Applied Research Engineer

Company: Recruits Lab
Location: San Francisco
Posted on: February 14, 2026

Job Description:

Job Description Job Description The Opportunity We are representing an elite AI research lab that is exclusively focused on the final frontier of internet data: Video. While most of the industry is focused on text, this team is building the exabyte-scale infrastructure and novel understanding techniques required to power the next generation of generative media, AR/VR, and robotics. With a lean team of just 12 people, they generated multi-million dollar revenue last quarter alone and are backed by Tier-1 investors, including Matrix Partners and Y Combinator. This is a rare chance to join a high-growth, high-revenue "soonicorn" where your work directly impacts the models used by the world’s top AI labs. The Role As an Applied Research Engineer, you won't just be training models in a vacuum. You will build high-performance building blocks and large-scale pipelines to decode and understand video with high precision at internet scale. You will thrive here if you enjoy "squeezing every drop of performance" out of models through clever engineering, parallelism, and inference optimization. Key Responsibilities: Develop end-to-end pipelines across Computer Vision, Audio, and Text processing domains. Solve ambiguous research problems with pragmatic, high-performance engineering solutions. Optimize model inference via pipelining, pre/post-processing, and selective fine-tuning. Translate complex customer needs into robust, maintainable technical building blocks. Who You Are The Experience: 3–12 years of professional experience, with at least 2 years specifically in Computer Vision or Audio Processing. The Tech Stack: Expert-level Python and hands-on experience with PyTorch (or similar ML frameworks). The Mindset: You are a builder first. You care more about shipping a product that works at scale than just achieving a theoretical benchmark. The Communicator: You can break down technical hurdles for external partners and internal stakeholders alike. Bonus Points: Active GitHub/Open Source contributions or experience as an early-stage startup hire. Why Join? High Impact: Work on a team where "1 of 12" means you own a massive piece of the roadmap. Full Support: Comprehensive Visa sponsorship (H-1B, O-1, OPT) for the right candidate. Cutting Edge: Access to massive datasets and the computing power necessary to push the boundaries of video modeling. Prime Location: Based in the heart of the San Francisco AI ecosystem. How to Apply If you are passionate about the future of media and want to build the infrastructure that powers it, we want to hear from you.

Keywords: Recruits Lab, Alameda , Applied Research Engineer, Engineering , San Francisco, California