Senior Applied AI Engineer

Outsmart is a mission-driven, early-stage startup reimagining higher education for the age of AI by creating an entirely new collegiate experience that expands access and opportunity. Backed by $38M from top venture firms including Khosla Ventures, Forerunner, DST Global Partners, and Lightspeed, the company is led by former Duolingo executives and a founding team that also includes Emmy Award winners. With a strong culture centered around high-impact, detail-oriented team members, Outsmart is already seeing significant traction, generating 1–5 million weekly organic views on social media.What You’ll Be DoingIn this role, you’ll be at the forefront of the AI that powers Outsmart’s applications. As an early member of the engineering team you’ll play a critical role in setting the tone for Outsmart’s technical culture including setting standards for algorithmic quality, scalability, and AI-first development. You will work on both generative and discriminative use cases, focusing on content generation at scale, gamification, benchmarking and analytics, multi-modal behavior classification from mobile signals, and continuously modernizing Outsmart’s SDLC.Who You Are5+ years experience in hands-on AI/ML roleDeep and proven experience with agentic engineeringExperience shipping AI-first applications at scaleExperience using AI effectively to contribute cross-platformDemonstrable sense of Product, QA, and DevXAbility to work autonomously in a fast‑paced environmentWhat You’ll OwnCo-ownership of AI-first SDLCMCP/ML toolingContribute to prompting standards across the engineering teamDefine and enforce benchmarks for AI applicationsWork with Product and Engineering leadership to define AI roadmapOwn end-to-end deployment and maintenance of AI systemsWhat Helps You SucceedCraftsmanship and Extreme OwnershipOpen-mindednessFrequent, direct, honest, kind communicationDemonstrable adoption of AI in all aspects of workTrack record of shipping in an environment of high-performanceUser obsessionSalary Range: $190K-$250KPerksCompetitive salary and equityHealthcare for you and your dependents (medical, dental, and vision)Parental leave for any full-time employee who has been with us for at least 6 months (birthing, non-birthing, and adoptive parents)15 PTO days per year, a winter break, and 12+ paid company holidays per yearRemote work daysLunch provided in-office dailyWorking with super talented people who want to make a difference in the worldOutsmart is committed to building an equitable and inclusive workplace and is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We consider all qualified applicants for employment regardless of race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, age, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.