Senior Software Engineer, AI for the Planet
The Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence · Seattle, WA
$126,000–$189,000from the description
Jul 21, 2026
Seattle, WA
Jul 23, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
A full-stack software engineering role on a small team building two AI-powered environmental platforms: one focused on detecting illegal fishing activity for governments and conservation agencies worldwide, and another for satellite-based Earth observation tasks such as crop mapping and wildfire risk. The work spans data pipelines, distributed systems, ML model integration, and user-facing web applications, and suits an experienced generalist comfortable owning products end to end in a fast-moving, research-adjacent environment.
Senior level · 5+ years · Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA · Full-time
“or” means any one of them counts — you don't need all of them.
We read this from the posting text with AI. Skim the description below before ruling yourself out.
How this req sits in the market our data
Roughly 2,600 people in the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA area plausibly meet what this posting asks for (software developers). range 1,100–3,900
Applicant volume Moderate — A normal amount of company. The rare requirements below are what will separate a shortlisted application from the rest.
Most people in this occupation already list these. Still required — just not what gets you shortlisted.
What the occupation pays Median $170,959 (middle half $135,720–$216,519). This posting is about at that midpoint.
Estimated from BLS employment for this occupation and area, per-skill prevalence across our listing corpus, and published wage benchmarks — as of Jul 28, 2026. It is a model, not a headcount.
Why we read it this way (9)
The title is not given in the posting; the role is framed as a generalist 'strong builder' / full-stack software engineer — advertised seniority is therefore Unspecified, though the 5+ year gate and end-to-end ownership scope support a Senior classification.
The JD explicitly excludes internships, graduate school, and research positions from the 5+ year experience count — an unusual hard constraint worth flagging to recruiters screening candidates.
Cloud tooling is required but no specific cloud provider is named; GCS (Google Cloud Storage) appears only in the project narrative describing the multi-tenant agent platform, so it is captured as preferred rather than a hard gate.
Claude Code and agentic workflows appear in the Required Qualifications section with 'e.g.' framing, indicating Claude Code is one example of modern AI tooling; it is listed as required because the section is a hard-gate block, but alternatives exist (other AI coding assistants).
'Full-stack development', 'web applications', 'data pipelines', and 'distributed systems' are named explicitly in the Required Qualifications as foundational competencies; the JD notes 'specific frameworks matter less than demonstrated ability to pick up new technologies,' so no specific framework is gated.
ML model integration, real-time inference, computer vision, GPU computing, and Sentinel-2 all appear under Preferred Qualifications or in project narrative sections only.
Compensation includes base salary ($126,000–$189,000/year) plus bonus and a long-term incentive plan; only the base range is quantified.
The role requires on-site presence in Seattle; the posting states on-site requirements vary by position but emphasizes in-person work as a strong cultural value — remote is not offered.
Ignored 1 non-technology phrase(s) as skills (responsibilities/concepts, not named tools): full-stack development.
Read the full posting
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