AI Research Engineer

Syntas; United States; Remote; USD 150,000 - 210,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

MacBook Pro with GPU access

External display

Compute credits for experiments

401(k) with company match

12 weeks paid parental leave

Home office setup stipend

Conference attendance and speaking

Job summary

Syntas in the United States is seeking an AI Research Engineer to explore frontier AI while delivering practical, production-ready systems that solve real business problems. You will evaluate emerging models, architect advanced retrieval and multi-agent systems, and lead deployment, benchmarking, and documentation to inform client-ready solutions.

Remote (US) full-time with a salary range of $150,000 to $210,000.

Qualifications

• Strong machine learning fundamentals and shipping AI systems.
• Experience with retrieval-augmented generation and embeddings.
• Ability to evaluate models for latency, cost, and fit.
• Ability to run rigorous experiments and document findings.
• Comfort bridging research exploration and production contexts.
• Self-directed in choosing techniques to invest in.

Responsibilities

• Evaluate emerging models for capability, cost, latency, and client fit.
• Lead self-hosted deployment including fine-tuning and infra setup.
• Design and benchmark retrieval architectures beyond standard RAG.
• Prototype multi-agent coordination systems and analyze tradeoffs.
• Build proof-of-concept systems informing technical strategy.
• Track AI research landscape and brief stakeholders on production readiness.

Skills

Strong ML fundamentals

Open-source model families

Retrieval-augmented generation

Experimentation and evaluation

Research-to-production bridge

Self-direction

Tools

Vector databases

Embedding strategies

Orchestration frameworks

Evaluation harnesses

AI observability tooling

GPU/edge deployment

Job description

Role overview

An AI Research Engineer role focused on exploring the frontier of artificial intelligence while maintaining a strong emphasis on practical, deployable outcomes. The position sits within a research lab setting, investigating emerging techniques and translating them into production-ready systems that solve real business problems. Engineers in this role balance intellectual curiosity with disciplined experimentation and shipping discipline.

Responsibilities

• Evaluate emerging open-source and proprietary models for capability, cost, latency, and fit with client requirements
• Lead work on local and self-hosted model deployment, including fine-tuning, quantization, and infrastructure setup for privacy, compliance, and performance needs
• Design and benchmark advanced retrieval architectures beyond standard RAG, including hypothetical document embeddings, multi-vector retrieval, graph-based knowledge structures, and hybrid search
• Prototype multi-agent coordination systems and document tradeoffs, performance characteristics, and recommended patterns
• Build proof-of-concept systems that inform technical strategy and become the basis for client-facing solutions
• Track the AI research landscape, separate genuine advances from hype, and brief internal stakeholders on what is ready for production use

Requirements

• Strong machine learning fundamentals with hands-on experience building and shipping AI systems
• Proficiency with modern open-source model families and the tradeoffs between model size, speed, and capability
• Experience with retrieval-augmented generation, vector databases, and embedding strategies
• Ability to run rigorous experiments, measure improvements, and write up findings clearly
• Comfort working across both research exploration and production engineering contexts
• Self-direction in identifying which techniques are worth investing in

Nice to have

• Background publishing or presenting research at conferences or in technical communities
• Familiarity with orchestration frameworks, evaluation harnesses, and AI observability tooling
• Experience deploying models on varied infrastructure including GPUs and edge environments

Benefits and work setup

• Remote (US), full-time
• Salary range $150,000 to $210,000
• High-end hardware including MacBook Pro with GPU access, external display, and peripherals
• All AI tools and subscriptions covered, plus compute credits for experiments
• 401(k) with company match, 12 weeks paid parental leave
• Home office setup stipend of $1,000 and quarterly team offsites
• Conference attendance and speaking opportunities supported