Member of Technical Staff

Member of Technical Staff — Foundation Model Engineer
San Francisco (Hybrid) • Backed by Sequoia and other top-tier investors

A category-defining AI infrastructure company is building the decision layer for systems the modern world runs on. They're past product-market fit, serving Fortune 500 companies and major enterprises, and now assembling a founding core engineering team to define the future of one of the most impactful applied AI deployments today.
This isn't chatbot optimization. You'll be training models that interface directly with real-world physical systems in real time — closer to robotics than typical software ML.

Why this role is rare
Ground floor impact. You won't be joining a large org with a fixed roadmap. You'll shape the roadmap — defining modeling approaches, team culture, and long-term vision alongside the founding team.
A proprietary dataset no one else has. Deep ownership across the full stack means full operational visibility, control over every layer through a single API, and a real-world dataset that no incumbent or lab can match.
Thousands of H100s on tap. Compute matched to the ambition.
End-to-end ownership. You'll ship models into live production systems, collaborate with firmware and application teams sitting next to you, and iterate rapidly in the wild.

What you might work on
Training end-to-end models for fault prediction, system state modeling, and autonomous repair
Building multi-modal models over structured operational data, with function-calling to drive real-time decisions
Evaluating model performance against real-world hardware and virtualized environments
Defining the modeling foundation for the world's first autonomous system of its kind

You'll thrive here if you
Have built, trained, and scaled neural networks from the ground up — model training, not tooling around models
Think in systems, not just benchmarks
Get excited about modeling the physical world and collaborating across the hardware/software stack
Want to build the technical DNA of a new applied research org from scratch
Have a CS or SWE-grounded background and applied engineering instincts (vs. pure publication trajectory)

What we're looking for
Currently at — or competitive with engineers at — a frontier AI lab
Strong CS/SWE foundation from a rigorous program
Hands-on model training experience (architecture, training runs, evaluation, iteration)
Bay Area based, comfortable with hybrid in SF
Evidence of exceptional ability — internal promotions, founding engineer experience, awards, top-of-class distinction, open-source impact, named contributions to shipped models, or competitive wins

Compensation: Base $200K–$300K, total comp $400K+ achievable with equity.

Twill is a senior-talent recruiting platform partnering with this company on their founding engineering hires. Reach out to learn more — happy to share details on the company under NDA once we've had an initial conversation.
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