Staff Software Engineer - Internal Efficiency

About Lyra Health Lyra Health is a leading provider of evidence-based mental health care, serving more than 20 million people globally in partnership with employers and more than 100 million through health plan and partner relationships. The company has delivered more than 15 million sessions of mental health care, published more than 35 peer-reviewed studies, and delivered unmatched outcomes in terms of access, clinical effectiveness, and cost efficiency. Extensive peer-reviewed research confirms Lyra’s transformative care model helps people recover twice as fast and results in a 26% annual reduction in overall healthcare claims costs. Lyra is transforming access to life-changing mental health care through Lyra Empower, the only fully integrated, AI-powered platform combining the highest-quality care and technology solutions.

Lyra is looking for an exceptional Staff Software Engineer to accelerate how Lyra itself works. We care deeply about making a difference in people's lives and hope you do too! Our goal? To embed AI into the daily workflows of teams across the company, from engineering and operations to clinical support functions, so that Lyrians spend less time on repetitive work and more time on what matters: getting people the mental health care they need.

This is not a platform team role at arm's length from its users. You will embed directly with internal teams, sit with them to understand how work actually gets done, identify the highest-leverage opportunities, and then design, build, ship, and iterate on AI-powered solutions in production. You own outcomes, not just code: adoption and measurable efficiency gains are the finish line, not the deploy.

We care deeply about making a difference in people’s lives and hope you do too!

This role can be carried out (hybrid) from our South San Francisco, CA headquarters, OR virtual (remote candidates must be based in the United States).

Responsibilities:

Embed with internal teams across the company to map their workflows, identify bottlenecks, and scope AI-driven solutions with clear, measurable efficiency outcomes

Take ownership of the full lifecycle: from discovery and prototyping through deployment, adoption, measurement, and iteration

Build and continuously improve AI-powered tools, agents, and automations, integrating with our Python and Java-based microservices, our web and mobile apps, and third-party systems

Drive the continued integration of agentic software development across engineering, expanding adoption, elevating our technical capabilities, and acting as a force for innovation

Evaluate emerging AI tools, models, and patterns; run fast experiments and convert the winners into durable internal capabilities

Define and track the metrics that prove impact (time saved, throughput, quality, cost) and communicate results to stakeholders and leadership

Work with fellow engineering team members to collaboratively create and refine technical designs and solutions

Collaborate with key partners including data science, product management, design, security, and operational and behavioral health teams

Follow and promote best practices during all phases of software development, adhering to the highest quality and security standards, including the responsible handling of sensitive data in AI workflows

Qualifications:

BS in CS or related technical field

8+ years of experience developing enterprise or consumer web applications, ideally using Python or Java/Spring

Hands-on experience building with LLMs in production: agentic tools and frameworks, prompt and context engineering, evals, and development workflows using Claude and Codex

Demonstrated ability to work directly with non-engineering stakeholders: eliciting requirements, translating ambiguous business problems into shipped software, and driving adoption of what you build

Strong judgment about where AI genuinely helps versus where it adds risk or noise, especially in a healthcare context

Must be highly proactive and a self-starter. This role has unusual autonomy: you will often be the one deciding what to build next, and everyone at Lyra contributes to design, product, front-end, back-end, and quality

"We are an Equal Opportunity Employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy), national origin, age, disability, genetic information or any other category protected by law. By applying for this position, you acknowledge that your personal information will be processed as per the Lyra Health Workforce Privacy Notice. Through this application, to the extent permitted by law, we will collect personal information from you including, but not limited to, your name, email address, gender identity, employment information, and phone number for the purposes of recruiting and assessing suitability, aptitude, skills, qualifications, and interests for employment with Lyra. We may also collect information about your race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation, which is considered sensitive personal information under the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA) and special category data under the UK and EU GDPR. Providing this information is optional and completely voluntary, and if you provide it you consent to Lyra processing it for the purposes as described at the point of collection, for example for diversity and inclusion initiatives. If you are a California resident and would like to limit how we use this information, please use the Limit the Use of My Sensitive Personal Information form. This information will only be retained for as long as needed to fulfill the purposes for which it was collected, as described above. Please note that Lyra does not “sell” or “share” personal information as defined by the CPRA. Outside of the United States, for example in the EU, Switzerland and the UK, you may have the right to request access to, or a copy of, your personal information, including in a portable format; request that we delete your information from our systems; object to or restrict processing of your information; or correct inaccurate or outdated personal information in our systems. These rights may be subject to legal limitations. To exercise your data privacy rights outside of the United States, please contact globaldpo@lyrahealth.com. For more information about how we use and retain your information, please see our Workforce Privacy Notice."