wasted capital, and lost opportunity. PermitFlow has already delivered unprecedented speed, accuracy, and visibility to over $20B in development, helping contractors reduce compliance time, de-risk projects, and scale with confidence.

As the U.S. enters a new capex supercycle across data centers, factories, housing, and renewables, joining PermitFlow means building the AI infrastructure at the core of every construction project driving the next wave of reindustrialization.

We’ve raised over $90M, most recently completing our Series B, from top-tier investors including Accel, Kleiner Perkins, Initialized, Y Combinator, Felicis, and Altos Ventures, with backing from leaders at OpenAI, Google, Procore, ServiceTitan, Zillow, PlanGrid, and Uber.

Our HQ is in New York City with a hybrid schedule (3 in-office days per week). We prefer NYC-based candidates or those open to relocation.

Role Overview

As an Applied AI Engineer, you will design and deploy the AI agents that power PermitFlow’s pre-construction platform. You will own the full lifecycle of intelligent agents—from model development to orchestration, productionization, and evaluation—while contributing to core platform engineering.

What You’ll Do

• Develop and deploy AI agents that automate permitting workflows end-to-end

• Orchestrate multiple models and tools to create reliable, multi-step AI systems

• Build the internal tools and infrastructure that power and monitor these agents

• Design and implement backend and frontend services, APIs, and data pipelines, integrating AI functionality into user-facing features when needed

• Contribute to system architecture and core platform design with the engineering team

• Design and maintain a suite of evaluations and benchmarks to measure agent accuracy, reliability, and cost-effectiveness

• Optimize inference pipelines and backend systems for speed, scalability, and cost

What We’re Looking For

• 3+ years in software or ML engineering post-BS/MS

• Hands-on experience shipping production AI/ML systems or AI-powered products

• Experience building multi-step ML systems, pipelines, or agentic workflows

• Strong backend and API development skills, with some frontend experience

• Track record of building reliable products with attention to quality and detail

• Startup grit and comfort in fast-moving, evolving environments

What We Offer

• Competitive salary and meaningful equity in a high-growth company

• Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage

• Flexible PTO and paid family leave

• Home office & equipment stipend

• Hybrid NYC office culture (3 days in-office/week) with direct access to leadership

• In-Office Lunch & Dinner Provided

PermitFlow provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, genetics, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, or family status, as protected by applicable law.

We are committed to a diverse and inclusive workforce and welcome people from all backgrounds, experiences, perspectives, and abilities. All employment decisions are based on merit, qualifications, and business needs.