--- title: 'Alignment Research Manager at AE Studio' canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/alignment-research-manager-ae-studio-los-angeles-btt46qyx5qxp' type: 'job' last_seen: '2026-09-10' --- # Alignment Research Manager at AE Studio - **Company:** AE Studio - **Location:** Los Angeles, CA / United States - **Work type:** remote - **Posted:** 2025-08-08 - **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-10 - **Apply:** https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/aestudio/jobs/5616440004 ## Job description AE Studio is a 160-person ML consultancy dedicated to solving the hardest problems in AI. We use our profits to fund research on the most important problems in AI Safety and Alignment. We partner with top researchers from both academia and industry, including Anthropic, Goodfire AI, Redwood, Princeton, MATS, RAND Corporation, and others. Our research is published in top ML conferences and currently deployed in safety-critical systems. AE Studio was founded 10 years ago with the goal of helping corporate clients develop humanity-affirming, agency-promoting technology. Since then we’ve developed a reputation for rapidly delivering world-class solutions to their hardest problems. We take the same client-centric approach to research, partnering with the world’s best external researchers to develop world-class results. They provide the vision and our researchers make their ideas a reality. Our core alignment team is 25 researchers and growing. We hire from all backgrounds. Whether you’re an independent researcher, an engineer, or an academic, AE is a place to make real impact on the single most important problem of our time. We research a diverse set of ambitious alignment directions that others neglect, including pretraining interventions for model safety, novel interpretability techniques, neuroscience-inspired approaches to alignment, and many others. You can learn more about our team and work from our [Alignment Podcast](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ae-alignment-podcast/id1888046207) as well as our [research page](https://ae.studio/research). ## About the role You will be the person who makes the research acceleration model actually run. You own projects end to end: turning abstract research ideas into clear roadmaps, keeping technical teams unblocked and moving fast, and making sure progress is visible to leadership, collaborators, and funders. Projects usually involve several stakeholders, grants, or research partners, and some are internal research. You break down ambiguity, define milestones, and focus the team on what matters. You also dive in when something needs to be tested, validated, or unblocked. You identify dead ends early and keep work pointed at the highest-upside directions. And you're someone who could eventually lead a Skunkworks spinout, a new research track, or an internal product. ## About you - Working knowledge of AI and ML systems, enough to track technical complexity and ask the right questions - Experience managing complex technical projects, including research - You can structure execution across ambiguous, high-stakes efforts - You translate fluently between engineers, researchers, clients, and funders - You take initiative without waiting for permission and own results end to end - You care about AI alignment and believe meaningful progress on the problem is possible - Eager to use AI tools and automate everything you can - Comfortable in a fast-paced, startup-like environment Bonus - Experience in AI research, technical product leadership, or startup founding - Prior work with generative AI, large language models, or experimental architectures - Background in DARPA-style research, grant-based work, or scientific pipelines - Being in LA to work from our office ## Benefits Remote-first with flexible schedules. Coworking spaces available in the Bay Area and NYC. Platinum health insurance, free lunches at the office, weekly knowledge-sharing talks, and an annual team retreat. Regular performance-based raises and a diversified employee equity program. ## Compensation Salary range is $180K to $240K per year for US-based candidates. Not in the range? Apply anyway and may have other roles opening soon ## About AE Studio ## Company Overview - **One-liner**: AE Studio is a bootstrapped applied AI studio that delivers frontier AI alignment research, production AI systems, and AI strategy for enterprise and high-growth clients. - **Entity Type**: Private (Bootstrapped – no outside investors) - **Headquarters**: Los Angeles, California, USA - **Founded**: 2016 - **Founders**: Not publicly available ## Core Business - **Primary industries**: Artificial Intelligence, AI alignment research, AI strategy, custom machine learning, enterprise software - **Target customers**: B2B – Fortune 1000 enterprises, PE portfolio companies, mid-market operators ($50–500M revenue), and venture-backed startups - **Mission or purpose statement**: “Building products to increase human agency using the most recent technologies” (from job descriptions) ## Products & Services The company operates across three practice areas, each