Thinking Machines Lab · 2 months ago
Research Engineer, Tinker, Developer Experience
San Francisco
Full-time
Onsite
Mid, Senior Level
$350K/yr - $475K/yrThinking Machines Lab's mission is to empower humanity through advancing collaborative general intelligence. They are seeking a research engineer focused on developer experience to build Tinker, a fine-tuning API, while engaging directly with users to enhance their experience and optimize product features.
Artificial Intelligence (AI)Foundational AIGenerative AIInformation TechnologyProduct ResearchSoftware
Responsibilities
Write, test, and maintain high-quality code examples, recipes, and documentation in the Tinker cookbook
Work directly with a variety of users to debug technical issues and optimize their fine-tuning pipelines
Partner with internal research and infra teams to identify and prioritize improvements to Tinker’s developer experience
Build tools, integrations, and demos that reduce user friction and make it easy to experiment and deploy models
Share insights from the field through posts, guides, and talks
Help develop Tinker’s near-term roadmap and long-term product strategy
Qualification
Required
Write, test, and maintain high-quality code examples, recipes, and documentation in the Tinker cookbook
Work directly with a variety of users to debug technical issues and optimize their fine-tuning pipelines
Partner with internal research and infra teams to identify and prioritize improvements to Tinker's developer experience
Build tools, integrations, and demos that reduce user friction and make it easy to experiment and deploy models
Share insights from the field through posts, guides, and talks
Help develop Tinker's near-term roadmap and long-term product strategy
Preferred
Experienced with fine-tuning large language models (LLMs) with supervised and reinforcement learning, and how to tune the hyperparameters of these algorithms
Experienced with developing software libraries, especially open-source libraries
Are thoughtful about developer experience, with clear ideas around developer ergonomics, onboarding flow, and sharp edges
Are passionate about engaging with open-source communities, whether by contributing code, answering questions, or sharing learnings
Have written public or internal code examples, tutorials, or papers that helped others understand and apply technical concepts
Are comfortable reasoning about model training, fine-tuning, and inference, and can credibly discuss tradeoffs between different approaches
Benefits
Generous health, dental, and vision benefits
Unlimited PTO
Paid parental leave
Relocation support as needed
Company
Thinking Machines Lab
Thinking Machines Lab is an AI research and product company that aims to increase understanding and customization of AI systems.
Founded in 2025
11-50 employees
H1B Sponsorship
Thinking Machines Lab has a track record of offering H1B sponsorships. Please note that this does not
guarantee sponsorship for this specific role. Below presents additional info for your
reference. (Data Powered by US Department of Labor)
Distribution of Different Job Fields Receiving Sponsorship
Represents job field similar to this job
Trends of Total Sponsorships
2025 (9)
Funding
Current Stage
Early StageTotal Funding
$2.01BKey Investors
Andreessen HorowitzMinistry of Economy, Culture and Innovation
2025-06-20Seed· $2B
2025-05-05Grant· $9.98M
Leadership Team
Mira Murati
Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Recent News
Business Insider
2026-01-06
Crunchbase News
2026-01-02
Indian Express
2025-12-31
Company data provided by crunchbase