Software Engineer - AI Tooling

About xAI

xAI’s mission is to create AI systems that can accurately understand the universe and aid humanity in its pursuit of knowledge.

Our team is small, highly motivated, and focused on engineering excellence. This organization is for individuals who appreciate challenging themselves and thrive on curiosity. Engineers are encouraged to work across multiple areas of the company, and as a result, all engineers and researchers share the title "Member of Technical Staff."

We operate with a flat organizational structure. All employees are expected to be hands-on and to contribute directly to the company’s mission. Leadership is given to those who show initiative and consistently deliver excellence. Work ethic and strong prioritization skills are important.

All engineers and researchers are expected to have strong communication skills. They should be able to concisely and accurately share knowledge with their teammates.

xAI does not have recruiters. Every application is reviewed directly by a technical member of the team.

About the Team

xAI’s Human Data team is responsible for delivering high-quality data to drive frontier model performance. We collaborate closely with the post-training team and AI tutor team to develop new solutions that accelerate research progress across model capabilities, evaluation, safety, and alignment.

About the Role

In this role you might:

• Be responsible for architecting, building, and designing our data collection platform
• Iterate rapidly on new features to improve user experience on our platform for both human operations and our research team
• Build features end-to-end: front-end, back-end, system design, debugging and testing
• Build systems that monitor and flag quality issues with large-scale data collections
• Establish best practices and help scale a world-class engineering team
• Ensure that our overall data collection platform is secure, scalable, and delightful to use.
• Innovating new ideas that bring us closer to our goal: to develop AI systems that can accurately understand the universe and aid humanity in its pursuit of knowledge.

Tech Stack

• Typescript, Python, Rust
• React, Express, PostgreSQL

Location

The role is based in the Bay Area (San Francisco and Palo Alto). Candidates are expected to be located near the Bay Area or open to relocation.

Interview Process

After submitting your application, the team reviews your CV and statement of exceptional work. If your application passes this stage, you will be invited to a 15-minute interview (“phone interview”) during which a member of our team will ask some basic questions. If you clear the initial phone interview, you will enter the main process, which consists of four technical interviews:

1. Coding assessment in a language of your choice.
2. HTML/CSS interview
3. Systems hands-on: Demonstrate practical skills in a live problem-solving session.
4. Meet the Team: Present your past exceptional work and your vision with xAI to a small audience.

Our goal is to finish the main process within one week. We don’t rely on recruiters for assessments. Every application is reviewed by a member of our technical team. All interviews will be conducted via Google Meet.

Annual Salary Range

$180,000 - $440,000 USD