--- title: 'Member of Technical Staff, AI Researcher (New Stealth Startup) at Red Cell Partners' canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/member-of-technical-staff-ai-researcher-new-stealth-startup-red-cell-partners-btt0pkma4srb' type: 'job' last_seen: '2026-11-06' --- # Member of Technical Staff, AI Researcher (New Stealth Startup) at Red Cell Partners - **Company:** Red Cell Partners - **Location:** United States - **Work type:** remote - **Posted:** 2026-10-22 - **Last confirmed live:** 2026-11-06 - **Apply:** https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/redcellpartners/jobs/5268059007 ## Job description ## About Us Red Cell Partners is an incubation firm building and investing in rapidly scalable technology-led companies that are bringing revolutionary advancements to market in three distinct practice areas: healthcare, cyber, and national security. United by a shared sense of duty and deep belief in the power of innovation, Red Cell is developing powerful tools and solutions to address our Nation’s most pressing problems. ## About Stealth Startup We're launching a new startup that is redefining how mission-critical organizations adopt AI. Our platform helps organizations across healthcare, government, and other regulated industries transform institutional knowledge into intelligence assets that improve the accuracy, reliability, and impact of AI in real-world workflows. We're a fast-moving team of builders, researchers, and operators working to help customers create, measure, and continuously improve AI capabilities they can own and control. ## About the Role We are seeking a Member of Technical Staff, AI Researcher to help turn complex, real-world workflows into the evaluation frameworks, reinforcement learning environments, and feedback systems needed to advance frontier AI. This is a blended research and engineering role for someone who operates at the intersection of scientific inquiry and technical execution. You will investigate how data, evaluations, and feedback systems influence model behavior, while building the infrastructure and tools required to test and apply those ideas. ## Responsibilities - Design and build evaluation frameworks, benchmarks, and methodologies for frontier large language models, AI agents, multimodal models, and reinforcement learning environments - Develop reward models, programmatic verifiers, graders, and other feedback systems that make model behavior measurable and improvable - Design and run controlled supervised fine-tuning and reinforcement learning experiments to measure the effects of datasets on model capability, generalization, and alignment - Research and define what makes evaluations representative of real-world work and operational environments - Build systems for producing high-quality human data, including expert task design, annotation methodologies, data-quality signals, and data-attribution techniques - Translate research questions into lightweight, rigorous experiments that generate actionable findings - Prototype quickly, evaluate results, diagnose failure modes, and convert findings into improved benchmarks, datasets, or technical systems - Move promising methods from experimentation into scalable, production-quality implementations - Work across research, engineering, product, and operations to advance a shared technical roadmap - Contribute to the broader technical community through benchmarks, open-source tools, research, and technical writing This Role is a Great Fit if You: - Are equally comfortable investigating an open-ended research question and building the system needed to test it - Approach AI research with a builder mindset and focus on producing measurable, usable outcomes - Are deeply interested in how data structure, selection, attribution, and quality affect model behavior - Can design focused experiments, interpret imperfect or ambiguous results, and translate findings into technical decisions - Are eager to move quickly without sacrificing rigor, maintainability, or engineering quality - Are comfortable working across unfamiliar domains and converting real-world workflows into measurable tasks - Demonstrate high agency, sound technical judgment, and a strong sense of ownership - Communicate complex technical concepts clearly to both technical and nontechnical stakeholders - Are comfortable operating in a fast-moving environment where priorities and technical approaches may evolve - Are motivated by the purpose and real-world impact of the work, not simply by access to emerging technologies ## Skills & Qualifications - 5+ years of relevant experience in machine learning, artificial intelligence, computer science, data science, software engineering, or a related technical field - Demonstrated ability to operate at the intersection of AI research and software engineering - Strong Python skills and experience building reliable, scalable software - Hands-on experience with AI agents, model evaluations, reinforcement learning, post-training, or related systems - Strong understanding of frontier AI methods, including benchmarks, evaluation techniques, agent harnesses, post-training approaches, and training-data design - Experience building or working with reward models, automated verifiers, graders, or other model-feedback systems - Experience designing evaluations or experiments that measure model capability, generalization, alignment, or agent performance - Ability to build research prototypes and develop them into maintainable, production-quality systems - Strong analytical, problem-solving, written communication, and technical documentation skills - U.S. citizenship is required An advanced degree in machine learning, artificial intelligence, computer science, data science, or a related field is preferred but not required. Candidates with equivalent research and engineering experience, including strong technical, open-source, or published output, are encouraged to apply. Salary Range: $250,000-400,000 + equity. This represents the typical base salary range for this position based on experience, skills, and other factors. ## #LI-RCP Our Red Cell Partners Benefits (may differ for each incubation): For full-time roles - Career track opportunity with potential for rapid advancement with strong performance as the firm grows - 100% employer paid, comprehensive health care including medical, dental, and vision for you and your family. - Paid maternity and paternity for 14 weeks at employees' normal pay. - Unlimited PTO, with management approval. - Opportunities for professional development and continued learning. - Optional 401K, FSA, and equity incentives available. - Mental health benefits are available through [Tara Mind](https://www.taramind.com/). - Cost effective GLP-1 solutions available through [Crux](https://soon.getcrux.com/). We’re an Equal Opportunity Employer: You’ll receive consideration for employment without regard to race, sex, color, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, protected veteran status, or on the basis of disability. Applicant Data Disclosure By submitting an application, you acknowledge that Red Cell Partners, LLC ("Red Cell") uses third-party service providers to facilitate its recruitment and hiring processes. These providers include applicant tracking systems, candidate verification platforms, and fraud detection tools (collectively, "Hiring Platforms"). Your application materials, including your résumé, cover letter, work samples, responses to application questions, and any other information you submit, may be transmitted to and processed by these Hiring Platforms for the following purposes: - Managing and administering your application throughout the hiring process; - Verifying the accuracy and authenticity of application materials, including by cross-referencing information you provide against publicly available sources and proprietary databases; - Identifying indicators of potentially fraudulent, fabricated, or materially misleading application content, including but not limited to discrepancies between submitted materials and publicly available professional profiles, geographic anomalies, and fabricated work histories. Applications that are flagged through this process as containing indicators of fraud or material misrepresentation may be declined from further consideration. If you have questions about the status of your application or the evaluation process, please contact talent@redcellpartners.com. Red Cell requires its Hiring Platform providers to process your information solely for the purposes described above and in accordance with applicable law. Your information will be retained only for as long as necessary to fulfill these purposes and any applicable legal obligations, after which it will be deleted in accordance with Red Cell's data retention policies. For more information about how your data is used, please refer to our Privacy Policy and [Applicant Privacy Notice](https://www.redcellpartners.com/applicant-privacy-policy/). ## About Red Cell Partners ## Company Overview - **One-liner**: Red Cell Partners is an incubation firm that builds, launches, and scales technology-led companies in healthcare, cyber, and national security. - **Entity Type**: Private (incubation firm) – has raised $497M across the firm and its incubations - **Headquarters**: McLean, Virginia, United States - **Founded**: 2020 - **Founders**: Grant Verstandig ## Core Business - Primary industries: Venture building / incubation; practice areas are Healthcare, Cyber, and National Security. - Target customers: The firm sells to no single customer; it builds B2B companies that serve government agencies, defense organizations, healthcare providers, and enterprise security teams. - Mission: “To build a healthier, safer, and more secure future for the next generation.” [about page] ## Products & Services Red Cell does not sell a single product; it operates three practice areas that each incubate separate technology companies: - **Healthcare Practice**: Incubates companies focused on improving patient outcomes, care delivery, and healthcare operations (e.g., senior living technology, care coordination). - **Cyber Practice**: Incubates companies in cybersecurity, including AI-driven security operations centers and threat protection. - **National Security Practice**: Incubates companies in defense, resilience, and national security (e.g., power delivery, disruption response). ## Market Standing - **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not disclosed (private firm). - **Key Metric**: $497M raised across Red Cell Partners and its portfolio of incubations. [home page] - **Notable Investors/Partners**: Not publicly named, but key executives include Grant Verstandig (Founder, Chairman & CEO), David Silverman (President), George Barnes (President, Cyber Practice), Honorable Veronica Daigle (President, National Security Practice), and Timothy Ferris (President, Healthcare Practice). The firm has acquired companies such as Andesite AI and TRADE SYSTEMS INC. [LinkedIn] - **Growth Signals**: - 75 full-time Red Cell employees (as of June 2026) [home page]. LinkedIn reports 69 employees with +3.4% monthly growth. - 9 companies publicly launched; average incubation period of 16 months. [home page] - 36 active job postings, up 125% year over year. [LinkedIn] ## Competitive Advantages - **CIA-Inspired Methodology**: The firm’s name and approach derive from the CIA’s post-9/11 “Red Cell” concept – assembling cross-functional experts to challenge conventional models and propose novel solutions. - **Vertically Focused Incubation**: Unlike generalist venture builders, Red Cell concentrates exclusively on three mission-critical sectors (healthcare, cyber, national security) where government and enterprise demand is high and regulatory barriers create moats. - **High Talent Density**: Leaders include former senior government officials and military operators (e.g., George Barnes, former NSA deputy director; Veronica Daigle, former federal judge; Marcus Capone, former Navy SEAL). ## Strategic Focus - Continue scaling its three practice areas and launching new companies from each. - Extend incubation capabilities into adjacent defense and healthcare sub-verticals. - Grow headcount aggressively (job postings up 125% YoY) to support a pipeline of 9+ launched companies and more in stealth. ## Why Work Here - **Remote-First Culture**: Most roles are fully remote, though some require occasional travel to the Washington, D.C. office or other locations. [careers page] - **Comprehensive Benefits**: 100% employer-paid medical, dental, and vision; 14 weeks of paid parental leave at full salary; unlimited PTO (with manager approval); 401K and FSA; professional development budget. - **Hiring Process**: 4–6 weeks; includes a written application, an initial screen, a skills assessment (live or take-home), peer interviews, and an executive interview. The firm emphasizes “we hire the best and the brightest at every level.” - **Culture**: Values include Dedicated, Thorough, Principled, Collaborative, Resilient, Bold, and Visionary. The firm describes itself as mission-first and “safe-to-fail” – action-oriented and focused on learning from mistakes. ## Sources 1. [redcellpartners.com - Home](https://www.redcellpartners.com/) 2. [redcellpartners.com - Careers](https://www.redcellpartners.com/careers/) 3. [redcellpartners.com - About](https://www.redcellpartners.com/about/) 4. [redcellpartners.com - Our People](https://www.redcellpartners.com/our-people/) 5. 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