How to apply for Staff Engineer, AI Developer Experience (Remote, US)

About Renew Home

Everyday Electric (formerly Renew Home) is building the largest residential virtual power plant in North America. It partners with industry-leading brands to manage residential energy for efficiency, savings, and comfort. The company is remote-first in the US and states a commitment to a diverse, equitable, and inclusive work environment.

About the role

This is a staff engineering role focused on AI-assisted development and developer experience. You will be embedded in application development teams to see their workflows and friction points firsthand. You will define how engineers use AI tools and agents, set standards and guardrails, and improve the daily inner loop of writing, building, testing, and iterating on code.

A typical day

A typical day likely includes working alongside application development teams to observe their coding, build, and test workflows. You would then turn those observations into standards, guardrails, or tooling improvements for AI-assisted development. The job description does not specify daily routines, so ask about team structure and cadence during interviews.

Who Renew Home is looking for

• Has staff-level or equivalent experience as a software engineer, with a track record of influencing engineering practices across teams.
• Has hands-on experience using AI coding tools and agents in production software development, not just experimentation.
• Can define standards and guardrails for AI-assisted development that balance speed with safety and code quality.
• Is comfortable embedding directly in application development teams to observe workflows and identify friction points in the inner loop.
• Has experience improving developer experience: build, test, and iteration cycles.

Tips for this application

• Check the company website at www.everydayelectric.com before applying, and refer to the company as Everyday Electric (formerly Renew Home) where relevant.
• Emphasize any direct experience embedding with application teams to improve their daily development workflow, since the role is explicitly embedded.
• Describe specific AI tools or agents you have used in software development and what standards or guardrails you helped set.
• Show evidence of dedicated ownership of developer experience work, because the job description notes other engineers contribute but this role brings dedicated ownership and prioritization.
• Use the exact job title Staff Engineer, AI Developer Experience in your application materials.

What to cover in your cover letter

['Concrete examples of how you have improved the inner loop of software development: writing, building, testing, and iterating on code.', 'Your firsthand experience with AI-assisted development and how you shaped safe, effective adoption across engineering teams.', 'How you have worked embedded within application development teams and translated observed friction into standards or tooling.', 'Why the virtual power plant and residential energy management space interests you, based on what you learned from the company website.']

Research before applying

• Read the Everyday Electric website at www.everydayelectric.com, especially any engineering or careers content.
• Understand what a residential virtual power plant is and how Everyday Electric partners with brands to manage residential energy.
• Look up the company's former name, Renew Home, to find earlier press, engineering blog posts, or product details.
• Check whether the company has published anything about its engineering stack, AI tooling, or developer experience practices.

Likely interview topics

Based on the job description, expect questions about:

• How you would define standards and guardrails for AI-assisted development across an engineering organization.
• A specific example of improving the daily developer inner loop (build, test, iterate) and the measurable result.
• How you would embed with application development teams to identify friction points without slowing them down.
• How you prioritize developer experience work when other engineers also contribute to DevX.
• Your view on safe and effective use of AI agents in a production software environment.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Treating this as a generic AI engineering role and ignoring the developer experience and embedded-team focus.
• Claiming AI-assisted development experience without concrete examples of tools, agents, or guardrails you used.
• Applying without reading the company website or understanding the virtual power plant business.