MLabs is hiring an Applied AI Engineer to join us as the third member of our AI team. You will be instrumental in building the next generation of autonomous AI workers, tackling core engineering challenges for our Ava 2.0 product in a high-growth, YC-backed startup. You will report directly to the CPTO and have significant influence on product direction and architectural backbone.
What You'll Do
- Evaluate and select LLMs, balancing trade-offs between cost, latency, reliability, and accuracy for specific tasks.
- Design prompt frameworks and agent behaviors for complex workflows including email generation, web research, and CRM integration.
- Build and refine multi-step agent chains using RAG, web search, and tool-use (calendars, APIs, etc.).
- Drive choices for orchestration, persistent memory, and 'eval loops' while building guardrails for AI safety and trust.
- Explore and deploy emerging tech, from voice AI to multi-modal reasoning.
What We're Looking For
- 2+ years of experience shipping production-grade AI products, either at an app-layer startup or on a foundation model team.
- Deep hands-on experience with agents, function calling, RAG pipelines, or self-healing workflows (e.g., LangChain, ReAct, OpenAI Tools).
- Strong background in prompt design, chaining, and retrieval systems.
- Proven ability to own the latency, reliability, and cost of LLM-powered systems in a live environment.
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills with a penchant for directness and candor.
- Based in San Francisco, New York, or Remote (USA).
Technical Stack
- LLMs
- RAG
- LangChain
- ReAct
- OpenAI Tools
Team & Environment
You will report directly to the CPTO.
Benefits & Compensation
- Founder mindset culture empowering initiative and challenge.
- Impact-driven focus on the 80/20 rule.
- High standards for code elegance and product quality.
- Low ego, high positive vibes, 'winning team energy'.
- Work at a fast-scaling startup ($35M+ raised) with a clear path to market leadership.
Work Mode
This position is open to candidates based in San Francisco, New York, or Remote within the USA.
At MLabs, we are committed to offering equal opportunities to all candidates. We ensure no discrimination, accessible job adverts, and providing information in accessible formats. Our goal is to foster a diverse, inclusive workplace with equal opportunities for all.
