Principal AI Researcher – Agentic Systems, AI Infrastructure

This is a fully remote position, open to applicants in Virginia, +1 more state.

📋 Description

• Define and refine the long-term AI/ML research strategy and technical roadmap for Trase OS in accordance with product and platform direction.

• Lead large-scale experimentation and prototyping initiatives that demand substantial compute infrastructure, converting cutting-edge AI research into scalable, production-ready systems with measurable outcomes.

• Foster original research and technical advancements in agentic systems, autonomous execution, multi-agent orchestration, post-training and fine-tuning systems, SLM/LLM-based architectures, and applied AI infrastructure.

• Design operational frameworks for models within enduring execution environments, encompassing agent workflows, tool utilization, planning, memory systems, reasoning, and human-in-the-loop controls.

• Establish evaluation protocols and reliability frameworks for autonomous systems, which include benchmarking, regression testing, safety assessments, controllability, and production behavior analysis.

• Influence architectural decisions across orchestration, model serving, routing, inference, and infrastructure governance, focusing on latency, reliability, and cost optimization.

• Collaborate closely with engineering and product teams to translate research findings into deployable systems and enterprise workflows.

• Construct AI systems that function reliably in regulated and constrained environments, including secure cloud, on-premise, and air-gapped deployments.

• Contribute to the wider AI research community through technical papers, publications, conference engagements, architecture proposals, and thought leadership.

• Act as a senior technical authority and mentor throughout the organization, shaping technical direction, research rigor, experimentation practices, and best practices across research, engineering, and product teams.

⛳️ Requirements

• 12–15+ years of experience in machine learning, AI systems, or applied AI research, including a background operating at a Principal, Distinguished, or equivalent technical level.

• Strong history of research and publication, including authored papers, significant technical contributions, or active involvement in pioneering AI research.

• Experience publishing at leading conferences or contributing to influential open-source, research, or AI infrastructure systems.

• Skilled in conducting large-scale experimentation that necessitates significant compute infrastructure, evaluation workflows, and iterative model/system analysis.

• Profound expertise in one or more fields such as agentic systems, LLMs and generative AI, multi-agent systems, reasoning systems, reinforcement learning, orchestration infrastructure, AI systems reliability, NLP, multimodal systems, or deep learning.

• Practical experience with agent-based systems, prompt engineering, RAG, RLHF, SLMs, fine-tuning/post-training techniques, tool integration, memory systems, and human-in-the-loop orchestration.

• Proven record of building, deploying, and managing enterprise-grade AI systems, including GenAI, LLM, or agent-based applications at scale.

• Strong comprehension of ML system behavior in production, addressing reliability, latency, cost trade-offs, observability, evaluation frameworks, regression testing, and failure modes.

• Excellent systems thinking and a demonstrated ability to collaborate cross-functionally with engineering and product teams to transition research into production systems.

• Strong programming and prototyping capabilities in Python and modern ML infrastructure stacks, with experience in Java or related systems languages preferred.

• Experience in deploying AI/ML systems within regulated, constrained, or enterprise environments, along with a demonstrated ability to guide technical direction from research to production impact.

🏝️ Benefits

• Career track opportunity with potential for rapid advancement based on strong performance as the firm expands.

• 100% employer-sponsored, comprehensive healthcare including medical, dental, and vision for you and your family.

• Paid maternity and paternity leave for 14 weeks at employees' regular pay.

• Unlimited PTO, subject to management approval.

• Opportunities for professional development and continuous learning.

• Optional 401K, FSA, and equity incentives available.

• Mental health benefits accessible through Tara Mind.