Software Engineer

About Us

Cline (GitHub) is redefining how developers interact with AI. Our autonomous coding agent lives inside your IDE, providing seamless AI-assisted development while keeping you in control. With 1 million+ installs on our VS Code extension and 35 billion+ tokens processed daily on OpenRouter, Cline is the #1 most used application on the platform. Our open-source community is thriving, with 39K+ GitHub stars and 15K+ members on Discord-and we're just getting started.

We believe AI should empower developers, not replace them. Our mission is to build cutting-edge AI-powered tools that enhance software development, streamline workflows, and boost productivity.

If you're passionate about LLMs, AI-driven developer tools, and full-stack software engineering, we'd love to hear from you.

If you really want to get our attention start having your PR's merged in the open-source repository. Contributors will always be looked at first. Feel free to mention in your PR's that you applied.

What You'll Be Working On

• Enhancing the Cline VS Code Extension - Build and optimize new capabilities for our extension, leveraging the VS Code API to create a more seamless developer experience.
• Expanding AI-Powered Features - Design and implement LLM-driven coding assistance, including code generation, refactoring, in-editor debugging, and AI-powered command execution.
• Optimizing Interaction Between Cline and LLMs - Improve prompt engineering strategies, token efficiency, memory management, and contextual awareness.
• Backend Development - Work on Node.js services that power real-time AI interactions, integrating with OpenRouter and other LLM providers.
• Frontend Development - Build intuitive React-based webviews for our VS Code extension, ensuring a fluid user experience.
• Agentic Capabilities & Automation - Extend Cline's ability to autonomously edit files, execute commands, and browse the web with safe, permission-based workflows.
• Performance & Scalability - Optimize response times, caching, and data structures to handle billions of tokens per day efficiently.

Why Join Us?

• Work at the frontier of AI and developer tooling.
• The opportunity to join a company in a hyper-growth phase
• Direct impact on a rapidly growing open-source project.
• Ownership & autonomy - You'll be involved in architectural decisions, feature development, and AI integration strategies.
• Tight-knit team in SF - Collaborate with top engineers, AI researchers, and open-source contributors.

Ready to build the next-gen AI coding assistant? Apply now!

Requirements

• Professional Background: At least 3+ years of core software engineering experience, ideally with exposure to both large-scale tech organizations and early-stage startup environments.
• Bachelor in computer science, Engineering, or a related field.
• Strong Full Stack Engineering Skills: Proficiency in TypeScript, React, Node.js, and understanding of modern web application design. Knowledge of strongly typed languages like Golang, Java, or Rust and API patterns including gRPC and REST, and architectural patterns including Domain Driven Design.
• Infrastructure and Cloud services: Experience with public cloud services like AWS, GCP, or Azure, container orchestration such as Kubernetes, AWS ECS, or Google GKE, Infrastructure as Code (IaC) tools like Terraform, and CI/CD practices.
• VS Code Extension Experience: Familiarity with extension activation events, commands, and webview management in VS Code.
• LLM Exposure: Hands-on experience with LLMs, RAG, prompt engineering, and context management-including knowledge of commonly used frameworks is a plus.
• System Design & Scalability: Ability to build robust, high-performance solutions that can handle high traffic volumes and billions of interactions per day.
• Problem Solver & Team Player: Eagerness to tackle complex challenges in a collaborative environment with a passion for AI-driven developer tools.
• Ability to work in Office in San Fransisco CA

Applicants need not have all of these skills to qualify, but an ideal candidate should have some familiarity and experience, combined with an ability to quickly gain proficiency in new skills.

Benefits

• Competitive Salary + Equity: $150,000 - $250,000 DOE, plus equity in a fast-growing AI startup.
• Healthcare Coverage: Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision plans.
• In-Person Collaboration: Enjoy our San Francisco office culture with direct access to founders and a stellar engineering team.
• Impact & Ownership: Shape product direction and influence the open-source community at scale.