Research Engineer at Magic (San Francisco, CA)
Magic· San Francisco, CA· $225k–$550k·
Role details
Job description
Magic’s mission is to build safe AGI that accelerates humanity’s progress on the world’s most important problems. We believe the most promising path to safe AGI lies in automating research and code generation to improve models and solve alignment more reliably than humans can alone. Our approach combines frontier-scale pre-training, domain-specific RL, ultra-long context, and inference-time compute to achieve this goal.
ABOUT THE ROLE
As a Research Engineer, you’ll work on training, evaluating, and serving large AI models and new inference-time compute techniques, build internet-scale datasets, and help prototype new research and product ideas.
WHAT YOU'LL WORK ON
- Optimize inference throughput for novel model architectures
- Contribute to frameworks used for our research and production workloads
- Train trillion-parameter models on large GPU clusters
- Curate post-training datasets to improve targeted capabilities
- Build out internet-scale data pipelines and crawlers
- Design, prototype, and optimize new model architectures
- Contribute to research across long-context, inference-time compute, RL, and more
WHAT WE’RE LOOKING FOR
- Strong general software engineering skills
- Thorough knowledge of the deep learning literature
- Experience with pre- and post-training of LLMs
- Ability to come up with and evaluate research ideas
- Experience working with large distributed systems
- Ability to handle large ETL workloads
OUR CULTURE
- Integrity. Words and actions should be aligned
- Hands-on. At Magic, everyone is building
- Teamwork. We move as one team, not N individuals
- Focus. Safely deploy AGI. Everything else is noise
- Quality. Magic should feel like magic
Magic strives to be the place where high-potential individuals can do their best work. We value quick learning and grit just as much as skill and experience.
COMPENSATION, BENEFITS, AND PERKS (US)
- Annual salary ranges between $275K - $550K based on experience
- Equity is a significant part of total compensation, in addition to salary
- 401(k) plan with 6% salary matching
- Generous health, dental and vision insurance for you and your dependents
- Unlimited paid time off
- Visa sponsorship and relocation stipend to bring you to SF, if possible
- A small, fast-paced, highly focused team
Why work at Magic
- Mission-Driven: A small team with a shared belief in the positive potential of responsibly deployed AGI. The work is directly tied to solving fundamental research problems.
- Culture & Values: Emphasizes integrity, hands-on work ("everyone is building"), teamwork, focus, and quality.
- Compensation & Benefits:
- Competitive salary with significant equity compensation.
- Unlimited paid time off.
- 401K with 6% salary matching.
- Health, dental, and vision insurance for employees and dependents.
- Access to mental health, financial wellbeing, and telehealth programs.
- Office catering (chef-prepared lunch and dinner).
- Work Environment: In-person team meetings and office work are emphasized. The hiring process includes a take-home assessment and an in-person team meeting.
- Hiring Process: Designed to be fair and focused on potential, not just resume credentials. Includes an application review, interview with a senior team member, take-home assessment (~5-8 hours), in-person team meeting, and reference check.