Software Engineer — Symbal

davidjoseph-co; Palo Alto (CA); On-site; USD 150,000 - 175,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

1% equity

Lunch or dinner in office

Health insurance

Bay Club or Equinox membership

Job summary

Symbal is seeking a Software Engineer to accelerate its RL task infrastructure at the intersection of engineering, task design, and system architecture. This specialist role reports directly to the CTO and carries ownership of a core technical domain.

Candidates should have 1–5 years of software engineering experience, deep specialization in one area (DevOps, MLE, systems, Rust, algorithms, or equivalent), and the ability to ship reliable systems in a startup pace.

Qualifications

• 1 to 5 years engineering experience, flexible for exceptional candidates.
• Deep specialization in one domain (DevOps, MLE, system design, Rust, algorithms, or equivalent).
• Strong software engineering fundamentals alongside the specialization.
• Willingness for in-person in Palo Alto/SF; remote possible for exceptional candidates.
• Startup pace: 9am–9pm, six days a week; high ownership reporting to CTO.

Responsibilities

• Own task construction: design and build long-horizon, high-difficulty RL tasks that meet Symbal's specifications within time constraints
• Build internal tools and infrastructure to help contractors create tasks faster and at higher quality
• Contribute to custom agent implementations for enterprise customers and health systems
• Own one core technical domain deeply (DevOps, MLE, systems design, Rust, algorithms, or full-stack) and lead that division of engineering tasks
• Ship and iterate on systems that power Symbal's core task-generation pipeline

Skills

Engineering experience

Specialization in one domain

Software fundamentals

Startup pace

CTO reporting

Job description

Symbal — Software Engineer

Type: Full-time | On-site (SF / Palo Alto; remote for truly exceptional candidates) | San Francisco, CA · Palo Alto, CACompensation: $150,000–$175,000 base + 0–1% equityHiring count: 1Visa sponsorship: Yes — H-1B, OPTReports to: CTO

About Symbal

Symbal builds RL training data and task-construction infrastructure for frontier AI labs, and works with enterprises and health systems to deploy custom AI agents. Founded by teams with deep experience in AI research and agent systems, the company is scaling both its task-generation pipeline and its agent-deployment business.

Founded: 2025 | Team size: 1–10 (Seed) | Backing: Founders FundIndustry: AI ToolsWebsite: symbal.aiOffice: San Francisco, CA · Palo Alto, CA

Why Candidates Should Join

• Frontier AI at the source: Build the RL task infrastructure that trains and evaluates frontier models — a Founders Fund–backed seed company.
• Deep ownership, early: A specialist, high-ownership seat reporting directly to the CTO, owning a full division of engineering task-building work.
• Specialist leverage: Your single deepest domain (DevOps, MLE, systems, Rust, algorithms, or full-stack) is the point — depth drives real leverage here, not generalist breadth.

Intake Call Summary

• Not available — no intake call transcript or notes were on the role page. (An intake video is posted but not transcribed.)

The Role

Accelerate task creation for Symbal's RL training pipeline — a specialist role at the intersection of engineering, task design, and system architecture.

What You'll Be Doing

• Own task construction: design and build long-horizon, high-difficulty RL tasks that meet Symbal's specifications within time constraints
• Build internal tools and infrastructure to help contractors create tasks faster and at higher quality
• Contribute to custom agent implementations for enterprise customers and health systems
• Own one core technical domain deeply (DevOps, MLE, systems design, Rust, algorithms, or full-stack) and lead that division of engineering tasks
• Ship and iterate on systems that power Symbal's core task-generation pipeline

Tech stack: Not specified on role page.

Requirements

• 1 to 5 years engineering experience, flexible for exceptional candidates
• Deep specialization in one domain (DevOps, MLE, system design, Rust, algorithms, or equivalent)
• Strong software engineering fundamentals alongside the specialization
• Palo Alto/SF in-person preferred; remote open for truly exceptional candidates
• Startup pace 9am–9pm, six days a week; high-ownership role reporting to CTO

Green Flags

• Rare depth in one engineering area
• Grit and execution velocity
• Specialist who can also lead a division

Red Flags

• No clear specialization or jack-of-all-trades only
• Cannot articulate their specialization clearly

Role Details

Salary$150,000–$175,000Equity0%–1%Schedule9am–9pm, six days a week (non-negotiable)On-site policySF / Palo Alto in-person preferred; remote for truly exceptional candidatesVisa sponsorshipH-1B, OPTEmployment typeFull-timeLocationSan Francisco, CA · Palo Alto, CA

Benefits & Perks

• 1% equity
• Lunch or dinner in office
• Health insurance
• Bay Club or Equinox membership

Screening Questions

• None defined on the role page. The take-home assignment (Stage 3) is the primary evaluation instrument — see Interview Process.

Interview Process

Stage 1 — Pending Approval — Candidates awaiting initial approval.Stage 2 — Intro CallStage 3 — Take-home assignment — Design a sample task based on something you find unique or interesting. Must be a long-horizon task with calibrated difficulty, completed within a time constraint you specify.Stage 4 — Take Home Review (45 min) — Review call to discuss your take-home, your specialization, and fit for the role.Stage 5 — Offer ExtendedStage 6 — Candidate Hired — Candidate accepts and starts.