Software Engineer - Full Stack, AI

Job Title: Software Engineer

Location: Hybrid Tuesday - Thursday/weekly (Westlake Village Corporate HQ) 

Reports to: Director of Innovation 

About the Role: 

We’re hiring a Full Stack Software Engineer to help build and evolve enterprise-scale, customer-facing applications with rich, session-managed user experiences. This role spans frontend and backend systems, focusing on reliability, correctness, performance, and maintainability in complex, stateful workflows. 

You’ll contribute to platforms that incorporate AI-assisted capabilities such as search, personalization, and intelligent assistants, helping users navigate, discover, and interact with sophisticated application experiences. This is a hands-on engineering role with meaningful ownership and long-term impact. 

What You’ll Do: 

• Design, build, and maintain full-stack applications using TypeScript 

• Develop and support session-managed, customer-facing experiences with complex state and workflows 

• Build backend services and APIs using Node.js and frameworks such as NestJS 

• Implement modern frontend experiences using React or Next.js 

• Integrate AI-assisted features (e.g., search, recommendations, assistants) into frontend and backend systems 

• Build and maintain search functionality using OpenSearch or Elasticsearch 

• Work with vector or semantic search pipelines to improve relevance and discovery 

• Ensure data consistency, session integrity, and performance across distributed systems 

• Write clean, well-tested, maintainable code aligned with engineering best practices 

• Debug and resolve issues across client, server, and production environments 

• Collaborate closely with product, design, and data teams to deliver intuitive, reliable experiences 

• Participate in code reviews and contribute to shared engineering standards and practices 

Qualifications

What You’ll Bring: 

Required Experience & Skills 

• 3+ years of professional software development experience 

• Strong experience with TypeScript on the frontend and/or backend 

• Experience building backend services with Node.js (NestJS or Express) 

• Experience developing customer-facing applications with complex UI state or session management 

• Solid understanding of APIs, service integration, and distributed data flows 

• Hands-on experience integrating third-party services or AI-powered APIs 

• Familiarity with OpenSearch, Elasticsearch, or similar search platforms 

• Exposure to vector databases or semantic search concepts 

• Experience with modern frontend frameworks such as React or Next.js 

• Working knowledge of SQL and/or NoSQL databases 

• Ability to collaborate effectively within an enterprise engineering environment 

Nice to Have 

• Experience working on large-scale enterprise applications with long-lived user sessions 

• Experience contributing to system or architectural design decisions 

• Experience with agent-based or workflow-driven AI systems (e.g., LangGraph or similar) 

• Experience tuning search relevance, ranking, or retrieval strategies 

• Experience combining keyword search with vector-based semantic search 

• Experience with AI prompt design, evaluation, or observability 

• Experience mentoring junior engineers or leading small technical initiatives 

Pay Rate: $150,000 - $170,000 annually, depending on experience and qualifications. This position is not eligible for participation in the Guitar Center Company bonus program. Actual compensation may vary based on experience, education, and other factors. Pay ranges are provided in accordance with state laws and may differ by location.    

About Guitar Center: At Guitar Center, we live and breathe creativity, collaboration, and the power of music. Our mission is to inspire and equip musicians and music lovers to find their sound and share it with the world. Whether in our stores, contact centers, distribution hubs, or corporate offices, our team is united in one goal: to fill the world with more music.    

Join Us    

• Become part of the world’s largest multichannel musical instrument retailer.    

• Work within a collaborative, high-impact finance organization that drives innovation and transformation.    

• Grow your career in an environment that values creativity, integrity, and passion.    

Guitar Center is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Employment decisions are based on valid job-related criteria and are made without regard to race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other protected status under applicable laws.    

If you require reasonable accommodation to apply for or perform this job, please contact recruiting@guitarcenter.com.