Forward Deployed Engineer (AI)

TL;DR

Forward Deployed Engineer (AI): Designing and optimizing the customer-facing implementation of the Tinker fine-tuning API with an accent on distributed training infrastructure and LLM customization. Focus on triaging complex GPU/networking failures, building automation tools, and translating customer needs into product roadmap improvements.

Location: Must be based in San Francisco, California (relocation support available)

Salary: $350,000 - $475,000 USD per year

Company

An AI research and development lab focused on advancing collaborative general intelligence through the creation of frontier AI tools and the Tinker fine-tuning API.

What you will do

• Triage and resolve full-stack customer issues by analyzing logs, reproducing failures, and tracing job execution.
• Build tools, integrations, and automation to eliminate recurring failure modes and reduce time-to-resolution.
• Write and maintain high-quality technical documentation and cookbook recipes based on real user implementations.
• Partner with research and infrastructure teams to translate customer pain into prioritized engineering work.
• Inform the product roadmap for Tinker based on direct daily interaction with customers.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent experience.
• Experience fine-tuning large language models using supervised and reinforcement learning methods.
• Expertise in debugging distributed systems and training infrastructure, including GPU, networking, and scheduling issues.
• Proficiency in Python or Rust.
• Must be based in San Francisco, California.
• Visa sponsorship is available.

Nice to have

• 5+ years of software engineering experience, particularly in customer-facing or deployment roles.
• Experience building and shipping a product end-to-end, such as a startup or open-source project.
• Published technical tutorials or recipes.
• Experience at a developer tools, API-first, or ML platform company.
• Familiarity with hyperparameter tuning for LLM training algorithms.

Culture & Benefits

• Comprehensive health, dental, and vision insurance.
• Unlimited PTO and paid parental leave.
• Relocation support as needed.
• Opportunity to work with a team of researchers and engineers who created ChatGPT, Character.ai, and PyTorch.