Senior Research Engineer
At a glance
Senior AI Research role at Decagon. San Francisco · full-time · $200,000–$400,000 base.
aimlroles summary, based on the employer's posting.
What you'll do
- Improve production agents’ instruction following, retrieval, memory and ability to finish long-running tasks
- Build and refine complete models and pipelines, balancing response quality, efficiency and user experience
- Bring new models into live systems by working with platform and product engineers
- Turn open-ended research ideas into staged plans with clear milestones and roadmaps
- Lead multi-quarter work to strengthen agent reliability, capability and efficiency
What you bring
- At least four years in AI or machine-learning engineering or research
- You have post-trained LLMs and deployed them in production
- You work fluently with Python and current machine-learning tools for training, evaluation and data pipelines
- You have taken research prototypes into production and delivered reliable, measurable results
Who this fits
This senior role suits an engineer who wants to build conversational AI models and carry research through production. The job is based on-site in San Francisco.
From the employer
About Decagon
Decagon is the leading conversational AI platform empowering every brand to deliver concierge customer experiences.
Our technology enables industry-defining enterprises like Avis Budget Group, Block’s Cash App and Square, Chime, Oura Health, and Hunter Douglas to deploy AI agents that power personalized, deeply satisfying interactions across voice, chat, email, SMS, and every other channel.
We’re building a future where customer experiences are being redefined from support tickets and hold music to faster resolutions, richer conversations, and deeper relationships. We’re proud to be backed by world-class investors who share that vision, including a16z, Accel, Bain Capital Ventures, Coatue, and Index Ventures, along with many others.
We’re an in-office company, driven by a shared commitment to excellence and velocity. Our values — Just Get It Done, Invent What Customers Want, Winner’s Mindset, and The Polymath Principle — shape how we work and grow as a team.
About the Team
Read more about the research team's work here: https://decagon.ai/blog/introducing-decagon-labs
The Research team develops the model and decision-making stack that powers Decagon’s conversational agents for enterprise support. We research, adapt, and implement state-of-the-art techniques in model training, prompting, orchestration, and evaluation in order to make our agents more accurate, robust, and efficient in real-world deployments.
Our goal is to push the frontier of applied conversational AI: agents that reliably understand nuanced intent, track long context, and take the right actions under uncertainty. We measure success the way customers feel it: higher resolution rates, better user satisfaction, and consistent behavior at scale.
About the Role
As a Senior Research Engineer, you’ll be responsible for building industry-leading conversational AI models that power Decagon’s agent, and taking them all the way from idea to production. You’ll own multi-quarter initiatives that push the agent’s reliability, capability, and efficiency forward, and you’ll design and implement frontier approaches for training, evaluation, and orchestration across the system.
We’re looking for strong engineers who want to build the core models and algorithms behind our AI agents. People here own their work end-to-end, ship real improvements, and are trusted to make high-impact technical decisions.
In this role, you will
Lead research and engineering efforts to improve core conversational capabilities in production, including instruction following, retrieval, memory, and long-horizon task completion
Build and iterate on end-to-end models and pipelines that optimize for quality, efficiency, and user experience
Partner with platform and product engineers to integrate new models into production systems
Break down ambiguous research ideas into clear, iterative milestones and roadmaps.
Your background looks something like this
4+ years of experience in AI/ML engineering or research.
Prior experience post-training and deploying LLMs in production environments.
Fluency in Python and modern ML tooling (training, evaluation, data pipelines)
Track record of taking research ideas from prototype → reliable, measurable production impact
Compensation
$200K – $400K + Offers Equity
This range reflects the expected compensation for this role. Compensation within the range is determined based on experience, skills, and the scope of responsibilities, with flexibility for candidates who demonstrate exceptional impact.
In addition to base salary, we offer competitive equity. Final compensation may vary based on location within the United States.
Benefits
We proudly offer the following benefits for our full-time employees:
Medical, Dental, and Vision benefits for you and your family
Life Insurance and Disability Benefits
Retirement Plan (e.g., 401K, pension)
Parental Leave
Fertility and family building benefits through Carrot
Monthly stipend to support your wellness, lifestyle, and work-life balance
Daily lunches and snacks in the office to keep you at your best
Take what you need vacation policy (subject to local requirements; UK employees receive 25 days of statutory leave)
These benefits are described in more detail in Decagon’s policies, may vary by location, and can change at any time according to applicable compensation and benefits plans.