Full job description
Founding Engineer – Applied AI — Antes
Location: San Francisco, CA (Onsite preferred — exceptional remote candidates considered)
Compensation: $180,000 – $250,000 base + equity
Visa Sponsorship: H-1B, O-1, OPT supported
Experience Level: 2–6 years
Employment Type: Full-Time
About Antes
Antes is building AI hardware for complex manufacturers — at the intersection of AI, hardware development, and policy, accelerating innovation and safety in the physical world. Antes partners with some of the world’s most iconic automotive, aerospace, and industrial manufacturers and is backed by General Catalyst, Kleiner Perkins, and the parent company of Ferrari.
The founding team brings expertise across AI, advanced engineering, and policy — including a former America’s Cup world champion, a global legal compliance lead at Uber, AI researchers from Stanford AI Lab, the former president of Hyundai, a CTO of Caterpillar, a former Chairman of the FAA and FCC, and other senior leaders from industry and government.
About the Role
Antes is hiring a world-class Applied AI Engineer to build the core systems behind their automation engine for hardware engineering. You will design, implement, and post-train AI agents that power critical product development workflows for global enterprise customers — working on novel AI systems that retrieve, interpret, and manipulate complex engineering design data, integrating deeply into real-world engineering environments.
This is a deeply technical, high-impact role. You will be among the first technical hires and will own mission-critical systems end to end. The problems are ambiguous, the constraints are real, and the expectations are high.
What You’ll Own
Engineering agent workflows: Design and implement core workflows and infrastructure for hardware engineering agents, including intelligent context management, novel indexing approaches, and post-training
Design data interpretation: Build agents and ML models that can interpret, reason over, and manipulate complex engineering design data, integrating with enterprise-grade engineering tools and systems
Direct customer collaboration: Work closely with customers and the engineering team to deliver AI-powered workflows that are reliable, intuitive, and trusted in production environments
Prototype rapidly, validate ideas with real users, and ship frequently
Influence engineering culture, architecture decisions, and the future of the product
Requirements
Bachelor’s or higher in Computer Science, Machine Learning, or equivalent experience
Strong familiarity with LLM architectures and agent research trends
Excellent programming skills with experience using ML libraries such as PyTorch, Hugging Face, and W&B
Experience building production ML or AI systems
Solid practical experience with search and information retrieval
Moves fast from idea to production with a genuine care for customer experience
Based in or willing to relocate to San Francisco — or an exceptional remote candidate
Nice to Have
2+ years in applied machine learning, backend engineering, or AI infrastructure
Experience working with machine learning over geometric data, including CAD
Track record of high-impact contributions or published papers at top-tier AI labs or teams
Benefits
Unlimited PTO
Full health insurance
Free lunch and dinner
Company equipment provided
Interview Process
Pending approval
First round chat
Second round engineering test
Onsite (paid, all expenses covered)
Offer
Logistics
SF onsite strongly preferred — exceptional remote candidates considered
H-1B, O-1, and OPT visa sponsorship available
Shortlisted candidates will be contacted by David Joseph & Co., the recruiting partner managing this search on behalf of Antes.
