AI Agent Engineer | Build & Run the Agent Stack for a TikTok Shop Agency

Read this entire post before applying. Your first line tells me whether you did.

WHO WE ARE

We run a full-service TikTok Shop marketplace management agency — affiliate program management, GMV Max ads, violation resolution, and conversion optimization for US brands. Demand is outpacing us, so we are not hiring our way out of it. We are building an agentic agency: AI agents run the machine, humans provide the judgment, taste, and relationships on top.

Every stage of the client lifecycle — proposal, onboarding, creator sourcing and outreach, reporting, QA, escalation, renewal — is being rebuilt as an agent workflow with a human owner reviewing the output, not a human doing the clicking.

I need the person who builds that machine and then runs it.

WHAT YOU OWN

BUILD — Design, build, and ship the agents and bots that run the business. Multi-agent workflows, tool use, API integrations, retrieval over our SOPs and client data, and evals so we know when an agent is wrong. Claude, GPT, Grok/xAI, n8n / Make / Zapier, and Python where it earns its place.

RUN — Own it in production. Monitoring, error handling, cost control, prompt and output iteration. When something breaks on a client account, you know before the client does.

DELIVER — Use the stack to actually manage client accounts alongside our human team. You will be inside real accounts and, when it matters, on client calls explaining what the system is doing and why the results beat their last agency.

TEACH — Document SOPs and train our VAs and account managers to operate the agent stack confidently. Your job is to multiply the team, not to become its bottleneck.

WHAT SUCCESS LOOKS LIKE IN 90 DAYS

• A signed proposal becomes a fully onboarded client with a fraction of the human hours it takes today
• Weekly client reporting is generated, QA'd, and delivered by agents with a human sign-off
• Our account managers carry several times the client load they can today, with better results
• We can prove with numbers that we outperform traditional agencies

YOU ARE A FIT IF

• You have shipped agent systems other people depend on daily — not demos, not tutorials
• You are fluent across model providers and have real opinions about which model belongs where, including Grok/xAI
• APIs, webhooks, auth, and silent failures do not scare you
• You think in systems and write clean documentation without being asked
• Your written and spoken English is strong enough for client-facing copy and solo client calls
• You ship, measure, iterate, and tell me directly when something is not working

YOU ARE NOT A FIT IF

• Your AI experience is prompting ChatGPT for captions
• You need a fully specified ticket before you can start
• You go quiet for days and resurface with excuses

THE DETAILS

• Full time, 40 hours per week, long-term
• Pay: open. There is no ceiling for the right person — tell me your number and why you are worth it
• 2–3 hours of daily overlap with US Central Time
• Immediate start
• Clear path to Head of Automation as we scale

HOW TO APPLY

Applications that skip these steps get deleted. No exceptions.

1) Open your message with: AGENTS > HEADCOUNT

2) Answer these briefly and specifically:
a. What agent system have you built that people used every single day? What did it do?
b. What was the hardest failure mode you ran into, and how did you fix it?
c. Which model do you reach for by default, and where specifically do you use Grok/xAI?
d. What do you build on — n8n, LangGraph, Make, custom Python, something else?
e. How do you catch a wrong agent output before a client sees it?
f. If I asked you to automate client onboarding for a TikTok Shop agency, what would you build first?
g. Your monthly rate and your earliest start date.

3) Send proof — links, repos, screen recordings, dashboards. Anything that shows you built what you say you built.

Send a 3–5 minute Loom walking me through one thing you have built and you go straight to the top of my list.

Finalists complete a short paid build task. If you are the right person, this will be the easiest hire I ever make.