As a Staff Research Engineer at Onton, you will help build and scale a neurosymbolic AI agent capable of providing optimal decision-making context in real time. The agent currently supports e-commerce decisions but is designed to evolve into a general problem solver, ultimately aiming to contribute to the creation of AGI. You will work on solving fundamental AI challenges like hallucination, catastrophic forgetting, and context finiteness through architectural innovation.
Responsibilities
- Create an AI agent capable of providing sufficient context for optimal decision-making as quickly as possible
- Scale Onton to handle 1B+ searches per year
- Develop a neurosymbolic AI agent that learns from every search
- Solve fundamental AI problems including hallucination, context finiteness, and catastrophic forgetting
- Iteratively ship code that is correct, robust, scalable, and maintainable
- Conduct self-directed, data-driven experiments from first principles
Requirements
- Significant software, ML, or research engineering experience
- Deep, principled understanding of the current state of the field of AI, especially neurosymbolic approaches
- Experience contributing to empirical AI research projects
- Enjoy implementation, not just writing papers
- Excitement about non-purely-statistical approaches to AI
- Preference for fast-moving collaborative projects over extensive solo efforts
- Ability to quickly and iteratively ship code that is correct, robust, scalable, and maintainable
Preferred Qualifications
- PhD or Master’s in Artificial Intelligence, Computer Science, Cognitive Science, Linguistics, or comparable field
- Equivalent research experience to a PhD or Master’s
Technical Stack
neurosymbolic AI, world modeling, logical consistency systems, RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation), AI architecture design
Benefits
- Relocation compensation offered
- Tenure system allowing transition to fully remote work after one year (provided operation on Pacific Time)
- Onsite collaboration fostering creativity, spontaneous collaboration, and strong relationships
- Hybrid work model (3 days a week in office) after initial full-time onsite period
Work Arrangement
Hybrid — San Francisco (Jackson Square) — Full-time onsite required initially; after one year, transition to fully remote possible if operating on Pacific Time
Onton is an equal opportunity employer. It does not discriminate based on race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex, marital status, ancestry, physical or mental disability, genetic information, veteran status, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, or other legally protected characteristics. The company considers qualified applicants with criminal histories and provides reasonable accommodations for individuals with disabilities.
