Senior AI Engineer (Voyager)

Job description

Relay is a digital banking platform that gives self-made business owners the tools and know-how to be great with money—bringing clarity, confidence, and control to every dollar earned, so they can turn hard work into lasting success. We do this by replacing financial guesswork with real visibility, transforming cash flow from a constant source of stress into a clear signal owners can use to run stronger, more resilient businesses. Our Engineering team is at the heart of building banking products that help millions of small businesses succeed. We’re on a journey to reinvent banking, and we’re looking for a curious, impact-driven **Senior Software Engineer (Voyager)** to join our growing team – someone who thrives on taking smart risks, experimenting boldly, and learning from every challenge. Voyager works a step ahead, exploring what’s next for Relay. We build the technology foundations that make AI and insights possible across the product, and we partner with product teams so they can build quickly on top of them. We also act as Relay's innovation center: running fast, exploratory spikes on emerging technologies to establish what's viable before the company commits to it. That means the work spans both ends of the maturity curve, from hardening infrastructure that other teams depend on to prototyping things that may not exist yet. If you’re excited to tackle new problems and care as much about building strong foundations as delivering an impressive end product, you’ll feel at home on Voyager. If you believe the most interesting part of applied AI is the engineering behind it, this is the role for you. **What You’ll Be Doing** - **AI Infrastructure:** Build and deploy secure, reusable LLM systems that enable differentiated product experiences, and own them across the full lifecycle, from design through deployment and monitoring - **R&D and Proof-of-Concepts:** Lead exploratory initiatives that evaluate and validate emerging technologies, producing a clear recommendation on whether and how Relay should adopt them - **Developer Enablement:** Give teams across Relay the tooling, patterns, and guidance they need to ship AI workflows quickly and safely - **Consultative Partnership:** Work alongside product teams as the AI expert in the room, helping them make good technical decisions rather than building everything for them - **Innovation & Continuous Improvement:** Proactively identify areas for technical, process, and product improvement, helping the team raise the bar and influencing technical direction and long-term strategy **Who You Are** - Have hands-on experience building with LLMs, including self-hosting or serving open models, retrieval systems, evaluation, or agentic workflows - Have built platform or shared services used by other engineering teams - You can move between exploration and production, knowing when a rough spike is the right answer and when something needs to be built to last - You have strong judgment about emerging technology, and can evaluate what's genuinely useful versus what's currently loud - You mentor junior engineers, sharing expertise and fostering the growth and skill development of the entire team - You proactively drive enhancements and lead initiatives to enhance code quality, optimize performance, and streamline development processes - You thrive in fast-paced, dynamic environments and are comfortable navigating ambiguity and change - You’re a collaborative team player, eager to pitch in, ask questions, and provide and receive feedback - You take ownership end-to-end, solving problems creatively and proactively, while keeping the customer and business impact front-of-mind **The Interview Process** - **Stage 1:** A 45-minute Google Meet video call with a member of the Talent team - **Stage 2:** A 60-minute live coding exercise with two members of the Engineering team - **Stage 3:** A 60-minute Google Meet video call with two Engineering Leaders - **Stage 4:** A take-home system design challenge, followed by a 60-minute Google Meet video call review with two members of the Engineering team - **Stage 5:** A 45-minute in-person interview with a member of the Leadership team **Our Compensation Approach** We believe Relayers should feel rewarded for the impact they have on our mission and growth. Compensation follows impact. As impact increases, compensation grows, and we do not limit compensation changes to a once-a-year review cycle. The annual salary range for this role is $144,000 CAD to $176,000 CAD. For candidates who demonstrate full readiness for the defined scope of the role, the typical starting salary is $160,000 CAD. Offers below this point reflect candidates we believe can grow into the full scope of the role with support and development. Offers above this point reflect impact that meaningfully exceeds the role’s defined expectations or an expanded scope from day one. We encourage you to have a conversation with your recruiter and ask questions about compensation throughout the hiring process. For more information on our compensation philosophy and perks and benefits, visit our [Candidate Hub](https://www.notion.so/Candidate-Hub-1c7da8b7f88580a893f7d7c7852b064e?pvs=21). **Why Relay Might Be the Perfect Fit For You** - **You push relentlessly for reinvention:** You're always asking "how can this be better?" -- in your work, in your craft, in yourself. Comfort is a signal to push harder, not coast. You'd rather build something better than defend something familiar. - **You crave autonomy:** We trust our team with big challenges and the freedom to solve them. If you’re someone who takes initiative, is comfortable taking risks, and seeks input when needed, you’ll find the freedom here empowering. - **You own your work:** You take pride in your work, follow through on commitments, and feel a deep sense of responsibility for outcomes, not just tasks. - **You build with AI, not just use it:** You're actively embedding AI into how you work, pushing what's possible, and bringing your team along with you. - **You care about impact, not noise:** You care deeply about the substance of your work. You measure success by results, not recognition, and you let your work speak for itself. - **You’re energized by complexity and ambiguity:** You enjoy tackling problems that don’t come with a playbook. You’re comfortable building from scratch, iterating as you go, and collaborating to shape the best path forward. - **You seek out feedback:** You see directness as respect, not criticism. You actively seek input, sit with hard truths, and use feedback as fuel for improvement. - **Small businesses are why we're here:** Relay exists to help them thrive -- and that mission has to resonate with you. **Join Us** We're looking for people who are relentless, curious, and care deeply about the work. You're encouraged to apply even if your experience doesn't perfectly match the job description -- your perspective and drive matter more. We welcome diverse backgrounds and people who think critically, challenge the status quo, and want to help small businesses thrive. If you require accommodations at any stage of the hiring process, please reach out to your Talent Partner. *Disclaimer: For compliance reasons, all offers of employment at Relay are conditional upon a successful background check and employment verification through Certn.* *Important Notice: Relay’s recruitment team only contacts candidates and corresponds from official corporate email addresses ending in @relayfi.com. We will never ask for sensitive personal data (such as bank account details, credit card numbers, or social security/insurance numbers) during the initial application or interview stages.*