{"schemaVersion":"jobsearcher.job.v1","id":"c839ace125d1f03499882837","url":"https://jobsearcher.com/jobs/c839ace125d1f03499882837","canonicalUrl":"https://jobsearcher.com/jobs/c839ace125d1f03499882837","title":"Forward Deployed Research Engineer","description":"About the Role\nWe're a small, high-caliber team building infrastructure for reinforcement learning environments and AI evaluation — helping frontier AI labs and data vendors train, evaluate, and align AI models to real-world workflows. As a Forward Deployed Research Engineer, you'll own end-to-end resolution of urgent, ambiguous technical challenges for our most important customers and partners. You'll be the person who unblocks critical deployments, turns repeated firefighting into reusable tooling, and operates with speed and sound judgment in fast-moving situations.\nThis is a hands-on, high-impact role at the intersection of applied AI engineering and customer-facing problem solving. You'll work directly with frontier AI labs, post-training data vendors, and internal research and go-to-market teams.\nWhat You'll Do\nTake the lead on diagnosing and resolving ambiguous technical problems across code, data, and environments.\nOwn technical deployment requests from AI labs, data vendors, and internal teams — from triage through to completion.\nAsk the right questions to clarify underspecified asks and identify what actually needs to be done.\nBuild tools and one-off pipelines to solve urgent customer or partner problems quickly.\nCoordinate with research and GTM teams to unblock deployments and move work forward.\nBalance speed and quality in situations where customers need fast turnaround and the path isn't fully specified.\nDocument recurring issues and convert repeated manual work into reusable tools and processes.\nWhat We're Looking For\nRequired:\n2–4 years of experience in applied research engineering, forward-deployed engineering, or similar hands-on technical roles.\nStrong generalist AI engineering skills with a bias for moving quickly and iterating.\nProficiency in Python, Docker, and Linux environments.\nExperience working on benchmarks and evals, with sound judgment about what makes a task realistic, a rubric reliable, and a trajectory useful for RL training.\nStrong debugging instincts across code, data, and complex environments.\nDemonstrated ability to operate independently in ambiguous situations without a fully prescribed roadmap.\nClear judgment about when to move fast, when to escalate, and when correctness or security requires extra care.\nComfort working directly with technical customers, vendors, or cross-functional internal teams.\nExperience handling urgent production, customer, or deployment issues under pressure.\nEarly-stage startup experience and a proven ability to work independently in fast-paced environments.\nStrong written and verbal communication skills for remote collaboration across time zones.\nNice to Have:\nPrior experience at a customer-facing or forward-deployed engineering role at an AI/ML company.\nFamiliarity with RL training pipelines, reward modeling, or post-training data workflows.\nA desire to work closely with frontier AI labs and data vendors on cutting-edge alignment challenges.\nCompensation & Benefits\nSalary: $150,000 – $250,000 USD annually, depending on experience.\nEquity participation in an early-stage, venture-backed AI infrastructure company.\nVisa sponsorship is available.\nLocation\nThis role is based on-site in San Francisco, CA. We're looking for candidates who are able to work in-person with the team. Candidates based in or willing to relocate to San Francisco are strongly preferred.","company":"Clera","rawCompany":"clera","city":"Millbrae","state":"CA","isRemote":false,"isActive":false,"createdAt":"2026-08-05T09:19:40.611Z","occupations":[{"code":"15-1221.00","title":"Computer and Information Research Scientists","slug":"computer-and-information-research-scientists"},{"code":"15-1252.00","title":"Software Developers","slug":"software-developers"},{"code":"15-1299.08","title":"Computer Systems Engineers/Architects","slug":"computer-systems-engineers-architects"}],"industries":[{"code":"541511","title":"Custom Computer Programming Services","slug":"custom-computer-programming-services"},{"code":"541512","title":"Computer Systems Design Services","slug":"computer-systems-design-services"},{"code":"513210","title":"Software Publishers","slug":"software-publishers"}],"jobPosting":{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"JobPosting","title":"Forward Deployed Research Engineer","description":"About the Role\nWe're a small, high-caliber team building infrastructure for reinforcement learning environments and AI evaluation — helping frontier AI labs and data vendors train, evaluate, and align AI models to real-world workflows. As a Forward Deployed Research Engineer, you'll own end-to-end resolution of urgent, ambiguous technical challenges for our most important customers and partners. You'll be the person who unblocks critical deployments, turns repeated firefighting into reusable tooling, and operates with speed and sound judgment in fast-moving situations.\nThis is a hands-on, high-impact role at the intersection of applied AI engineering and customer-facing problem solving. You'll work directly with frontier AI labs, post-training data vendors, and internal research and go-to-market teams.\nWhat You'll Do\nTake the lead on diagnosing and resolving ambiguous technical problems across code, data, and environments.\nOwn technical deployment requests from AI labs, data vendors, and internal teams — from triage through to completion.\nAsk the right questions to clarify underspecified asks and identify what actually needs to be done.\nBuild tools and one-off pipelines to solve urgent customer or partner problems quickly.\nCoordinate with research and GTM teams to unblock deployments and move work forward.\nBalance speed and quality in situations where customers need fast turnaround and the path isn't fully specified.\nDocument recurring issues and convert repeated manual work into reusable tools and processes.\nWhat We're Looking For\nRequired:\n2–4 years of experience in applied research engineering, forward-deployed engineering, or similar hands-on technical roles.\nStrong generalist AI engineering skills with a bias for moving quickly and iterating.\nProficiency in Python, Docker, and Linux environments.\nExperience working on benchmarks and evals, with sound judgment about what makes a task realistic, a rubric reliable, and a trajectory useful for RL training.\nStrong debugging instincts across code, data, and complex environments.\nDemonstrated ability to operate independently in ambiguous situations without a fully prescribed roadmap.\nClear judgment about when to move fast, when to escalate, and when correctness or security requires extra care.\nComfort working directly with technical customers, vendors, or cross-functional internal teams.\nExperience handling urgent production, customer, or deployment issues under pressure.\nEarly-stage startup experience and a proven ability to work independently in fast-paced environments.\nStrong written and verbal communication skills for remote collaboration across time zones.\nNice to Have:\nPrior experience at a customer-facing or forward-deployed engineering role at an AI/ML company.\nFamiliarity with RL training pipelines, reward modeling, or post-training data workflows.\nA desire to work closely with frontier AI labs and data vendors on cutting-edge alignment challenges.\nCompensation & Benefits\nSalary: $150,000 – $250,000 USD annually, depending on experience.\nEquity participation in an early-stage, venture-backed AI infrastructure company.\nVisa sponsorship is available.\nLocation\nThis role is based on-site in San Francisco, CA. We're looking for candidates who are able to work in-person with the team. Candidates based in or willing to relocate to San Francisco are strongly preferred.","datePosted":"2026-08-05T09:19:40.611Z","dateModified":"2026-08-05T09:19:40.611Z","hiringOrganization":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Clera","sameAs":"https://jobsearcher.com"},"jobLocation":{"@type":"Place","address":{"@type":"PostalAddress","addressLocality":"Millbrae","addressRegion":"CA","addressCountry":"US"}},"identifier":{"@type":"PropertyValue","name":"JobSearcher","value":"c839ace125d1f03499882837"},"url":"https://jobsearcher.com/jobs/c839ace125d1f03499882837"}}