Applied AI Engineer

Arena Intelligence, Inc.; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 140,000 - 210,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive compensation & equity

Health benefits

Cutting-edge AI projects

Transparent culture

Job summary

Arena Intelligence is seeking a software-focused teammate to work with premier AI labs. You’ll partner with lab customers to integrate models, run evals, and extract value from our data, while spotting gaps and shaping what we build next.

You’ll also roll up your sleeves to ship customer-facing improvements, tackle engineering tasks, and contribute to our Data or Applied ML stacks, helping push Arena’s frontier in real-world AI evaluation.

Qualifications

• 4+ years of software engineering experience with strong fundamentals.
• Production experience in TypeScript and modern web frameworks.
• Hands-on experience integrating LLM provider APIs, including streaming responses.
• Comfort moving across frontend and backend; able to dive into the problem.
• Familiarity with cloud infrastructure and CI/CD workflows.
• Strong problem-solving instincts and ability to operate in ambiguity.
• Clear, concise communication for engineers and non-technical stakeholders.
• Customer-first mindset and ability to work with multiple stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• Own 5–15 active model lab relationships as the day-to-day contact.
• Partner with researchers and product teams to integrate models and run evals.
• Drive onboarding, data and product releases, co-launches, and unblock issues fast.
• Own a key process improvement or automation (onboarding flow, data insights, tooling).
• Translate customer feedback and research direction into concrete product ideas and engineering work.
• Work across the stack to ship pragmatic solutions that push the frontier for customers.
• Help expand strategic accounts through trust, execution, and sharp technical judgment.

Skills

TypeScript

LLM APIs

Full-stack

Cloud & CI/CD

Communication

Customer-facing

Job description

About Arena Intelligence

Arena is the platform for evaluating how AI models perform in the real world. Founded by researchers from UC Berkeley's SkyLab, we're on a mission to measure and advance the frontier of AI for real-world use, and to build the foundation for everyone to understand, shape, and benefit from it.

Tens of millions of people use Arena each month to evaluate how frontier systems handle the work they actually do. The preferences they share power the most transparent, rigorous, and human-centered evaluations in AI. Leading AI labs, enterprises, and independent researchers rely on our work and open datasets to understand how models behave in real workflows: agentic coding, creative generation, professional productivity, and beyond. We go beyond leaderboards and decompose what human experience reveals about AI, so models advance toward the work people actually do.

We're a team of researchers, academics, builders, and creatives from UC Berkeley, Google, Stanford, and DeepMind. We seek truth, move fast, and value craftsmanship, curiosity, and impact over hierarchy. We're building a company where thoughtful, curious people from all backgrounds can do their best work together, in an office culture that radiates excellence, energy, and focus.

About the Role

This role has two core parts, both centered around working closely with the best AI labs in the world.

First, you'll partner directly with our lab customers to integrate their models, run and deliver evals, and act as their go-to person at Arena Intelligence. You'll plug into their research roadmap, understand where they're headed, and help them get real value from our data. Along the way, you'll spot gaps, surface new opportunities, and help shape what we build next.

Second, you'll roll up your sleeves and build. You'll take on specific customer engineering asks and ship solutions that push the frontier of what our platform can do. Some of what you build may eventually scale into our Data or Applied ML stack - but it starts with solving real, high-impact problems for cutting-edge AI teams.

You'll

• Own 5-15 active model lab relationships as the day-to-day point of contact

• Partner directly with researchers and product teams to integrate models, run evals, and deliver high-quality results

• Drive consistent delivery across onboarding, data + product releases, co-launches, and unblock unexpected issues fast

• Be the "owner" of a key process improvement or automation (e.g., model onboarding flow, customer data insights, delivery tooling)

• Translate customer feedback and research direction into concrete product ideas and engineering work

• Work across the stack to ship pragmatic solutions that push the frontier for our customers

• Help expand strategic accounts through trust, execution, and sharp technical judgment

You'll have

• 4+ years of software engineering experience with strong fundamentals (data structures, algorithms, system design)

• Production experience in TypeScript and modern web frameworks

• Hands-on experience integrating LLM provider APIs, including streaming responses

• Comfort moving across frontend and backend - you're willing to dig in wherever the problem is

• Familiarity with cloud infrastructure and CI/CD workflows

• Strong problem-solving instincts and the ability to operate in ambiguity

• Clear, concise communication skills - you can explain complex technical ideas to both engineers and non-technical stakeholders

• A customer-first mindset and a genuine desire to work closely with multiple stakeholders

What we offer

• We offer competitive compensation and equity aligned to the markets where our team members are based. The base salary range will depend on the candidate’s permanent work location.

• Comprehensive health and wellness benefits, including medical, dental, vision, and additional support programs.

• The opportunity to work on cutting-edge AI with a small, mission-driven team

• A culture that values transparency, trust, and community impact

Come help build the space where anyone can explore and help shape the future of AI.

Arena Intelligence provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, genetics, sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression. We are committed to a diverse and inclusive workforce and welcome people from all backgrounds, experiences, perspectives, and abilities.