San Francisco, CA · On-site · Full-time
Compensation: $175K–$225K + equity
Our client is an early-stage AI lab building foundation models in the consumer music space, with live products already in the hands of a global user base. It's a small, close-knit team pairing deep ML research talent with consumer product builders, and this is a genuine ground-floor opportunity where each early hire shapes both the product and the culture.
Founded 2024 · ~5 people · Industry: AI, Consumer, Education, EdTech
Our client is hiring a founding engineer to help build production-ready ML systems that power the next generation of music learning for a large and growing base of musicians. You'll work closely with the Head of AI, taking abstract ideas and turning them into rock-solid, shipped implementations. Prior music-AI experience is not expected — the team already has domain experts and is looking for exceptional general technical ability paired with a startup mindset.
What you'll be doing
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Building and shipping ML models for audio and symbolic music understanding into production systems used by real musicians
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Translating the research team's ideas into solid, working engineering implementations
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Partnering with data, design, and product to integrate models into user-facing features
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Curating, preprocessing, and building pipelines around large-scale music datasets
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Contributing to model evaluation, optimization, and deployment for real-world latency and reliability
Tech stack: Python, PyTorch / JAX, large-scale ML systems
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Zero to four years of experience in ML engineering, infrastructure, or a comparably demanding technical role
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Time at a company known for a high technical bar — for example, big-tech infrastructure, quant, or a fast-scaling startup
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Strong software engineering and hands-on coding ability
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A track record of building and training ML models, whether in production systems or through substantial hands-on projects
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A bachelor's or master's in computer science, electrical engineering, or a closely related technical field
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Working proficiency with modern ML frameworks such as PyTorch or JAX
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The ability to take research concepts and turn them into robust, shippable code
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A collaborative working style that meshes well with researchers and fellow engineers
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Based in San Francisco (or ready to relocate) and comfortable working in person for the majority of the week
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Prior experience at a startup or other early-stage company
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Exposure to audio, sequence modeling, or generative model domains
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Experience building data pipelines or working with large-scale datasets
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A founding engineering seat at a pre-Series A AI lab, with meaningful early-stage equity
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The chance to work directly alongside PhD researchers and product experts on genuinely novel consumer AI
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Real influence over both the product and the team's culture from day one
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Competitive compensation: $175K–$225K plus significant early equity
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Location — San Francisco, CA
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Work policy — On-site; in person the majority of the week
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Compensation — $175K–$225K + equity
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Visa sponsorship — Open to visa transfers (e.g. OPT, H-1B transfers)
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Employment type — Full-time
