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Efficiency Research Engineer

A

Adaption

United States · Canada · Ireland · San Francisco, CA, USA · France · Spain · India · Brazil · Poland · Mexico · Netherlands · Germany · Earth · Multiple locations · Turkey · Portugal · United Kingdom · Remote
Posted on Jan 19, 2026

Location

San Francisco, United States, Canada, United Kingdom, India, Global Remote, Turkey, France, Germany, Ireland, Netherlands, Portugal, Poland, Brazil, Spain, Mexico

Employment Type

Full time

Location Type

Hybrid

Department

Modelling

Deadline to Apply

February 28, 2026 at 2:00 AM EST

About us

Most AI is frozen in place - it doesn't adapt to the world. We think that's backwards. Our mandate is to build efficient intelligence that evolves in real-time. Our vision is AI systems that are flexible, personalized, and accessible to everyone. We believe efficiency is what makes this possible - it's how we expand access and ensure innovation benefits the many, not the few. We believe in talent density: bringing together the best and most driven individuals to push the boundaries of continual adaptation. We're looking for builders and creative thinkers ready to shape the next era of intelligence

Our research principles

Sweat the details. Technical excellence requires obsessing over every detail. We co-design serving, algorithms, and interface as one system to maximize efficiency and enable real-time adaptation.

Move with conviction. Extraordinary results require extraordinary effort. We operate with urgency as a unified team, concentrating resources on a few high-conviction bets where research and impact intersect.

Metrics that matter. The most intelligent system will increasingly be defined by building an algorithm that can interact with the world. Research ideas are tested through working products. If it doesn't improve what users can do, we question whether it matters. We share what moves the field; we don't optimize for paper count.

The role

We are obsessed with efficiency - allowing for real-time evolution of AI depends on making adaptable intelligence extremely efficient. We explore new research and algorithms within severe compute budgets. These budgets force us to innovate and collaborate across software, hardware, and algorithm. You’ll collaborate with world-class peers and work at the cutting edge of AI efficiency research, where constraints drive creativity. You will contribute to building a company where efficiency isn’t an afterthought - it’s the core principle.

Responsibilities

  • Innovation: lead our focused bets on real time adaptation, which include innovating on algorithmic recipes which result in large real time gains.

  • Cross-Stack Optimization: collaborate across software, hardware, and algorithmic domains to achieve system-wide efficiency gains.

  • Research & Development: explore new research directions in efficient machine learning, alignment, inference time scaling and adaptable systems. We will have a focus on gradient free techniques which produce large performance gains, as well as data efficient techniques which allow for rapid alignment and adaptation.

Qualifications

  • Deep expertise in at least one area: model efficiency, distributed systems, hardware acceleration, or algorithmic optimization

  • Systems thinking ability to understand and optimize across the full ML stack

  • Strong programming skills in Python. Experience with deep learning frameworks (PyTorch, JAX, TensorFlow)

  • Knowledge of model optimization techniques (RLHF, finetuning)

  • Experience in an industry lab with computing at scale and/or fast-paced startup environment

  • Nice to have: PhD in computer science, and experience with algorithm design

Above all, we're looking for great teammates who make work feel lighter and aren't afraid to go out on a limb with bold ideas. You don't need to be perfect, but you do need to be adaptable. We encourage you to apply, even if you don't check every box.

Benefits

  • Flexible work: In-person collaboration in the Bay Area, a distributed global-first team, and quarterly offsites.

  • Adaption Passport: Annual travel stipend to explore a country you've never visited. We're building intelligence that evolves alongside you, so we encourage you to keep expanding your horizons.

  • Lunch Stipend: Weekly meal allowance for take-out or grocery delivery.

  • Well-Being: Comprehensive medical benefits and generous paid time off.