Vals AI — Member of Technical Staff, Platform
San Francisco, CA · On-site · Full-time Compensation: $150K–$210K + equity
About the Company
Our client is a pre-seed startup working in the AI model-evaluation space, building the infrastructure that measures how the leading AI models perform on rigorous, domain-specific tasks. They are backed by a top Silicon Valley seed fund and partner with major players across the AI ecosystem. This is an early, high-autonomy environment where you would help shape the engineering culture and own significant parts of the platform from day one.
Founded 2024 · ~25 people · Industry: AI, Software Development
The Role
We're hiring a generalist software engineer to join the platform team and build the systems that run large-scale model evaluations end to end. You'll work across the stack in a fast-moving environment, taking open-ended problems and shipping solutions independently. This is a pure individual-contributor role where you stay hands-on every day.
What you'll be doing
- Building and maintaining the platform that runs model benchmarks end to end: backend libraries, web platform, cloud infrastructure, and tooling
- Working across the full stack as a generalist, spanning backend services and frontend features as the team needs
- Taking fuzzy, open-ended problems and independently designing, building, and shipping solutions
- Running code and architecture reviews for other engineers
- Partnering closely with the research team so the infrastructure meets their evaluation needs
Tech stack: Python, Django, React, TypeScript, AWS
Requirements
- 2 to 6 years of professional experience in full-stack or platform engineering
- A track record of building products from the ground up (0-to-1), whether at a major tech company, a venture-backed startup, or as a founder
Nice to Haves
- Experience founding a company or working at an early-stage startup
- A history of building production systems of meaningful scale and scope
- Strong, hands-on production Python in a professional setting
- Frontend experience with React and TypeScript
- An undergraduate CS degree from a top-25 program (a top-5 program stands out if your experience is lighter)
Why Join
- Get in at the pre-seed stage and own large parts of the platform from day one
- Real autonomy over architecture and technical decisions
- Build the infrastructure that runs AI evaluations at scale, alongside a strong, research-driven team
Details
- Location: San Francisco, CA
- Work policy: On-site, 5 days per week
- Compensation: $150K–$210K + equity
- Visa sponsorship: Open to visa transfers (e.g. OPT, H-1B transfers); sponsorship available for exceptional candidates
- Employment type: Full-time