Senior Software Engineer

At Acorns we look after the financial best interest of the up-and-coming.  We are innovators. We make bold decisions. We stay curious, inspiring one another to push past all previous thresholds of possibility.  We are one team and are building a diverse community of team members, partners, and customers from all walks of life to foster creativity, challenge conventional thinking, and put the tools of wealth-making in everyone’s hands. 

We are looking for missionaries who are rooted in purpose, to join our team. We can achieve our goals if we are a team of missionaries working toward a shared purpose and mission. 

Our mission? With benevolence and courage, we look after the financial best interests of the up-and-coming; beginning with the empowering, proud step of micro-investing.

How do we accomplish our mission? Our values. 

Lead With Heart 

With compassion, integrity, and tenacity, inspire yourself and others to move past all previous thresholds of possibility

Make Bold Decisions

We are creating a new world. Be optimistic, adventurous, and courageous. Leap fearlessly into the future

Always Build Trust

Say what you mean, mean what you say, and do what you say you’re going to do. We are all owners. We are one team

Never Stop Growing

Change IS the constant. Stay hungry and curious. Be relentless in the pursuit of progress

Find a way

Never settle, no excuses, nothing is impossible. Just make it happen

Our values guide us, and our mission drives us. 

Come join us and help deliver financial wellness for the whole family, creating compound growth at every life stage.

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Senior Software Engineer | Acorns

Acorns is seeking a Senior Software Engineer to join our team! Are you passionate about cutting-edge AI technologies? Do you thrive in an environment where your skills can redefine customer experiences and positively impact lives? Join Acorns as we build the future of Fintech with a customer service virtual agent that’s as empowering as our mission.

At Acorns, we believe in looking after the financial best interests of the up-and-coming. With benevolence and courage, we’ve made micro-investing an empowering first step in financial independence. Now, we’re taking our mission to the next level by creating a state-of-the-art virtual agent powered by Large Language Models (LLMs) and Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG).

You will harness the power of AI to design a virtual agent that redefines customer support by providing personalized, real-time assistance. You will utilize proprietary data to create intelligent, empathetic solutions that empower our users to make informed financial decisions. You will work closely with cross-functional teams to align the virtual agent’s capabilities with our mission of financial inclusion and growth. You will play a pivotal role in shaping a product that reflects our core values of benevolence and courage, transforming customer service into an uplifting and impactful experience.

This is more than a technical role—it’s a chance to be part of a movement that changes how people interact with their financial journey.

This role has the option to be remote or based in our Irvine, CA, or New York, NY offices.

Within 1 month, you will:

• (Strategic) Understand Acorns mission, vision, organizational strategic objectives, and fintech industry domain knowledge.

• (People) Meet team members, stakeholders, cross-functional teams, and understand your own role and responsibilities.

• (Tech immersion)Review Acorns existing Vector database architecture, code, pipelines, documentation, and tools in use

• (Deliverables) basic hands-on interaction with data and existing services, contributing to debugging or small updates in the existing models and systems.

• Complete Acorns’ best-in-class onboarding, Acorns’ Seedling Program

• Participate in a virtual coffee session hosted by Acorns’ CEO, Noah Kerner

• Attend your first community-wide virtual all-hands meeting

Within 3 months, you will:

• (Deep dive) Detailed analysis of proprietary datasets and their quality. Identify gaps in existing feature vectorization, LLM agent and evaluation process.

• (Collaboration) work with cross-functional teams to align AI efforts and capabilities with business goals. Share insights and mentor junior team members.

• (Deliverables) Join a key customer facing project and contribute to prototyping, pipelines, scalability, efficiency and robustness.

• Review your 30-60-90 day goals and accomplishments with your manager

• Engage in Acorn’s Community & Heritage celebrations

• Receive operational updates from our GoHenry & PixPay team members during Acorns’ quarterly global virtual all-hands session

Within 6 months, you will:

• (Optimize) Identify inefficiencies in existing data pipelines and propose scalable solutions. Monitor feedback loop for continuous improvements.

• (Innovate) Take ownership of a critical RAG project and lead towards completion. Explore and implement LLM capabilities for Acorns customers.

• (Vision) Collaborate with management to develop a roadmap for innovation aligned with the company's fintech objectives. Drive the team growth through documenting learnings, proposing strategies, and improving automation workflows.

• (Deliverables) Target delivering the customer service virtual support bot MVP to production. Establish a scalable product monitoring process on LLM metrics.

