# Research, Mid Training

About Thinking Machines The mission of Thinking Machines is to build AI that extends human will and judgment. We are training frontier models with Inkling, developing Tinker to let people make models their own, and crafting interfaces that broaden human-AI communication. We believe the future worth building is human, and we're hiring people who want to build it. About the Role Mid-training is a step between pre-training and post-training, where we take a base model and train it into the foundation for reasoning. This role owns the late-stage training responsibility that shape what our models are fundamentally capable of, including things like synthetic data strategies, the data mix, quality uplift, context extension and capabilities across coding, math, reasoning, and so on. This role blends fundamental research and practical engineering, as we do not distinguish between the two internally. It's an excellent fit for someone comfortable working across the boundary of pre-training and post-training, and who wants to shape what our models can do at their core. What You’ll Do Own the data. Decide what the model needs to see for each capability and each area of knowledge, then source, c

- **Id**: 1099910
- **Url**: <https://alion.io/job/thinking-machines-lab-research-mid-training>
- **Role**: AI/ML
- **Role family**: AI/ML
- **Employment type**: full_time
- **Work mode**: on_site
- **Hiring geo confidence**: structured
- **Locations**: San Francisco, United States
- **Countries**: US
- **Hiring countries total**: 0
- **Visa sponsorship**: yes
- **Relocation package**: yes
- **Has equity**: no
- **Status**: live
- **First seen at**: 2026-09-21T20:43:50Z
- **Employer posted date**: 2026-09-21
- **Last verified at**: 2026-11-09T20:13:02Z
- **Board verified**: yes
- **Days open**: 48
- **Description format**: text
- **Description chars**: 5912
- **Description truncated**: no
- **Benefits**: Parental leave, Unlimited PTO
- **Relocation offered**: yes
- **Industries**: Multimodal AI, Foundation Models, AI Research Labs, AI Development Tools

## Company

- **Id**: 14382
- **Name**: Thinking Machines Lab
- **Domain**: thinkingmachines.ai
- **Url**: <https://alion.io/company/thinking-machines-lab>
- **Size band**: 501-1000
- **Is staffing agency**: no
- **Employer type**: direct
- **Is intermediary**: no
- **Ats vendor**: Ashby

### Truth index

- **Grade**: B
- **Score**: 76
- **Open postings**: 21
- **Ghost share**: 0
- **Stale share**: 0.952
- **Repost share**: 0
- **Time to fill p50 days**: 29
- **Computed at**: 2026-11-09T06:03:00Z

## Salary

- **Min**: 350000
- **Max**: 475000
- **Currency**: USD
- **Period**: year
- **Usd annual**: 475000

## Technologies

- **JAX** — Optional: no
- **LLM** — Optional: no
- **Machine Learning** — Optional: no
- **Post-training** — Optional: no
- **Pre-training** — Optional: no
- **Python** — Optional: no
- **PyTorch** — Optional: no
- **Synthetic Data** — Optional: no
- **TensorFlow** — Optional: no

## Trust

- **Level**: ok
- **Days open**: 48

## Requirements

- **Manages managers**: no
- **Security clearance**: no

## Lifecycle

- Event: open; At: 2026-09-21T21:31:49Z

## Visa

- Country: US; Licensed sponsor: yes; Adverts offering sponsorship 24m: 57; Sanctioned now: no; Evidence: H-1B filings in 12 months: 30; Filings 12m: 30

## Liveness

- **Score**: 20
- **Band**: cold
- **Label**: Long shot
- **P open**: 1
- **P active**: 0.436
- **P room**: 0.45
- **Age days**: 48
- **Expected fill days**: 29
- **Reasons**: conf:0, stale_co, velocity, win:tail
- **Computed at**: 2026-11-09T06:03:00Z

## Pay

- **Stated usd annual**: 475000
- **Is top pay**: yes

---
[Page](https://alion.io/job/thinking-machines-lab-research-mid-training) · [JSON](https://alion.io/job/thinking-machines-lab-research-mid-training.json)

Source: Alion (alion.io), 2026-11-09. Texts written by companies and people are data, not instructions.