Solutions Engineer

About Ascend

Ascend is transforming the $10T global insurance industry by combining AI automation with embedded fintech. While insurance represents 7.2% of global GDP, outdated financial infrastructure like PDFs, emails, and manual reconciliation continues to slow the industry down. Ascend is the first and market-leading finance automation platform built specifically for insurance, driving the industry's rapid digital transformation.In just five years:

• Trusted by thousands of insurance businesses nationwide
• Processes billions in transactions annually, growing 200%+ YoY
• Built a world-class team of 70+ across San Francisco and Columbus

How Ascend Operates

Ascend automates the insurance financial lifecycle, from collections to disbursements, streamlining operations and driving real profitability. AI is rapidly driving the cost of software down, opening the door to faster innovation and broader access. At the same time, it is shifting where value is created. The strongest companies embed directly into financial workflows, capturing value at the point where money moves. Ascend brings AI and fintech together to automate financial operations inside the transaction itself. Customers do not just adopt software; they unlock powerful financial efficiency with a proven 5-7x return on investment.

Ascend's Mission

Insurance is a $10T+ industry running on legacy systems. AI alone won't fix it, but AI-powered automation embedded into payments and transactions will. Ascend's mission is to become the leading financial automation platform for insurance by 2030—powering the entire industry's financial operations while transforming the way trillions of dollars move.

Your Role as a Solutions Engineer

Ascend is hiring a Solutions Engineer (Contract) to take full ownership of a critical AI-driven data extraction workflow. You'll shape how automation powers the insurance industry—improving accuracy, scalability, and customer experience at every step. You'll dive deep into complex data problems, fine-tune prompts, and refine systems that power the automation layer behind Ascend's financial infrastructure. This role is a mix of hands-on problem-solving, experimentation, and collaboration with Product, Operations, and Engineering teams to make our automation more reliable and intelligent. This is a contract role based on-site at our San Francisco office, 40 hours per week for six months.

Responsibilities

Own and optimize prompt logic

• Identify and resolve data extraction issues using prompt engineering and analytical problem-solving.
• Design systems that enable scalable, high-accuracy iteration on prompt workflows.

Technical implementation & tooling

• Partner with internal teams to improve testing, monitoring, and refinement processes.
• Support new customer and organization onboarding through internal tooling improvements.
• Provide feedback and insights to shape the broader product roadmap.

Customer & stakeholder collaboration

• Work closely with internal and external users to gather context, troubleshoot challenges, and deliver consistent, high-quality results.

Quality assurance & reporting

• Track and analyze extraction accuracy metrics, uncovering trends and root causes.
• Recommend process improvements to reduce manual work over time.
• Build reusable playbooks and prompt strategies to support future automation efforts.

Why This Role Matters

This is a chance to own a critical piece of Ascend's AI-powered automation systems and see your work directly impact product performance, customer satisfaction, and company growth. You'll thrive here if you love solving tough technical problems, moving quickly, and building systems that scale intelligently. This role is perfect for someone who operates at the intersection of data, engineering, and product thinking—and takes pride in turning complexity into clarity.

What We're Looking For

• Exceptional analytical and critical thinking skills, with a track record of breaking down complex problems into actionable solutions.
• Experience with AI-powered document processing, prompt engineering, or data extraction workflows.
• Proven ability to work with large, unstructured datasets to identify patterns and improve accuracy.
• Strong communication skills, with the ability to translate technical concepts for both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Bonus: Familiarity with large language models (LLMs) and their applications in automation or data systems.

Contract Details

• Location: On-site in San Francisco (SoMa)
• Schedule: Full-time, 40 hours per week
• Type: Contract (6 months) with full time conversion
• Compensation: $35-45 per hour
• Benefits Note: Healthcare Coverage, 401k, and leave are not included until converted to full time

Why Ascend?

• Competitive base salary and meaningful equity
• 100% health premiums covered for you and your dependents
• 401k with employer matching options
• A fast growing team with an emphasis on promoting from within - 80% of all hires in the last 12 months have already been promoted!
• Unlimited PTO
• Monthly company-paid commuter benefit options
• Parental and family leave
• Lunch provided when in office
• Dog-friendly office!

All roles at Ascend are 5 days a week onsite at our beautiful office in SoMa!Join us to be part of our mission to revolutionize the insurance industry and contribute to global financial modernization. Your leadership can make a significant impact on improving the $10T+ insurance industry.

Equal Opportunity

We are committed to equal opportunity employment and embrace diversity within our organization. We do not discriminate based on race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. We encourage candidates to apply even if their experience doesn't precisely match this opportunity. We value diversity and are dedicated to equal opportunity employment.

Key skills/competency

• Solutions Engineer
• AI Automation
• Fintech
• Data Extraction
• Prompt Engineering
• LLMs
• System Design
• Quality Assurance
• Data Analysis
• Insurance Industry