SonicJobs Logo
Left arrow iconBack to search

Forward Deployed Research Engineer

Clera
Posted 2 days ago, valid for 10 days
Location

San Francisco, CA, US

Salary

$150,000 - $250,000 per year

Contract type

Full Time

By applying, a Sonicjobs account will be created for you. Sonicjobs's Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions will apply.

SonicJobs' Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy also apply.

Sonic Summary

info
  • This engineering role focuses on applied research and customer deployment within a small team dedicated to building infrastructure for RL environments and AI evaluation.
  • Candidates should have 2–4 years of experience in applied research engineering or a closely related technical role.
  • The position requires strong AI engineering skills, proficiency in Python, Docker, and Linux, along with experience in benchmarks and evaluations.
  • The salary range for this position is $150,000–$250,000 USD annually, with visa sponsorship available.
  • The role is on-site in San Francisco, CA, with an additional office in Singapore.

About the Role

This is a hands-on engineering role at the intersection of applied research and customer deployment, sitting within a small, high-caliber team building infrastructure for RL environments and AI evaluation. You'll own end-to-end resolution of urgent, ambiguous technical challenges for frontier AI labs and data vendors — turning repeated firefighting into durable, reusable tooling.

What You'll Do

  • Take the lead on diagnosing and resolving ambiguous technical problems from triage through to completion.

  • Own technical deployment requests from frontier AI labs, data vendors, and internal teams.

  • Ask the right questions to clarify underspecified asks and identify what actually needs to be done.

  • Build one-off tools and pipelines to solve urgent customer or partner problems quickly.

  • Coordinate with research and go-to-market teams to unblock critical deployments.

  • Balance speed and quality when customers need fast turnaround and the path isn't fully defined.

  • Document recurring issues and convert repeated manual work into reusable tools or processes.

What We're Looking For

  • 2–4 years of experience in applied research engineering, forward-deployed engineering, or a closely related hands-on technical role.

  • Strong generalist AI engineering skills with a demonstrated ability to move quickly.

  • Proficiency in Python, Docker, and Linux environments.

  • Experience working on benchmarks and evals, with sound judgment about what makes a task realistic, a rubric reliable, and a trajectory useful for RL training.

  • Strong debugging instincts across code, data, and environments.

  • Proven ability to operate independently in ambiguous situations without a fully prescribed roadmap.

  • Comfort working directly with technical customers, vendors, or cross-functional internal teams.

  • Experience handling urgent production, customer, or deployment issues under time pressure.

  • Early-stage startup experience and comfort in fast-paced, self-directed environments.

  • Strong communication skills for remote collaboration across time zones.

Compensation & Benefits

Salary range: $150,000–$250,000 USD annually. Visa sponsorship is available.

Location

On-site in San Francisco, CA, USA. A second office is available in Singapore.




Learn more about this Employer on their Career Site

Apply now in a few quick clicks

By applying, a Sonicjobs account will be created for you. Sonicjobs's Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions will apply.

SonicJobs' Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy also apply.