Staff R&D AI Engineer

webAI is an Austin-based sovereign AI company developing local-first, specialized AI systems that organizations can build, deploy, and operate on infrastructure they own.

Austin, Texas, United States
About webAI

webAI provides collaborative intelligence software centered on the webAI App, specialized Personas, and its Intelligence Delivery Network. Its platform is designed to keep intelligence close to organizational data and hardware, support private and specialized models, and enable teams to build, share, and improve AI without relying exclusively on centralized cloud systems.

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Skills

Candidate Availability

Required and preferred rules are kept separate and reflect the wording in the original posting.

About the Role

Lead the development of multimodal AI systems combining computer vision, language understanding, and action learning. Architect Vision-Language-Action models, reinforcement learning systems, and large-scale training pipelines; optimize models for edge and cloud deployment; integrate them into applications; mentor engineers; lead technical initiatives; and present and publish research.

Requirements

  • 7+ years of AI/ML engineering experience, including 4+ years focused on deep learning and neural network development
  • Strong understanding of reinforcement learning algorithms including PPO, SAC, and TD3
  • Expertise in computer vision and natural language processing with hands-on model development experience
  • Proficiency in PyTorch and/or TensorFlow for training and deploying large-scale models
  • Experience with transformer architectures, attention mechanisms, and large language model fine-tuning
  • Hands-on experience with object detection, semantic segmentation, and visual tracking
  • Strong Python programming skills with distributed training and model optimization experience
  • Understanding of sequential decision-making and control systems fundamentals
  • Experience with MLOps practices including model versioning, monitoring, and deployment pipelines
  • Ability to work independently on complex research problems and deliver practical solutions
  • Strong communication and cross-functional collaboration skills

Responsibilities

  • Design and develop Vision-Language-Action models integrating visual perception, natural language understanding, and action prediction
  • Architect and implement reinforcement learning systems for sequential decision-making, policy learning, and skill acquisition
  • Build and optimize computer vision pipelines for object detection, segmentation, tracking, and scene understanding
  • Develop and fine-tune large language models for instruction following, reasoning, and task planning
  • Implement RLHF systems to improve model alignment and safety
  • Create multimodal training pipelines using synthetic and real-world data
  • Research and prototype AI architectures combining vision, language, and action learning
  • Collaborate with engineering teams to integrate AI models into applications and validate performance
  • Optimize model inference for real-time edge and cloud deployments
  • Lead technical initiatives, mentor junior AI engineers, and establish AI model development best practices
  • Track research in VLA models, multimodal AI, and robotics
  • Present findings at conferences and publish research

Benefits

  • Comprehensive health, dental, and vision benefits package
  • 401(k) match
  • Equity options
  • $200/month Health & Wellness stipend
  • Continuing Education support
  • $500/year Function Health subscription
  • Free parking for in-office employees
  • Flexible Time Off
  • Parental leave for eligible employees
  • Supplemental life insurance