
Software Engineer at Polymath (San Francisco, CA)
Polymath· San Francisco, CA·
Role details
Job description
About Polymath
Polymath is an applied research lab focused on advancing long-horizon agent capabilities through reinforcement learning. We design and scale simulation environments where agents learn to operate safely and autonomously. We work with the world’s leading model labs to push the frontier of agent capabilities. We've raised >$8M from Base10, Founders Future, Y Combinator, and other incredible investors & angels.
About the role
We’re hiring Software Engineers to build the simulation environments, tasks, and verifiers that challenge frontier models. You’ll help create the training and evaluation grounds that make it possible to measure and improve autonomous agents on realistic, challenging work.
Examples of projects you could work on include:
- Building diverse, high-fidelity environments that test agents in realistic settings
- Designing complex tasks that require long-horizon reasoning and tool use
- Developing robust verifiers that reliably measure agent performance
- Improving infrastructure and tooling to run, debug, and improve environments
- Working closely with the research team to identify failure modes and turn them into new tasks and benchmarks
You’ll be a good fit if you:
- Have strong engineering fundamentals
- Enjoy building from first principles and solving open-ended technical problems
- Have high agency and a strong bias toward shipping
- Have a high quality bar and care about building robust systems
Culture:
- Polymath is a team of researchers, engineers, and operators focused on advancing the frontier of safe, superintelligent AI agents.
- We have a flat organizational structure. We believe that people do their best work when they’re self-motivated and driven by a desire to learn, contribute to the team’s goals, and advance scientific progress.
- We’re looking for folks who ship fast, set high standards for themselves, and are great team players.
Why work at Polymath
- Cutting-edge AI research: Join a small, high-impact team at the frontier of agentic AI, working on one of the hardest problems in AI – long-horizon autonomy.
- Founding team culture: Early-stage startup with a flat structure, direct collaboration with co-founders, and significant ownership over technical direction.
- Remote/hybrid flexibility: Based in San Francisco, but open to remote (US) candidates. The YC listing shows “San Francisco, CA, US / Remote (US)”.
- Compensation & perks: Competitive salary ranges ($150K–$300K for engineering roles; $50–$100/hour for hourly roles) plus equity. Backed by top-tier investors including Y Combinator.
- Growth opportunity: Opportunity to shape the environment layer for the next generation of autonomous agents, with the potential to become a foundational platform in AI.