VA

AI Agent Researcher

Vast.ai
Posted onFeb 23, 2026
LocationSan Francisco, California, United States | Los Angeles, California, United States (On-site)
Employment typeFull-time
Salary$160k – $320k Yearly

About Us

Vast.ai’s cloud powers AI projects and businesses all over the world. We are democratizing and decentralizing AI computing—reshaping our future for the benefit of humanity.

We are a small, growing and highly motivated team dedicated to an ambitious technical plan. We operate with a flat mobile organizational structure where all contribute directly to the company’s mission. Leadership is earned by those who show initiative and deliver excellence. 

We seek engineers/researchers with strong intrinsic drive, a true passion for advancing the state of the art, and a mix of excellent research, coding, and communication skills.

LOCATION: On-site at our office in San Francisco or Westwood, Los Angeles.

About the Role

As an Agent Research Engineer, you will help advance the highest levels of the tech stack to imbue AI systems with true agency. Collaborating directly with our technical founder and diverse team, we will build the next generation of general learning agents. Possessing and maintaining a wide, deep and holistic knowledge base of cutting-edge research is crucial for advancing the mission. Many are called, but few are chosen.

  • Full-Time
  • On-site at either our SF or LA offices

Tech Stack

Python, Engrish, LLMs, ANNs, C++/Cuda

Ideal Experience

  • Deep expertise in systems engineering across the tech stack
  • Strong holistic background in machine learning theory and practice
  • Diverse knowledge of neural architectures/circuits: transformers etc
  • Published research at top AI conferences

Key Responsibilities

  • Lead cutting-edge research in AI agents, focusing on memory, reliability, and reasoning
  • Prototype and evaluate novel state-of-the-art methods/models

Interview Process

After submitting your application, our technical team reviews your credentials. If selected, you'll proceed through the following stages:

  • Initial screening (virtual 15 minutes)
  • Quick dive into Vast, systems and architectures (virtual 30 minutes)
  • LLM assisted coding assessment (virtual 1 hour)
  • Meet and greet with coding assessment (on-site 2 hours)

Our goal is to complete the interview process in two weeks.

Annual Salary Range

$160,000 - $320,000 + equity + benefits

Vast.ai is hiring across all experience levels with compensation commensurate with background, experience and potential.

Vast.ai is the market leader for low cost GPU rentals, connecting data centers and professionals with users who need AI compute at prices 3-5X cheaper than traditional cloud providers.

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