About xAI

xAI’s mission is to create AI systems that can accurately understand the universe and aid humanity in its pursuit of knowledge.

Our team is small, highly motivated, and focused on engineering excellence. This organization is for individuals who appreciate challenging themselves and thrive on curiosity.

We operate with a flat organizational structure. All employees are expected to be hands-on and to contribute directly to the company’s mission. Leadership is given to those who show initiative and consistently deliver excellence. Work ethic and strong prioritization skills are important.

All engineers and researchers are expected to have strong communication skills. They should be able to concisely and accurately share knowledge with their teammates.

About the Role

As a Forward Deployed Product Engineer in the GTM (Go-To-Market) team, you will work on critical product integrations for our most important partners and other high-impact initiatives, owning strategy and execution alongside our end customers. This senior-level role combines hands-on technical expertise with a startup-like mindset, akin to an AI startup CTO. You’ll operate within a small, dynamic team to deliver high-stakes projects. A day’s work may include:

Deliver solutions end-to-end that meet customer needs—understanding user pain points, scoping product specs, and designing and building LLM-powered software
Working on frontend/backend integration for an exceptional end-user experience, including integration into existing auth, billing, and account creation systems
Adding logging/metrics for user activity and retention to drive data-informed decisions
Benchmarking models or helping write evals for customers to identify weaknesses
Improving model performance through system prompt tuning or fine-tuning models
Analyzing request logs or reading through prompt data
Starting with fixing miscellaneous API bugs encountered in the wild
Building internal tooling to automate repetitive tasks
Improving xAI SDKs or developer documentation based on customer feedback

Focus

Strong passion for solving real-world business problems and delivering measurable impact through AI solutions
Proven track record of shipping high-quality code and successfully completing projects in challenging environments
Ability to navigate ambiguity and adapt to changing requirements and priorities in a fast-paced startup environment
Strong communication skills, critical when interfacing with customers to clarify requirements and drive projects to completion
Emphasis on designing, implementing, and maintaining robust and scalable AI-driven solutions
Proficiency in working with large, complex codebases and designing efficient data processing and model-serving architectures
Senior profile with the ability to quickly pick up Rust and contribute to diverse technical challenges

An ideal candidate meets at least the following requirements:

6+ years of software engineering experience preferred
Great verbal and written communication skills in English
Ability to turn business and product ideas into engineering solutions
Proven experience in AI or machine learning product implementation with APIs, back-end, and front-end interfaces
Experience in Rust, Python and/or TypeScript
Understanding of the HTTP protocol
Strong engineering background, preferred in fields such as Computer Science, Mathematics, Software Engineering, Physics, and Data Science

Furthermore, candidates may stand out by having any of the following experiences:

Building evals for new capabilities and evaluating our systems
Demonstrating an understanding of machine learning fundamentals, including model evaluation, training, and fine-tuning
Deploying machine learning models to production
Writing developer documentation
Creating and maintaining SDKs
Showcasing the ability to work with massive datasets, optimize performance, and scale systems to handle high-throughput workloads
Using Pulumi or Terraform
Experience working with real-time APIs and voice model integrations (a plus)

Interview Process

After submitting your application, the team reviews your CV and statement of exceptional work. If your application passes this stage, you will be invited to a 15-minute interview (“technical phone interview”) during which a member of our team will ask technical questions about your background or specialization. If you clear the initial phone interview, you will enter the main process, which consists of four technical interviews:

Please note that the Statement of Exceptional Work is a key deciding factor for consideration.

15 min Technical Screen
2x 45 min Coding Interview
1 hour Meet the Team

Our goal is to finish the main process within one week. We don’t rely on recruiters for assessments. Every application is reviewed by a member of our technical team. All interviews will be conducted via Google Meet or in-person.

Benefits

Competitive cash-based compensation
xAI equity
Private health and dental insurance
Unlimited time off subject to prior approval

Annual Salary Range

$180,000 - $440,000 USD

xAI is an equal opportunity employer and does not unlawfully discriminate based on race, color, religion, ethnicity, ancestry, national origin, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, age, disability, medical conditions, genetic information, marital status, military or veteran status, or any other applicable legally protected characteristics.

Qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment in accordance with all applicable federal, state, and local laws, including the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers, and the California Fair Chance Act.

For Los Angeles County (unincorporated) Candidates:

xAI reasonably believes that criminal history may have a direct, adverse and negative relationship on the following job duties, potentially resulting in the withdrawal of a conditional offer of employment:

Access to information technology systems and confidential information, including proprietary and trade secret information, and/or user data;
Interacting with internal and/or external clients and colleagues; and
Exercising sound judgment.

California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) Notice