Software Engineer - Large Language Models

Fastino Labs; Remote; GBP 70,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading AI development firm in Birmingham is seeking talented individuals to join their team. In this role, you will engage in the development of cutting-edge AI products and optimize multimodal models for enhanced performance. Ideal candidates should have a strong foundation in AI techniques, excellent coding skills, and a passion for advancing the state of language models. You will collaborate closely with engineers and contribute to impactful AI solutions. The position is full-time and remote, with opportunities to connect with the Silicon Valley office.

Qualifications

• Great velocity for building and shipping agents / AI products.
• Advanced degree in Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, or related technical discipline.
• Demonstrated ability to conduct independent research.

Responsibilities

• Experiment with new language model architectures.
• Optimize multimodal models for better response quality.
• Architect data processing pipelines to ensure training data quality.
• Implement reinforcement learning techniques to align model outputs.
• Build evaluations to motivate robust real-world performance.

Skills

Building and shipping AI products

Reinforcement learning techniques

Deep learning frameworks

Independent research

Education

Master's or PhD in Computer Science or related field

Tools

PyTorch

JAX

TensorFlow

Job description

Full-time | Remote with trips to Silicon Valley office | Reports to Founders

Introduction

• Join us at Fastino as we build the next generation of LLMs. Our team, boasting alumni from Google Research, Apple, Stanford, and Cambridge is on a mission to develop specialized, efficient AI.
• Fastino's GLiNER family of open source models has been downloaded more than 5 million times and is used by companies such as NVIDIA, Meta, and Airbnb
• Fastino has raised $25M (as featured in TechCrunch) through our seed round and is backed by leading investors including Microsoft, Khosla Ventures, Insight Partners, Github CEO Thomas Dohmke, Docker CEO Scott Johnston, and others.

What You’ll Work On

• Experiment with novel language model architectures, helping drive and execute Fastino's research roadmap
• Optimize Fastino’s multimodal models to improve response quality, instruction adherence, and overall performance metrics
• Architect data processing pipelines, implementing filtering, balancing, and captioning systems to ensure training data quality across diverse content categories
• Implement reinforcement learning techniques including Direct Preference Optimization and Generalized Reward Preference Optimization to align model outputs with human preferences and quality standards
• Build robust and real-world motivated evaluations
• Partner with Fastino engineering team to ship model updates directly to customers
• Establish best practices for code health and documentation on the team, to facilitate collaboration and reliable development

What We’re Looking For

• Required - Great velocity for building and shipping agents / AI products.
• Optional - Advanced degree (Master's or PhD) in Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, or related technical discipline with concentrated study in deep learning and computer vision methodologies
• Optional - Demonstrated ability to do independent research in Academic or Industry settings
• Optional - Substantial industry experience in large-scale deep learning model training, with demonstrated expertise in at least one of Large Language Models, Vision-Language Models, Diffusion Models, or comparable generative AI architectures
• Optional - Comprehensive technical proficiency and practical experience with leading deep learning frameworks, including advanced competency in one of PyTorch, JAX, TensorFlow, or equivalent platforms for model development and optimization