Forward Deployed Research Engineer

About the Role Join a small, high-caliber engineering team at a fast-moving AI infrastructure company building the platform for reinforcement learning (RL) environments and post-training data. As a Forward Deployed Research Engineer , you will own end-to-end implementation for urgent, ambiguous technical challenges facing frontier AI labs and data vendors. Your work will directly unblock critical deployments and transform repeated firefighting into reusable tooling — with real impact from day one. This is an on-site role based in San Francisco, CA , with visa sponsorship available. What You'll Do Take the lead on diagnosing and resolving ambiguous technical problems quickly and independently. Own technical deployment requests from frontier AI labs, data vendors, and internal teams — from triage through to completion. Ask the right questions to clarify under-specified asks and identify what actually needs to be done. Build tools and one-off pipelines to solve urgent customer or partner problems. Coordinate with research and go-to-market teams to unblock deployments. Balance speed and quality in high-pressure situations where the path forward is not fully defined. Document recurring issues and convert repeated manual work into reusable tools or processes. What We're Looking For Required (dealbreakers): 2–4 years of experience as an Applied Research Engineer, Forward Deployed Engineer, or in a comparable hands-on technical role. Proficiency in Python, Docker, and Linux environments. Experience working on benchmarks and evals for RL training data and AI agents — with sound judgment about what makes a task realistic, a rubric reliable, and a trajectory useful for RL training. Strong requirements: Demonstrated experience owning technical deployment requests from triage to completion. Ability to build tools and one-off pipelines under time pressure. Strong debugging instincts across code, data, and environments. 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 documenting issues and automating manual work into reusable processes. Nice to have: Prior experience at an early-stage startup. Experience handling urgent production or customer-facing deployment issues. Strong communication skills for cross-timezone remote collaboration. Compensation & Benefits Salary: $150,000 – $250,000 USD annually, depending on experience. Visa sponsorship: Available. Location This is an on-site role based in San Francisco, CA, United States . Candidates based in or willing to relocate to San Francisco are strongly preferred. There is also an office presence in Singapore .