Frontier AI Systems Engineer - Customer-Facing, In-Person SF

Idler; San Francisco, Northern (CA, KY); Hybrid; USD 150,000 - 230,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity

Free meals

Healthcare

401(k)

PTO 15 days

Relocation assistance

Small team

Job summary

Idler, a frontier data research lab in San Francisco, is hiring Forward Deployed Engineers who partner with researchers at top AI labs to turn real work into evals and RL environments.

In this role you will own the end-to-end product pipeline, manage both technical and relational lifecycles, and build reusable systems to scale partnerships. This is an in-person role with meaningful equity and benefits, joining a small, ambitious founding team.

Qualifications

• Strong engineering foundation from a rigorous technical environment.
• Advanced in at least one modern programming language (Python, TypeScript, or similar).
• Extraordinary literacy, able to communicate with senior researchers and executives.
• Track record of exceptional performance in academics, sports, work, or entrepreneurship.
• High tolerance for ambiguity, intensity, and sustained effort.
• Willingness to travel.

Responsibilities

• Own the end-to-end product pipeline and shape the roadmap.
• Manage both technical and relational sides of customer/partner lifecycles.
• Build systems and tooling to make onboarding easier and repeatable.

Skills

Python

TypeScript

Engineering foundations

Willingness to travel

Job description

Idler, a frontier data research lab in San Francisco, is hiring Forward Deployed Engineers who partner with researchers at top AI labs to turn real work into evals and RL environments.

In this role you will own the end-to-end product pipeline, manage both technical and relational lifecycles, and build reusable systems to scale partnerships. This is an in-person role with meaningful equity and benefits, joining a small, ambitious founding team.