Founding AI R&D Engineer — AI Infrastructure & Model Routing

A-field Tech Limited; Hong Kong; Hybrid; HKD 900,000 - 1,500,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Share-option opportunity

Competitive salary

Job summary

A-Field Tech Limited in Hong Kong is seeking a Founding AI R&D Engineer to translate research ideas into practical, scalable systems. You will join a founding team and work in a flexible hybrid setup, shaping the direction of regional AI infrastructure and NexLLM integration.

The role blends research with software engineering, distributed systems, and product development, tackling real-world problems on a live platform and collaborating closely with the founder.

Qualifications

• Degree or higher in CS/AI/ML/software engineering or related field.
• Strong projects, research experience, or open-source work welcomed.
• No prior AI gateway building experience required; ability to learn unfamiliar systems.

Responsibilities

• Research and prototype intelligent model-routing strategies.
• Build evaluation and benchmarking tools for quality, cost, latency, and reliability.
• Develop fallback, retry, caching, observability, and quota-management systems.
• Investigate prompts and task requirements to match models.
• Build experiments, simulations, datasets, and reproducible test harnesses.
• Integrate new model providers and standardise APIs and capabilities.
• Turn validated research into reliable production features.
• Document findings, limitations, and technical recommendations clearly.

Skills

Software engineering fundamentals

Applied AI research

APIs & distributed systems

Hypothesis-driven development

Analytical thinking

LLMs & model evaluation

Ownership mindset

Education

Degree in computer science, AI, ML, software engineering, data science, or related field

Tools

Git

CI/CD

Job description

Location: Hong Kong / flexible hybrid arrangementCompany: A-Field Tech LimitedType: Founding-team, full-time role

Help build the intelligence layer for AI infrastructure in Asia

A-Field Tech Limited is a Hong Kong-based AI and network infrastructure company. We are building a stable regional AI gateway (www.nexllm.ai) to leading AI models. Our live platform gives developers one interface for accessing 51 models across Claude, OpenAI, Gemini, Qwen, DeepSeek, and other providers.

We are now developing the next layer: intelligent routing, model evaluation, reliability tooling, and developer infrastructure that helps applications choose and operate the right model for each task.

We are looking for a Founding AI R&D Engineer to help turn research ideas into working systems.

What you will work on

• Research and prototype intelligent model-routing strategies
• Build evaluation and benchmarking tools for quality, cost, latency, and reliability
• Develop fallback, retry, caching, observability, and quota-management systems
• Investigate how prompts and task requirements can be matched to suitable models
• Build experiments, simulations, datasets, and reproducible test harnesses
• Integrate new model providers and standardise different APIs and capabilities
• Turn validated research into reliable production features
• Document findings, limitations, and technical recommendations clearly

The role combines applied AI research, software engineering, distributed systems, and product development. You will work on real technical problems affecting a live platform, not a purely theoretical research project.

What we are looking for

• Strong software engineering fundamentals
• Experience with applied research, experimentation, data analysis, AI systems, or complex technical products
• Understanding of APIs, databases, asynchronous systems, cloud infrastructure, or distributed services
• Ability to turn an unclear problem into a hypothesis, experiment, measurable result, and practical implementation
• Strong analytical thinking and attention to reliability and reproducibility
• Curiosity about large language models, model evaluation, routing, and AI infrastructure
• Ownership mindset and comfort working in an early-stage company

A degree in computer science, AI, machine learning, software engineering, data science, or a related field is helpful. Strong projects, research experience, publications, open-source work, or equivalent practical experience are also welcome.

You do not need prior experience building an AI gateway. We care about your ability to learn unfamiliar systems, investigate difficult questions, and build useful solutions.

Why join A-Field Tech/NexLLM

• Join while the core R&D direction is still being shaped
• Work directly with the founder and have visible technical ownership
• Build systems used by developers and AI teams across Asia
• Work at the intersection of AI models, routing, evaluation, reliability, and developer tools
• Help establish a regional technical capability in AI infrastructure
• Receive a competitive salary and share-option opportunity, subject to formal scheme terms
• CV, LinkedIn, GitHub, portfolio, or examples of technical work
• A short note explaining your interest in NexLLM and AI infrastructure research
• One example of a technical or research problem you investigated and what you learned

A-Field Tech/NexLLM welcomes applicants from diverse backgrounds who are excited to help build the next generation of AI infrastructure in Asia.