Job Specifications
About Ascend
Ascend empowers entrepreneurial CPAs to reach their goals with an innovative growth model that brings their firms into the new age. Backed by private equity from people-focused Alpine Investors, Ascend is building a modern platform for regional accounting firms that enables them to stay independent while accessing the resources of a large CPA firm to help them grow. Ascend provides access to growth capital, robust talent acquisition, best-of-breed technology, a catalytic leadership system, shared back-office services, and modernized equity incentives so that firms can surmount today’s industry challenges and reach their full potential. Founded in January 2023, the company attained revenues sufficient to qualify it as a Top 100 U.S. accounting firm within six months of operation. For more information, visit ascendtogether.com.
About Alpine Investors
Alpine Investors is a people-driven private equity firm that is committed to building great companies by working with, learning from, and developing exceptional people. Alpine prides itself on fostering cultures where people value empowerment, diversity, fairness, integrity, and intellectual honesty. Founded in 2001, Alpine specializes in investments in companies in the software and services industries. Alpine has over $15 billion in AUM and has offices in San Francisco, New York, and Salt Lake City.
For more information on the firm, visit www.alpineinvestors.com
Position Summary
Ascend is building an Engineering, Product, and Design (EPD) team that will power the technology transformation that the industry needs. Machine learning (ML) and Large Language Models (LLMs) will be one of the main pillars of this technological transformation. The primary customers for the EPD team at Ascend will be the staff of Ascend’s partner firms and their clients.
Reporting to the Director, Product Engineering, the Senior Product Engineer will play a key role in building highly impactful, AI-powered products for our engaged customer base, using the latest LLM technologies. You’ll work alongside a high-performing team of engineers, product managers, and designers to develop solutions that redefine how accountants work—and in doing so, help reshape the cost structure of the industry.
Ascend’s goal is to revitalize the accounting industry, and the products you build will be central to that transformation. This is a unique opportunity to contribute to a fast-moving, mission-driven team that’s using technology to drive meaningful change in a legacy space.
Success in this role will be measured by your ability to collaborate effectively, ship high-quality code, and contribute to the rapid delivery of innovative, AI-powered solutions for our partner firms and their clients.
This role is perfect for you if you have fully embraced the innovation and uncertainty in software that has arrived through LLMs. You are excited about the latest tools that allow you to build software fast. At the same time, you are confident in your ability to use guardrails and build secure scalable software that customers love using. This is your opportunity to build a modern, AI-powered engineering team that ships modern, AI-first software, all from scratch with no tech debt, for existing, enthusiastic users.
Key Responsibilities
Working with the Director of Product Engineering, the Senior Product Engineer will be responsible for the following:
Contribute directly to delivering on Ascend’s AI strategy by building intelligent, user-focused products powered by LLMs
Drive forward-thinking development by experimenting with tools that improve engineering velocity—such as modern IDEs, AI-powered coding assistants, and automated testing/review platforms
Build the technical foundations needed to support ML and LLM experimentation, including real-time evaluation frameworks, observability tools, and human-in-the-loop workflows.
Develop robust, scalable systems that support rapid product iteration, while ensuring uptime, performance, and stability
Champion best practices in coding, testing, security, and scalability—helping to establish high-quality, repeatable engineering processes
Collaborate closely with product and design teams, and contribute to clear, structured communication with technical and non-technical stakeholders to help shape product direction
Qualifications
5 -7 years of experience in software development
Proven experience working in high-performing software engineering teams, ideally in AI/ML-driven environments
Deep understanding of Large Language Models (LLMs), Machine Learning (ML), and AI-driven applications
Experience with modern software development tools, including AI-powered development environments, automated code generation, and agentic tools
Strong proficiency in architecting and designing scalable, secure, and high-availability software solutions
Hands-on experience with cloud platforms such as AWS, GCP, or Azure, and modern DevOps practices
Proficiency in modern prog