• Complete a Performance Development Check-in to align on Performance and Values Rating Trends

What you will bring to Acorns:

• Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Data Science, Statistics, or a STEM-related field

• 5+ years of total software engineering experience

• 3+ years of experience in artificial intelligence, data science, or machine learning engineering

• 3+ years of experience with modern cloud computing technologies, such as AWS, Bedrock, Sagemaker, Databricks, or Kubernetes

• Foundational knowledge with Generative AI, Transformer, fine tuning LLM, Search ranking, RAG improvement, and LLM Agent

• Experience tuning neural networks on custom datasets.

• Experience with Huggingface, LangChain, chatbot development

• Proficiency in programming languages and analytical tools, such as Python or PyTorch, Pandas, NumPy, SciKit-Learn, Matplotlib

• Thirst for delivering game-changing products

• Exceptional drive and precision in delivery

• A belief that your work is tied to your life's mission

• Optimistic about the potential of societal change

Preferred Qualifications:

• Master's Degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Data Science, Statistics, or a STEM-related field

• Learning Attitude: Stay relentlessly updated with the latest industry trends, and novel applications of LLMs, particularly in the context of RAG, for various generation tasks, ensuring seamless integration and high performance.

• Problem-Solving Skills: The ability to tackle complex challenges, think strategically about resource management, and optimize model performance.

• Collaboration: Storing communication skills and the ability to collaborate with a diverse team. Share your knowledge and findings on RAG and other LLM advancements, fostering a culture of learning and growth within the team.

You are not expected to have experience with all listed requirements. If you feel passionate about Acorns' mission, vision, and values, please apply.  

What we offer: 

• Competitive salary and stock options

• A comprehensive benefits package to meet the needs of you and your family

• Flexible work hours, location, and paid time off 

• 401k discretionary match

• Monthly Acorns account contribution & GoHenry account for your family

• Wellness Days - Company-wide quarterly days off to rest + recharge

• Mindfulness, Mental Health, and Financial Wellness resources: Headspace, Ginger, and Addition Wealth are offered at no cost to you

• Acorns Career Development Program (Monthly Acorns to Oaks training sessions, development plans, quarterly development check-ins, Cornerstone’s online training platform)

• Roots Leadership Program for emerging leaders

• Monthly community celebrations, events, panel discussions, and speakers

• Talented and motivated team members who care deeply about one another, our mission, and our customers.

• The rare opportunity to create a new world. We inspire one another every day to do meaningful work that solves big societal challenges.

About Acorns:

Acorns is how everyday consumers save & invest for the long term. To date, customers have invested over $15 billion with Acorns, much of it in spare change. By putting the tools of wealth-making in everyone's hands, Acorns has become the largest subscription service in U.S. consumer finance, serving over 10 million everyday Americans. Customers get automated investing in diversified portfolios, a simple retirement product, a bank account that helps people spend less to invest more, and bonus investments from 20k brands. Plus, everyday Americans can easily invest in their kids and get money news they can use, all from the same app. From acorns, mighty oaks do grow!

Mission:

With benevolence and courage, we look after the financial best interests of the up-and-coming; beginning with the empowering step of micro-investing.

Values:

• Lead With Heart

• Make Bold Decisions

• Always Build Trust

• Never Stop Growing

• Find a Way

Commitment to a diverse community: 

Acorns is committed to building a diverse community of customers, partners, and team members. We believe that fostering diversity not only fuels creativity but also challenges conventional thinking and helps us properly represent the unique experience of the everyday consumer that we serve. 

Compensation Information:

The pay range for this position at commencement of employment is expected to be between $180,026 and $211,795/year; however, base pay offered may vary depending on multiple individualized factors, including market location, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. The total compensation package for this position may also include other elements, including equity grants and discretionary cash bonus awards in addition to a full range of medical, financial, and/or other benefits (including 401(k) eligibility and various paid time off benefits, such as vacation, sick time, and parental leave), dependent on the position offered. Details of participation in these benefit plans will be provided if an employee receives an offer of employment.

If hired, employee will be in an “at-will position” and the Company reserves the right to modify base salary (as well as any other discretionary payment or compensation program) at any time, including for reasons related to individual performance, Company or individual department/team performance, and market factors.

Application Deadline: 

This application was originally posted on January 17, 2025. The Company reasonably aims to fill this position on or about March 17, 2025., and to accept applications until filled. However, depending on multiple individualized factors, including the Company’s reasonable business needs and the number of applicants, such deadline may change.