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Member of Technical Staff - Research Engineer, RL Environments

Join Preference Model as a Research Engineer to design and build RL environments for advancing machine learning capabilities.

Location
San Francisco
Compensation
Not disclosed
Level
senior
Type
full time

Posted by employer 3 days ago

First seen on Joblaze 2 days ago

Last verified on the company career page 16 hours ago

Apply at Preference Model → Save job Scanned from preferencemodel.com

Skills & Technologies

JAX PyTorch Python Flexible on stack

What you'll build

  • Design and build RL environments
  • Conduct experiments and evaluations
  • Deliver work into production training runs
  • Collaborate with researchers and engineers

Must have

  • 5+ years of experience working in machine learning
  • Proficiency in Python
  • Proficiency in PyTorch or JAX

Nice to have

  • Research experience (PhD, MS)
  • Expert knowledge in an active DL/ML research area
  • Strong expertise in kernel development

Requirements

Experience
5+ years
Visa
Sponsorship available

Not disclosed in this posting: compensation, work arrangement.

Benefits

401k Match Equity/Stock Options Health Insurance Relocation Assistance

Joblaze summary

In this role, the engineer will design and implement reinforcement learning environments that enhance the capabilities of frontier machine learning models. Candidates should have over five years of experience in machine learning, particularly with large language models, and be proficient in Python and frameworks like PyTorch or JAX. This position is ideal for seasoned professionals who are problem solvers and can take ownership of their projects, contributing to a small, high-ownership team focused on advancing AI training methodologies.

Joblaze insights

  • Listed 2 days ago — first seen on Joblaze November 12, 2026. Last confirmed on Preference Model's careers page November 14, 2026.
  • This exact title is also open at 1 other location at Preference Model: San Francisco.
  • Python appears in 51.7% of 555 comparable senior ai/ml roles in United States; JAX appears in 4.5% of 555 comparable senior ai/ml roles in United States.

Quick facts

How much experience is required?
At least 5 years of relevant experience for this Member of Technical Staff - Research Engineer, RL Environments role.
What's the tech stack?
Joblaze extracted these technologies from the posting: JAX, PyTorch, Python.
Does Preference Model sponsor work visas for this role?
Yes — the posting indicates visa sponsorship is available for the right candidate.
What seniority level is this role?
Preference Model targets senior candidates for this position.
Is this full-time or contract?
Full-time for this Member of Technical Staff - Research Engineer, RL Environments role at Preference Model.

From the original posting

About the Role

We’re hiring experienced Machine Learning Engineers to design and build reinforcement learning environments to safely advance model capabilities in machine learning research and engineering. Specifically, you'll be teaching frontier models to do the work of an ML engineer or researcher at a frontier lab.

This role blends research and engineering. It will require you to stay up to date with the latest research, develop novel approaches, and realize them in code. You will have full ownership and autonomy of the environments you build. Your work will include designing and implementing RL environments, conducting experiments and evaluations, delivering your work into production training runs, and collaborating with other researchers and engineers.

You will join our Capabilities org, a small, high-ownership team and contribute directly to the data layer that powers frontier LLM capability.

Note: This role is only for experienced ML Engineers. We have a separate opening for New Grads.

What You Will Do:

  • Design and build RL environments and reward functions that produce clean, learnable signals for frontier models on ML research and engineering tasks

  • Build deep expertise across the frontier of ML research, training, and inference infrastructure

  • Collaborate with others to brainstorm and create new ideas and tools to improve the environment building process

What We are Looking For (Qualifications):

  • 5+ years of experience working in machine learning or research, primarily on LLMs and transformer models

  • You have strong ML fundamentals and broad research interests. You read many papers or tutorials, understand topics deeply and have the creativity to translate them into RLVR problems

  • Proficiency in Python and systems programming and at least one of PyTorch or JAX

  • Problem solvers who take ownership and drives solutions end-to-end

  • Passion for staying current with the rapidly evolving ML infrastructure landscape

  • Ability to meet throughput expectations and respond quickly to feedback

You may be a good fit if you also:

  • Have expert knowledge in an active DL/ML research area, with publications or public code to show for it. Research experience (PhD, MS) is a big plus

  • Have deep understanding of transformer internals, training/inference of modern LLMs, experience with inference libraries (vLLM, SGLang, etc)

  • Have strong expertise in kernel development (CUDA, Triton, Pallas)

  • Have built complex interactive RL environments

What We Offer:

  • Competitive cash and equity compensation (>90th percentile)

  • Health, vision, dental, benefits

  • 401K match

  • Lunch provided everyday onsite

  • Weekly snack orders

  • Visa sponsorship & relocation support available

Standard company text repeated across Preference Model's postings is omitted here.