Senior Applied AI Engineer

Outsmart; Los Angeles (CA); On-site; USD 190,000 - 250,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary and equity

Healthcare for dependents

Parental leave

15 PTO days per year

Remote work days

Daily in-office lunch

Working with talented people

Job summary

Outsmart is seeking a skilled AI/ML engineer in Los Angeles to lead the development of AI applications and contribute to the company's technical culture. Candidates should have over 5 years of experience in AI/ML, a track record of shipping AI-first applications, and the ability to work autonomously. The role offers a salary between $190K and $250K, with various perks including healthcare, remote work, and generous PTO policies. Join a mission-driven team focused on redefining higher education for the age of AI.

Qualifications

• 5+ years experience in a hands-on AI/ML role.
• Deep experience with agentic engineering.
• Experience shipping AI-first applications at scale.

Responsibilities

• Co-ownership of AI-first SDLC.
• Definition and enforcement of benchmarks for AI applications.
• End-to-end deployment and maintenance of AI systems.

Skills

AI/ML experience

Agentic engineering

AI-first applications

Cross-platform contributions

Product, QA, and DevX sense

Autonomous work in fast-paced environments

Job description

Overview

Outsmart is a mission-driven, early-stage startup reimagining higher education for the age of AI by creating an entirely new collegiate experience that expands access and opportunity. Backed by $38M from top venture firms including Khosla Ventures, Forerunner, DST Global Partners, and Lightspeed, the company is led by former Duolingo executives and a founding team that also includes Emmy Award winners. With a strong culture centered around high-impact, detail-oriented team members, Outsmart is already seeing significant traction, generating 1–5 million weekly organic views on social media.

What You’ll Be Doing

In this role, you’ll be at the forefront of the AI that powers Outsmart’s applications. As an early member of the engineering team you’ll play a critical role in setting the tone for Outsmart’s technical culture including setting standards for algorithmic quality, scalability, and AI-first development. You will work on both generative and discriminative use cases, focusing on content generation at scale, gamification, benchmarking and analytics, multi-modal behavior classification from mobile signals, and continuously modernizing Outsmart’s SDLC.

Who You Are

• 5+ years experience in hands-on AI/ML role
• Deep and proven experience with agentic engineering
• Experience shipping AI-first applications at scale
• Experience using AI effectively to contribute cross-platform
• Demonstrable sense of Product, QA, and DevX
• Ability to work autonomously in a fast-paced environment

What You’ll Own

• Co-ownership of AI-first SDLC
• MCP/ML tooling
• Contribute to prompting standards across the engineering team
• Define and enforce benchmarks for AI applications
• Work with Product and Engineering leadership to define AI roadmap
• Own end-to-end deployment and maintenance of AI systems

What Helps You Succeed

• Craftsmanship and Extreme Ownership
• Open-mindedness
• Frequent, direct, honest, kind communication
• Demonstrable adoption of AI in all aspects of work
• Track record of shipping in an environment of high-performance
• User obsession

Salary Range: $190K-$250K

Perks

• Competitive salary and equity
• Healthcare for you and your dependents (medical, dental, and vision)
• Parental leave for any full-time employee who has been with us for at least 6 months (birthing, non-birthing, and adoptive parents)
• 15 PTO days per year, a winter break, and 12+ paid company holidays per year
• Remote work days
• Lunch provided in-office daily
• Working with super talented people who want to make a difference in the world

Outsmart is committed to building an equitable and inclusive workplace and is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We consider all qualified applicants for employment regardless of race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, age, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.