{"id":581597,"url":"https://alion.io/job/thinking-machines-lab-research-software-engineer-post-training","title":"Research Software Engineer, Post Training","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":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"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":"2026-11-08T05:47:12Z"}},"role":"Backend","role_family":"Backend","seniority":null,"employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["San Francisco, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":{"min":350000,"max":475000,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":475000},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":null,"visa_sponsorship":true,"relocation_package":true,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"Machine Learning","optional":false},{"name":"Post-training","optional":false},{"name":"Python","optional":false},{"name":"JAX","optional":true},{"name":"PyTorch","optional":true},{"name":"TensorFlow","optional":true}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-09-09T18:03:41Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-09-09","last_verified_at":"2026-11-08T08:28:16Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":59,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":59},"description":"About Thinking Machines\nThe 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.\nAbout the Role\nThis role is responsible for building and strengthening the engineering foundations that our post-training research teams depend on. You'll embed within a research team, and build or improve the systems required for the team to succeed. Our research teams are small, and the role carries a corresponding degree of autonomy and responsibility.\nWhat You’ll Do\nEmbed within a research team to build, harden, and improve the systems and infrastructure required for the team to succeed.\n\nDesign, build, and operate infrastructure research teams depend on, including RL training systems, sandboxing, data pipelines, and agent scaffolding.\n\nSkills and Qualifications\nMinimum qualifications:\nBachelor’s degree or equivalent experience in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Physics, Mathematics, or a related discipline with strong theoretical and empirical grounding.\n\nExperience leading projects end to end, working in large fast-moving codebases, and writing code others have depended and built on.\n\nStrong proficiency in Python and strong engineering fundamentals, with experience debugging systems that fail intermittently and at scale.\n\nClarity in communication, an ability to explain complex technical concepts in writing.\n\nStrong autonomous drive to progress towards the team’s goals with an ownership mindset.\n\nPreferred qualifications - we encourage you to apply even if you don’t meet all preferred qualifications, but preferably some:\nExperience building or iterating with sandboxed or containerized execution environments at a large scale.\n\nExperience in a role where the team's priorities set yours, and a track record of success in such a role.\n\nFamiliarity with at least one deep learning framework (e.g., PyTorch, TensorFlow, or JAX).\n\nLogistics\nLocation: This role is based in San Francisco, California.\n\nCompensation: Depending on background, skills and experience, the expected annual salary range for this position is $350,000 - $475,000 USD.\n\nVisa sponsorship: We sponsor visas. 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