Research Engineer, Interpretability

Role overview

This role focuses on building the engineering systems that enable research into how large language models represent information and produce behavior. You will work across model internals, distributed training and inference, accelerator performance, and researcher-facing tools, helping translate interpretability methods into dependable safety-audit workflows.

Responsibilities

- Build and maintain specialized training and inference infrastructure for interpretability research. - Support instrumented forward and backward passes, activation extraction, and controlled application of steering vectors. - Profile systems, identify scaling constraints, and improve performance and efficiency across hardware and software layers. - Create abstractions and platforms that let researchers run experiments quickly without unnecessary engineering friction. - Help operationalize interpretability research in production safety audits with strong reliability expectations. - Collaborate with infrastructure and research partners while working across the stack from model internals to user-facing tooling.

Requirements

- Approximately 5–10 or more years of professional software engineering experience, depending on level. - Strong proficiency in at least one programming language such as Python, Rust, Go, or Java, with the ability to work productively in Python. - Demonstrated ability to investigate unfamiliar technical areas and trace bottlenecks through multiple layers of a system. - Sound judgment about prioritization, impact, and trade-offs in an ambiguous, fast-moving environment. - Comfortable collaborating closely with researchers and engineers rather than working exclusively independently. - Genuine interest in interpretability and the role of technical understanding in AI safety; prior interpretability experience is not required.

Benefits and work setup

The role is based in San Francisco, with remote consideration possible for exceptional candidates. The general expectation is that staff spend at least 25% of their time in an office, though some roles may require more. Visa sponsorship may be available depending on the role and candidate. The listed annual salary range is $315,000–$560,000 USD.