Research Engineer

OJ Digital; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity

In-person with flexibility

Relocation assistance

Visa sponsorship

Job summary

OJ Digital is seeking exceptional Research Engineers to join its San Francisco team. You will work on challenging AI safety, model behavior and evaluation tasks, combining software engineering, AI research and hands-on work with advanced AI systems.

You’ll have significant ownership from day one, collaborating with a small, highly capable engineering and research team on technically difficult problems and bold approaches to ensuring safe, reliable AI behavior.

Qualifications

• 1+ years of experience in Software Engineering, ML Engineering, AI Research or related field.
• Exceptional generalist software engineering ability.
• Hands-on experience evaluating, testing, monitoring or critically analysing AI/ML systems.

Responsibilities

• Build and own complex technical projects from initial idea through to delivery.
• Design and improve methods for testing and evaluating the behaviour of advanced AI systems.
• Investigate where models or agents fail or produce unreliable outputs.
• Work with LLMs and AI agents, analysing and critically evaluating their outputs.
• Build primarily in Python and develop evaluation frameworks and verification systems.
• Identify subtle weaknesses that automated systems may miss and iteratively improve.
• Continuously test, refine and improve the quality and reliability of your work.

Skills

Software Engineering

ML Engineering

AI Research

Python

Problem solving

Job description

OJ Digital is working with a fast-growing, well-funded AI company looking for exceptional Research Engineers to join its team in San Francisco.

The company is tackling one of the most important technical challenges in AI: understanding how increasingly capable AI systems behave, identifying where they fail, and helping ensure they remain safe, reliable and aligned as their capabilities develop.

This is a highly technical role combining software engineering, AI research and hands-on work with advanced AI systems. You do not need to come from a traditional research background. The team is open to outstanding Software Engineers, ML Engineers, Security Engineers and Researchers with strong technical fundamentals and a genuine interest in AI safety, model behaviour and evaluation.

You’ll be given significant ownership from day one, working independently on difficult technical problems while collaborating closely with a small, highly capable engineering and research team.

• Build and own complex technical projects from initial idea through to delivery
• Design and improve methods for testing and evaluating the behaviour of advanced AI systems
• Investigate where models or agents fail, behave unexpectedly or produce unreliable outputs
• Work with LLMs and AI agents where relevant, including analysing and critically evaluating their outputs
• Build primarily in Python
• Develop evaluation frameworks, benchmarks, monitoring or verification systems
• Identify subtle weaknesses that automated systems or standard testing approaches may missQuickly understand unfamiliar technical domains and apply that knowledge to new problems
• Continuously test, refine and improve the quality and reliability of your work

Required Skills and Experience

• 1+ years of experience in Software Engineering, Machine Learning Engineering, AI Research or a closely related technical field
• Exceptional generalist software engineering ability
• Hands‑on experience evaluating, testing, monitoring or critically analysing AI/ML systems
• Strong conceptual reasoning and problem‑solving ability
• Comfortable independently owning technical projects end‑to‑end
• Ability to learn new technical domains quickly
• Genuine demonstrated interest in AI alignment, AI safety, model evaluation, interpretability, verification or the safe and reliable behaviour of advanced AI systems

The Package

• Equity: Competitive equity package
• Working Model: Primarily in‑person with some flexibility
• Relocation: Open to candidates willing to relocate to San Francisco
• Visa: Sponsorship and visa transfers available
• Interview Process: Short, fast‑moving process