Research Engineer
At a glance
Mid-level AI Research role at DepthFirst. San Francisco · full-time · no salary stated · we estimate $200,000–$266,875.
DepthFirst has not published a salary for this role. The figure below is our estimate, not theirs.
aimlroles summary, based on the employer's posting.
What you'll do
- Build AI agent workflows that uncover complex software flaws and produce exploits
- Create and maintain agent tests that reflect the security problems users encounter
- Develop training methods and reinforcement-learning environments for security coding agents
What you bring
- At least three years in AI research engineering across machine learning, deep learning or natural language processing
- Experience taking machine-learning models from initial development through large-scale use and business impact
- Python programming skills and practical work with PyTorch or similar listed frameworks
- A computer science or software engineering degree, or equivalent experience in the industry
Who this fits
This role suits an engineer focused on AI research who can evaluate models and build benchmarks. You’ll work onsite in San Francisco.
From the employer
About depthfirst
We believe that software is the foundation of modern civilization - yet vulnerabilities threaten its integrity, security, and resilience. We are on a mission to solve security.
depthfirst is building intelligence to detect and remediate critical software vulnerabilities. We are training and scaling security AI agents to discover zero-days vulnerabilities across large customer codebases and popular open source software.
Our founding team includes deep expertise in data, infrastructure, security and LLMs with technical leaders from DeepMind, Databricks, Square, and Faire. We are looking for strong technical people who are interested in working at the intersection of AI, Security, and Infrastructure.
About this role
We’re seeking an experienced Research Engineer to join our effort in building and training AI agents for vulnerability discovery and exploitation.
We are building a technology capable of finding the next Log4J at scale, finding and remediating vulnerabilities in customer and open source codebases.
We are looking for strong engineers with strong intuition, experience in model evaluation, and benchmarks. Reinforcement Learning experience is a plus. Your work will play a crucial role in building a product that aims to redefine how companies do security.
You’re excited about this role because you will…
Build State-of-the-Art AI Agentic pipelines optimized for discovering intricate software vulnerabilities and generate exploits
Design, Maintain and Evolve evaluation benchmarks for AI agents that reflects the problems our users face
Design & Develop training procedures and reinforcement learning environments to train security coding agents
Work on a Product that Solves a Critical Problem - and we already have a handful of customers who have found it valuable in fixing some eye-opening vulnerabilities within the first few days of using our product.
Qualifications
3+ years of full-time experience in AI research engineering in machine learning, deep learning, and/or natural language processing
Experience with developing machine learning models at scale from inception to business impact
Programming experience in Python and hands-on experience with frameworks such as PyTorch
A bachelor's degree in Computer Science/Software Engineering or equivalent industry experience
A love for technology, and an insatiable curiosity for new tools to tackle real problems
Capable of solving complex problems with simple solutions. Building reliable and scalable products, making right trade-offs along the way
A tendency to leave things in a better way than you found it
What We Offer
Competitive salary with meaningful equity
Health, Vision, and Dental Insurance
Office lunch and dinner (when working from our San Francisco office)
depthfirst is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, national origin, disability, age, genetic information, veteran status, marital status, pregnancy or related condition, or any other basis protected by law.
To all recruitment agencies: depthfirst does not accept agency resumes. Please do not forward resumes to depthfirst employees. depthfirst is not responsible for any fees related to unsolicited resumes and will not pay fees to any third-party agency or company that does not have a signed agreement with the Company.