Forward Deployed Engineer (Training)

Neura Market; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 150,000 - 230,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive equity-based compensation

100% health insurance for employee and

dependents

Flexible PTO including Winter Break

Parental leave

Fertility and family-building stipend

401(k)

Learning opportunities across ML Start

Diverse ML startups exposure

Job summary

Baseten is seeking a Forward Deployed Engineer to partner with customers, architect, build, and deploy high-scale post-training solutions on Baseten’s platform. You will own the journey from exploration to production, translating business goals into efficient fine-tuning pipelines.

The role fits entrepreneurial engineers eager to influence how modern companies adopt post-training at scale, collaborating across product, software, research, and customer teams to deliver robust, observable

Qualifications

• Degree in CS, Engineering, Mathematics, or related field.
• 2+ years of professional work experience in a fast-paced environment.
• Proficiency in Python.
• Strong communication skills, especially on complex technical topics.

Responsibilities

• Develop and maintain software systems and product features using Python in a production-level environment.
• Design, implement, and deploy Baseten solutions end-to-end with customers: framing, evaluations, and post-training pipelines.
• Deliver with velocity by turning vague objectives into clear specs and PoCs.
• Optimize and enhance post-training solutions and contribute to the tech stack improvements.
• Own projects end-to-end, acting as engineer, PM, and customer-facing lead.

Skills

Python

RL & SFT for LLMs

Communication

Team collaboration

Education

BS/MS/PhD in CS or related

Tools

Git

Docker

Job description

ABOUT BASETEN

Baseten powers mission-critical inference for the world's most dynamic AI companies, like Cursor, Notion, OpenEvidence, Abridge, Clay, Gamma and Writer. By uniting applied AI research, flexible infrastructure, and seamless developer tooling, we enable companies operating at the frontier of AI to bring cutting-edge models into production. We're growing quickly and recently raised our $1.5B Series F, led by Altimeter Capital, Conviction Partners, and Spark Capital. Join us and help build the platform engineers turn to to ship AI products.

THE ROLE

As a Forward Deployed Engineer at Baseten, you will partner directly with customers to architect, build, and deploy high-scale post-training solutions on Baseten’s platform. You’ll own the journey with customers from initial exploration to production deployment, translating ambiguous business goals into performant fine-tuning pipelines.

This role is a great fit for entrepreneurial engineers who want a front-row view into how modern companies adopt post-training at scale. You’ll work across product, software development, research, and customer teams to deliver performant and observable post-training pipelines.

To be clear, this is a technical, hands-on role focused on software development, architecture design, and experiment design, with aspects of product management, technical customer success, and pre-sales solution engineering mixed in.

THE PRODUCT

Take a look at what we’ve built so far:

• Baseten Loops beta launch
• Training Infra GA launch
• Autoresearch on Baseten

RECENT RESEARCH

• Dense, on-policy, or both?
• Repeated KV cache for long-running agents
• Distillation without the dark – replicating black-box on-policy distillation on Baseten

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Develop and maintain software systems and product features using Python in a production-level environment.
• Drive customer impact by designing, implementing, and deploying Baseten solutions end-to-end: problem framing, evaluations, post-training approach and experiment design, experimentation, quantization, and production deployment. This involves working with customers’ engineering teams at every stage of the customer journey, including sales, implementation, and expansion.
• Deliver with velocity: turn vague objectives into clear specs and well-defined PoCs so we can rapidly ship well-tested services and outcomes for our customers.
• Optimize and enhance our post-training solutions, contributing to the continuous improvement of our technical stack. This includes developing features and PRDs with engineering and product teams.
• Own products and customer projects end-to-end, functioning as an engineer, project manager, and product manager, with a focus on user empathy, project specification, and end-to-end execution.
• Navigate ambiguity and exercise good judgment on the tradeoffs and tools needed to solve problems, avoiding unnecessary complexity.
• Demonstrate pride, ownership, and accountability for your work, and expect the same from your teammates.

REQUIREMENTS

• Experience working with RL and SFT for large language models.
• Bachelor's, Master's, or Ph.D. degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Mathematics, or a related field.
• 2+ years of professional work experience in a fast-paced, high-growth environment.
• Python proficiency.
• Strong communication skills, particularly on complex technical topics.

BENEFITS

• Competitive compensation, including meaningful equity.
• 100% coverage of medical, dental, and vision insurance for employee and dependents
• Flexible PTO policy including company wide Winter Break (our offices are closed from Christmas Eve to New Year's Day!)
• Paid parental leave
• Fertility and family-building stipend through Carrot
• Company-facilitated 401(k)
• Exposure to a variety of ML startups, offering unparalleled learning and networking opportunities.

At Baseten, we are committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive workplace. We provide equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants without regard to race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, genetic information, disability, or veteran status.

We are an Equal Opportunity Employer and will consider qualified applicants with criminal histories in a manner consistent with applicable law (by example, the requirements of the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, where applicable).