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AI Agent Researcher

Vast.ai

San Francisco

Applied AI

$160K – $320K

Posted 3 months ago

midunknown

Verified open on Oct 4, 2026 · posted 93 days ago

Job Description

About Us

Vast.ai’s cloud powers AI projects and businesses all over the world. We are democratizing and decentralizing AI computing—reshaping our future for the benefit of humanity.

We are a growing and highly motivated team dedicated to an ambitious technical plan. Our structure is flat, our ambitions are out‑sized, and leadership is earned by shipping excellence.

We seek engineers with strong intrinsic drive, a true passion for advancing the state of the art, and a mix of architecture, coding, and communication skills.

LOCATION: On-site at our office in San Francisco or Westwood, Los Angeles.

About the Role

As an Agent Research Engineer, you will help advance the highest levels of the tech stack to imbue AI systems with true agency. Collaborating directly with our technical founder and diverse team, we will build the next generation of general learning agents. Possessing and maintaining a wide, deep and holistic knowledge base of cutting-edge research is crucial for advancing the mission. Many are called, but few are chosen.

  • Full-Time

  • On-site at either our SF or LA offices

Tech Stack

Python, Engrish, LLMs, ANNs, C++/Cuda

Ideal Experience

  • Deep expertise in systems engineering across the tech stack

  • Strong holistic background in machine learning theory and practice

  • Diverse knowledge of neural architectures/circuits: transformers etc

  • Published research at top AI conferences

Key Responsibilities

  • Lead cutting-edge research in AI agents, focusing on memory, reliability, and reasoning

  • Prototype and evaluate novel state-of-the-art methods/models

Interview Process

After submitting your application, our technical team reviews your credentials. If selected, you'll proceed through the following stages:

  • Initial screening (virtual 15 minutes)

  • Quick dive into Vast, systems and architectures (virtual 30 minutes)

  • LLM assisted coding assessment (virtual 1 hour)

  • Meet and greet with coding assessment (on-site 2 hours)

Our goal is to complete the interview process in two weeks.

Benefits

  • Comprehensive health, dental, vision, and life insurance

  • 401(k) with company match

  • Meaningful early-stage equity

  • Onsite meals, snacks, and close collaboration with founders/tech leaders

  • Ambitious, fast-paced startup culture where initiative is rewarded

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Career context

This role is classified as Applied AI.

Preparing to interview? Read the Applied AI interview guide.

$195k - $255k is the middle 50% of disclosed salaries, measured from 425 live Applied AI postings on this board. Roughly two thirds of postings disclose nothing, so this describes the ones that do, not the whole market.

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