Software Engineer, Developer Productivity, AI Tools — Thinking Machines Lab

Thinking Machines Lab is hiring a Software Engineer, Developer Productivity, AI Tools in San Francisco at an annual salary of $300,000–$350,000, a range the job board reports sits 48% above the $220,000 median for MLOps/Infra roles in the United States. The on-site role focuses on AI coding tools and coding agents, including standardizing Claude Code, Cursor, and Codex, building secure agent sandboxes for remote development and CI testing, and tracking tool usage, reliability, and cost. Required skills listed include vLLM, Kubernetes, Docker, Python, and Rust, and the company offers visa sponsorship and relocation support.

Software Engineer, Developer Productivity, AI Tools At a glance - Salary - $300k–350k/yr - Location - San Francisco - Work type - On-site - Posted - today - Verified live - today - Education - Bachelor's, or equivalent experience - Visa sponsorship - Offered - Relocation - Support offered - Skills - vLLMKubernetesDockerPythonRust - Filed under - LLM Engineer https://frontierroles.com/llm-engineer-jobs/ MLOps / Infra https://frontierroles.com/mlops-engineer-jobs/ How the pay compares This range sits 48% above the $220k median for MLOps / Infra roles in the United States https://frontierroles.com/mlops-engineer-jobs/ on this board — higher than 429 of the 458 others that publish pay. This roleMiddle half of the 459 that publish payMedian10th–90th percentileAnnual, USD Apply on company site opens in new tab https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/thinkingmachines/f32485ca-2de5-458f-bfae-680e124cb9f1/application Job description About Thinking Machines The mission of Thinking Machines is to build AI that extends human will and judgment. We are training frontier models with Inkling, developing Tinker to let people make models their own, and crafting interfaces that broaden human-AI communication. We believe the future worth building is human, and we're hiring people who want to build it. About the Role We are hiring a developer productivity engineer to advance how we build software internally: safely, quickly, and with delight. The main focus are AI tools and coding agents. You’ll partner with platform, security, and product engineers to build state-of-the-art tooling for AI-assisted software development, and make our inner loop dramatically faster. The scope of this role includes both setting up company-wide platforms and working with developers to accelerate their individual workflows. What You’ll Do - Enable our researchers and engineers to leverage AI to improve coding productivity without compromising code quality - Standardize AI coding tools, such as Claude Code, Cursor, and Codex. You will help configure, harden, and maintain the best tools, integrating org-wide configurations with individual preferences. - Build secure, reproducible agent sandboxes for remote dev & CI testing. - Set up golden-path dev environments and guardrails for secrets/PII. - Help individual contributors develop their personalized AI-enabled workflow. - Track tool usage, reliability, and cost. Skills and Qualifications Minimum qualifications: - Bachelor’s degree or equivalent industry experience in computer science, engineering, or similar. - Experience developing productivity tools and best practices for large codebases. - Ability to communicate clearly and work with researchers to build and manage a variety of internal tools. Preferred qualifications: - Hands-on experience with container platforms e.g. Docker/Kubernetes , modern CI GitHub Actions/Buildkite , and package management tools uv . - Practical experience with AI coding tools and model APIs e.g. OSS via vLLM / SGLang / TGI . - Solid Linux/networking fundamentals; comfort with secrets management and safe egress. - Proficiency in systems programming languages e.g. Rust and scripting languages e.g. Python . Logistics - Location: This role is based in San Francisco, California. - Compensation: Depending on background, skills and experience, the expected annual salary range for this position is $300,000 - $350,000 USD. - Visa sponsorship: We sponsor visas. While we can't guarantee success for every candidate or role, if you're the right fit, we're committed to working through the visa process together. - Benefits: Thinking Machines offers generous health, dental, and vision benefits, unlimited PTO, paid parental leave, and relocation support as needed.