Forward Deployed Research Engineer

Clera; Singapore; On-site; SGD 190,000 - 317,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Visa sponsorship

Job summary

Clera is seeking an hands-on, end-to-end engineer to build infrastructure for RL environments and AI evaluation. You will own urgent technical challenges, turning firefighting into reusable tooling and shaping platform evolution.

You will work with frontier AI labs, data vendors, and internal teams to deploy solutions and unblock critical deployments. You will operate independently in ambiguous settings, engage with technical customers, and contribute to early-stage startup dynamics in

Qualifications

• 2–4 years of hands-on engineering or research experience.
• Strong generalist AI engineering skills and ability to work under pressure.
• Proficiency in Python, Docker, and Linux environments.
• Experience with benchmarks/evals and RL training considerations.
• Strong debugging across code, data, and environments.

Responsibilities

• Lead on diagnosing and resolving ambiguous technical problems end-to-end.
• Own deployment requests from labs, data vendors, and internal teams.
• Ask clarifying questions to scope work accurately and efficiently.
• Build tools and pipelines to address urgent customer or partner needs.
• Coordinate with research and GTM teams to unblock deployments.
• Balance speed with quality when ro utines aren’t fully defined.
• Document recurring issues and convert manual work into reusable tooling.

Skills

Python

AI engineering

Debugging

Communication

Tools

Docker

Linux

Job description

About the Role

This is a hands-on, end-to-end technical role on a small, high-caliber engineering team building infrastructure for RL environments and AI evaluation. You will own urgent, ambiguous technical challenges for frontier AI labs and data vendors, turning repeated firefighting into reusable, lasting tooling. Your work directly unblocks critical deployments and shapes how the platform evolves.

What You'll Do

• Take the lead on diagnosing and resolving ambiguous technical problems from triage to completion.

• Own deployment requests from frontier AI labs, data vendors, and internal teams across the full lifecycle.

• Ask the right questions to clarify underspecified asks and identify what actually needs to be done.

• Build tools and one-off pipelines to solve urgent customer or partner problems quickly.

• Coordinate with research and go-to-market teams to unblock deployments.

• Balance speed and quality when customers need fast turnaround and the path is not fully defined.

• Document recurring issues and convert repeated manual work into reusable tools and processes.

What We're Looking For

• 2 to 4 years of experience in applied research engineering, forward-deployed engineering, or a comparable hands-on technical role.

• Strong generalist AI engineering skills with the ability to move quickly under pressure.

• Proficiency in Python, Docker, and Linux environments.

• Experience working on benchmarks and evals, with sound judgment about task realism, rubric reliability, and trajectory quality for RL training.

• Strong debugging instincts across code, data, and environments.

• Demonstrated ability to operate independently in ambiguous situations without a fully prescribed roadmap.

• Good judgment about when to move fast, when to accelerate, and when correctness or security demands extra care.

• Comfort working directly with technical customers, vendors, and cross-functional internal teams.

• Experience handling urgent production, customer, or deployment issues.

• Prior experience in an early-stage startup environment.

• Strong written and verbal communication skills for remote collaboration across time zones.

Compensation & Benefits

Salary range: $150,000 to $250,000 USD annually. Visa sponsorship is available.

Location

On-site in Singapore.