Research Engineer

VSG Recruitment is working with an innovative, venture-backed technology company in New York City looking to add a talented Research Engineer – Applied AI to its growing engineering team.

Our client is developing an AI-powered software platform that combines large-scale data processing, intelligent automation, and machine learning to help businesses make more informed decisions.

This is an opportunity to join a lean, highly technical team where you'll have significant ownership over engineering projects, contribute to architectural decisions, and help bring advanced AI capabilities into production.

ABOUT THE ROLE

We're looking for a backend-focused engineer who enjoys working at the intersection of software engineering, applied AI, and data infrastructure.

You'll be responsible for building and improving production AI systems, developing reliable data pipelines, and experimenting with emerging machine learning technologies.

The role combines hands-on engineering with applied research, offering opportunities to work on LLM orchestration, model evaluation, retrieval systems, and future ML infrastructure.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

• Design, develop, and maintain scalable backend services and AI-powered data pipelines.
• Build production workflows connecting LLMs, external APIs, databases, and distributed systems.
• Develop evaluation frameworks to measure model performance, accuracy, reliability, and data quality.
• Experiment with prompt engineering, retrieval techniques, structured outputs, and model selection strategies.
• Implement monitoring and observability to optimize AI system performance, latency, and costs.
• Work with technologies such as Python, PostgreSQL, Kubernetes, Temporal, and ClickHouse.
• Research and integrate new AI tools, models, and APIs into production environments.
• Contribute to future initiatives involving model fine-tuning, inference optimization, and synthetic data generation.
• Collaborate closely with engineering leadership to influence technical direction and product development.

WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR

• Strong software engineering experience, particularly in backend systems, distributed computing, and data infrastructure.
• Hands-on experience developing or integrating LLM-powered applications and AI workflows.
• Solid understanding of databases, APIs, cloud infrastructure, and production engineering.
• Comfortable working across multiple programming languages and learning new technologies.
• Experience designing experiments, evaluating results, and improving systems based on measurable outcomes.
• Strong problem-solving abilities and the confidence to tackle complex, open-ended technical challenges.
• Practical engineering judgment with an emphasis on simplicity, scalability, and maintainability.
• Comfortable working independently and taking ownership in a fast-paced, collaborative environment.
• Familiarity with modern AI development tools and workflows.

NICE TO HAVE

Experience with any of the following:

• PyTorch, Hugging Face, or vLLM
• Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG)
• Ray, MLflow, or similar ML infrastructure tools
• Model evaluation and benchmarking
• Fine-tuning and reinforcement learning
• Inference serving and optimization
• Synthetic data generation
• Large-scale data processing systems

WHY CONSIDER THIS OPPORTUNITY?

• Competitive Salary: $200,000 – $300,000 USD base salary plus equity.
• Meaningful Ownership: Take responsibility for core engineering systems and technical initiatives.
• Modern AI Technology: Work with LLMs, machine learning infrastructure, and emerging AI capabilities.
• High-Impact Projects: Help build and scale production systems used by real customers.
• Career Growth: Join a growing engineering organization with opportunities to influence technical decisions.
• Collaborative Environment: Work alongside experienced engineers in a team that values experimentation, execution, and continuous improvement.
• Hybrid Work: New York City-based position with a hybrid working arrangement.