GenAI R&D Engineer

Nexus3 Capital; Chicago (IL); On-site; USD 120,000 - 170,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Direct access to founders

Exposure to multiple industries

Early-stage AI product development

Job summary

Nexus3 Capital seeks a driven engineer to join NX3 Labs, our R&D arm, as a core member of a small, focused team advancing agentic AI. You’ll track new developments, run experiments, and build fast, functional prototypes that demonstrate real potential for Nexus3 portfolio companies.

You’ll explore emerging AI capabilities, translate findings for business use, and shape the direction of our technology strategy as new tools and techniques are applied across industries.

Qualifications

• Strong Python skills and comfortable working in unfamiliar codebases.
• Clear communicator able to explain technical work to non‑technical stakeholders.
• Active GitHub with real projects to review.

Responsibilities

• Research and experiment with new AI models, tools, frameworks, and techniques as they emerge.
• Run structured experiments to determine applicability to Nexus3’s portfolio.
• Build proof‑of‑concept implementations and prototypes that show what’s possible with AI capabilities.
• Design and build AI‑powered workflows and automation tooling across industries.
• Share findings with engineering and business teams and translate learnings into actionable recommendations.
• Take hypotheses from business and engineering teams and build functional AI applications quickly.
• Help shape the technical direction of the company by identifying what’s worth adopting.

Skills

Python

GitHub

Problem‑solving

Communication

Self-directed

Job description

Nexus3 builds and operates AI-driven businesses across industries where intelligent systems can replace entire workflows. Our operating companies, NX3 Labs (our R&D division), and Nexus3 Capital (our investment arm) work together to turn early research into commercial products at scale.

About NX3 Labs

NX3 Labs is Nexus3's innovation and engineering division- the team responsible for the core technology that powers every Nexus3 company. We work at the frontier of agentic AI, developing proprietary systems, vertical knowledge graphs, and agent architectures that go into real products serving real customers.

Role Overview

You’ll join NX3 Labs - Nexus3's R&D division - as a core member of a small, focused engineering team working at the leading edge of AI. Your job is to track what's new, run experiments, and figure out how emerging tools and techniques apply to what Nexus3 is building across its portfolio of operating companies. When you find something worth pursuing, you build it — fast, functional, and with real stakes. You won’t be heads‑down on one product. You’ll be exploring new developments in AI, testing their limits, and building the prototypes that prove whether an idea has legs. Everything you build in Labs flows directly into Nexus3's operating businesses.

What You’ll Do

• Research and experiment with new AI models, tools, frameworks, and techniques as they emerge
• Run structured experiments to determine how new developments can be applied to Nexus3’s operating companies
• Build proof‑of‑concept implementations and working prototypes that demonstrate what’s possible with emerging AI capabilities — speed and clarity matter more than polish
• Design and build AI‑powered workflows, agent systems, and automation tools across multiple industries and use cases
• Share findings with the engineering and business teams — translate what you learn into actionable recommendations
• Take hypotheses from the business development and engineering teams and build functional AI applications to validate them quickly
• Help shape the technical direction of the company by identifying what’s worth adopting and what isn’t

Requirements

• Strong intuition for how emerging technologies can solve real business problems – you see a new tool and immediately start thinking about where it applies
• Strong problem‑solving instincts – you enjoy building things, you tinker on your own time, and you’re genuinely curious about how things work
• Solid Python skills; comfortable working in unfamiliar codebases
• Self‑directed – you can take an ambiguous problem and make meaningful progress without constant guidance
• Clear communicator; able to explain technical work to non‑technical stakeholders
• An active GitHub with real projects we can review

Preferred

• Experience building with LLMs, agents, or genAI tools (big plus)
• You actively follow AI research, new releases, and industry developments – not just casually, but as a habit
• Some background in enterprise software or B2B products
• You can move fast with unfamiliar tools and figure things out as you go
• You’ve experimented with new tools or frameworks on your own and can speak to what you learned

We Offer

• Direct access to founders and leadership – you’ll work with them daily
• Exposure to multiple industries and products, not just one
• The opportunity to build early‑stage AI products with real commercial potential