delivered as a service: - **Frontier AI Alignment Research**: In-house research lab publishing at top AI conferences. Collaborates with DARPA (AICRAFT, Sleeper Agents) and Anthropic. Research threads include Self-Other Overlap, Gradient Routing, Endogenous Steering Resistance, Attention Schema Theory, SelfIE, FDRA, and the automated AI research agent AE Scientist. *Type*: Research service (grants, commissionable engagements, self-funded) - **Production AI Systems**: Senior embedded pods that ship production AI systems in weeks, clearing enterprise architecture review. Representative work includes: - Azul Airlines – orchestrated pricing, network, and marketing AI generating $6M/week in new revenue. - Alpha School – AI-native learning platform (Avatar Tutors, Essay Writing, etc.) driving top 1–2% national test scores. - Blackrock Neurotech – MoveAgain BCI (brain-computer interface) platform for paralyzed patients. - Pimsleur – voice-driven AI Conversation Coach with 175,000+ learners, resulting in 45% longer sessions. - Global Shop Solutions – AI document ingestion (95% accuracy, 90% reduction in manual overhead). - Jupiter Intelligence – natural-language access to 400 trillion climate data points. - EVgo – multi-year embedded partnership for EVgo eXtend white-label platform. *Type*: Service (custom development) - **AI Strategy**: Readiness assessments, opportunity mapping, training, and org design for leadership teams. *Type*: Consulting service ## Market Standing - **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not disclosed (bootstrapped, no outside investors) - **Key Metric**: ~150 senior applied AI, data, and product practitioners; 99+ named client engagements - **Notable Investors/Partners**: None (bootstrapped). Key research collaborators: DARPA (AICRAFT, Sleeper Agents programs), Anthropic. Public endorsement from Emmett Shear (former OpenAI CEO). - **Growth Signals**: - Expanding research portfolio with DARPA funding and peer-reviewed publications. - Consistent delivery of high-impact production AI systems (e.g., $6M/week revenue lift for Azul). - Active hiring across multiple roles (data science, engineering, product, TPM) with offices in LA and Florianópolis. ## Competitive Advantages - **Bootstrapped independence**: No outside investors, allowing long-term focus on alignment research without external pressure. - **Rigor from research to production**: Applies same standards from academic alignment work to every client build. - **Senior-only teams**: ~150 experienced practitioners, not junior-heavy. - **Speed to impact**: Ship production AI systems in weeks, as demonstrated by Global Shop Solutions (5 weeks) and Pimsleur (rapid deployment). - **Unique AI guarantee**: The “AE Guarantee” (referenced on website) – a promise of quality and accountability, though details are not public. ## Strategic Focus - **Continued investment in AI alignment research** – advancing frontier safety and interpretability through DARPA-funded programs and internal agendas. - **Scaling Production AI Systems** – targeting Fortune 1000, PE portfolios, and mid-market clients with repeatable, high-velocity delivery. - **Expanding industry-specific solutions** – dedicated landing pages for airlines, edtech, healthcare, BCI, neurotech, blockchain, and operations. ## Why Work Here - **Culture**: Described as “awesome work environment and highly productive process” with a focus on self-management and strong problem-solving. - **Remote/Hybrid policy**: Fully remote for US-based roles; also has offices in Los Angeles, CA and Florianópolis, Brazil. Some positions are location-specific (e.g., Senior Full Stack Developer for Brazil). - **Engineering culture**: Senior practitioners working on frontier AI alignment and high-stakes production systems. Emphasis on autonomy, deep technical work, and shipping real impact. - **Notable perks**: Not explicitly listed, but the company offers the opportunity to work on cutting-edge AI research with DARPA/Anthropic and to build production AI for major organizations. ## Sources 1. [ae.studio](https://ae.studio) 2. [ae.studio/about](https://ae.studio/about) 3. [ae.studio/join-us](https://ae.studio/join-us) 4. [job-boards.greenhouse.io/aestudio](http://job-boards.greenhouse.io/aestudio) 5. [linkedin.com/company/agency-enterprise-studio](https://www.linkedin.com/company/agency-enterprise-studio) ## Other roles at AE Studio - [General Counsel](https://feeny.ai/job/general-counsel-ae-studio-los-angeles-ebh1x40zh4s4) — Los Angeles, CA - [Alignment Scientist/Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/alignment-scientist-engineer-ae-studio-los-angeles-mwms2492j17p) — Los Angeles, CA / United States - [Product Engineer (AI Driven)](https://feeny.ai/job/product-engineer-ai-driven-ae-studio-florianopolis-office-e42z1m7bn7nk) — Florianopolis Office/, Brazil - [Applied AI Data Scientist](https://feeny.ai/job/applied-ai-data-scientist-ae-studio-los-angeles-nr9ghb6f33wv) — Los Angeles, CA / United States - [Applied AI Data Scientist (Brazil)](https://feeny.ai/job/applied-ai-data-scientist-brazil-ae-studio-florianopolis-office-bkx6m6bg7kn1) — Florianopolis Office/, Brazil