Staff Software Engineer, AI

About the role

You will architect and own the core systems that power Asana's AI retrieval capabilities, ensuring the right work graph content is surfaced to LLMs with precision and speed. You will lead the design of scalable search and retrieval pipelines that directly enable AI features to understand and act on work across Asana and external data. This role demands curiosity and rigor as you explore emerging AI tools and integrate them to boost your own productivity and decision-making. You will collaborate closely with product and engineering partners to define retrieval strategies that balance latency, cost, and relevance. Your work will shape the intelligence layer that sits between user intent and actionable insights within Asana. You will mentor and elevate other engineers by setting high standards for reliability, observability, and maintainability. This position is embedded in our Warsaw office, operating within an office-centric hybrid model that defines clear in-office expectations. You will play a key role in strengthening Asana's traditional search experience while extending it into AI-assisted workflows.

Key facts

What you'll do

Design and implement scalable retrieval architectures that power contextual AI features across Asana's product surface.

Optimize search and retrieval pipelines to reduce latency and cost while improving throughput and system resilience.

Expand query capabilities to encompass new Asana objects and third-party data sources without compromising performance.

Build and fine-tune embeddings-based retrieval workflows and semantic search using state-of-the-art machine learning techniques.

Instrument and monitor retrieval systems to surface insights on quality, relevance, and operational efficiency for continuous improvement.

Partner with data scientists and product teams to prototype and validate new retrieval strategies and ranking signals.

Maintain and evolve the OpenSearch and Elasticsearch infrastructure that underpins both AI and traditional search experiences.

Collaborate daily with cross-functional teams in New York City while fostering strong relationships with engineers in the Warsaw office.

Champion best practices in search engineering by documenting patterns, automating testing, and driving operational excellence.

Contribute to the roadmap for AI features by identifying bottlenecks, proposing experiments, and delivering measurable improvements.

Ensure that retrieval workflows align with security, privacy, and compliance requirements for handling work graph data.

Act as a technical leader who bridges implementation details with strategic product outcomes for AI-assisted user workflows.

Drive the adoption of new retrieval paradigms by enabling other teams to leverage improved search and recommendation capabilities.

Requirements

6+ years of experience writing code in a production environment.

Demonstrates curiosity about AI tools and emerging technologies, with a willingness to learn and leverage them to enhance productivity, collaboration, or decision-making.

Hands-on experience in search engineering, including with OpenSearch or ElasticSearch.

Experience with embeddings and machine learning approaches to search and retrieval.

Experience in an Applied AI role is a plus.

Ability to work effectively in a hybrid environment with defined in-office days and asynchronous collaboration.

Strong ownership of system design, performance, and reliability in large-scale distributed systems.

Comfortable navigating ambiguity and prioritizing work in a fast-paced, cross-functional product organization.

Practical notes

For this role, the estimated base salary range is between 40,750 - 46,333 PLN gross per month (subject to all taxes and necessary deductions). The actual base salary will vary based on various factors, including market and individual qualifications objectively assessed during the interview process. The listed range above is a guideline, and the base salary range for this role may be modified.

In addition to base salary, your compensation package may include additional components such as equity and sales incentive pay (for most sales roles), and benefits. If you're interviewing for this role, speak with your recruiter to learn more about the total compensation and benefits framework.

This role is based in our Warsaw office with an office-centric hybrid schedule. The standard in-office days are Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday. Most Asanas have the option to work from home on Wednesdays. Working from home on Fridays depends on the type of work you do, and your recruiter can share more about the in-office requirements.

You will be offered a Contract of Employment (UoP) in Poland.