Founding ML Engineer - AI at Gather (S19)
$188K - $238K  •  
Building a better way to meet online.
US / CA / Remote (US; CA)
Full-time
6+ years
About Gather

Gather is a video chat platform designed to make virtual interactions more human. Our mission is to create opportunity and connection for everyone, no matter where they are. We do this by building the Metaverse, a virtual layer over the physical world where people can work, socialize, and learn.

Since we launched in May of 2020, Gather has brought millions of people together. We have raised a total of $77 million in Series A and B from Sequoia Capital, Index Ventures, and more. We’re a small, friendly team based out of a state-of-the-art virtual office, where you can work whenever and wherever suits you. Come join us!

About the role
Skills: Node.js, Python, TypeScript

About us

In the last few years, remote and hybrid work has had an explosion in popularity, giving workers an unprecedented level of access to opportunity and an increase in quality of life. However, our existing tools were not set up to do remote work well. Work can be isolating, transactional, and void of the camaraderie that makes everyone feel like they’re in it together.

To solve this, Gather builds virtual offices that bring the best of in-person work to remote. We’ve already seen success with our approach, with over 10,000 remote-first companies using our spaces every day.

And yet it’s still the early days for our broader vision of the Metaverse. We’re excited about how the Metaverse can break down physical constraints that exist today, not just in where you can work, but which friends/family you can see, or what educational opportunities you can have access to.

Join us in this mission!

Role Overview:

Gather’s AI Experiments team is a new team dedicated to exploring how AI will transform knowledge work in virtual environments. We operate as an innovation lab, building unscalable internal tools with AI to measurably increase Gather engineer’s productivity.

Gather is uniquely positioned in this space with 100k+ users utilizing our remote work platform each workweek and customers ranging from enterprises like Home Depot & Coinbase to law firms, startups, and public utilities. This gives us unprecedented access to rich data across communication, collaboration, and work processes to build AI that truly understands how work happens.

As a founding ML Engineer, you'll help shape our roadmap rather than follow a predefined one. You should have a strong intuition about large model behavior and thrive in ambiguous environments where you can rapidly test hypotheses and transform cutting-edge ML research into practical tools. You'll be pioneering new approaches to fine-tuning models on company-specific data that could fundamentally change how organizations leverage their internal knowledge.

Where you will make an impact:

  • Define and evolve our AI experimentation strategy, with the freedom to pursue promising directions based on your intuition and expertise
  • Design and implement novel fine-tuning approaches that leverage Gather's unique internal data, creating models that deeply understand how work happens
  • Mentor and inspire other engineers to think creatively about AI applications
  • Share learnings through internal demos, documentation, and potentially external publications

What you bring:

  • Strong intuition about how large models behave at scale, and the creativity to apply that understanding to novel problems
  • Hands-on LLM fine-tuning and debugging experience - especially with fine-tuning frameworks  (e.g., TRL, LoRA/QLoRA, Axolotl)
  • Intellectual curiosity that drives you to explore new approaches and stay current with rapidly evolving ML research - you should be the first to share new announcements
  • Comfort with Python, Typescript, and ML frameworks - with the ability to quickly adopt new tools as needed
  • Excitement about working on a small team where your contributions have outsized impact
  • Strong debugging and investigation skills; you’re comfortable digging into an ambiguous problem statement and coming up with solutions
  • A keen intuition for well-designed software and well-written code
  • Intrinsic motivation and the drive to own and solve difficult problems without guidance
  • Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, with technical leadership abilities
  • An open and growth mindset when giving and receiving feedback
  • You are resourceful, have a bias towards action, and love moving fast
  • A healthy tolerance for the chaotic balance between Doing Things Right and iterating and shipping quickly

Some experiments we’ve worked on recently:

  • Internal ChatGPT (gGPT) powered by RAG over Notion+codebase
  • Cross-platform person-scoped context windows, so your IDE knows about your recent Slack and browser context
  • “Coworker” internal Q&A Slack bot for internal engineering questions
  • “Write a test for this file” VSCode plugin

US Salary Range

At Gather, compensation may vary outside of this range depending on a number of factors, including a candidate’s qualifications, skills, competencies and experience, and location. The base salary range for this position in the selected city is $187,850 - $237,575 annually and we encourage candidates outside of this salary range to apply.

Base pay is one part of the total package that is provided to compensate and recognize employees for their work, and this role may be eligible for a stock reward program.

Benefits

  • Work remotely out of a state-of-the-art virtual office!
  • Competitive compensation, benefits, and meaningful equity
  • Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision insurance for employees and their dependents
  • 401k and matching program
  • Generous PTO policy and mental health days to recharge
  • Meal stipend twice a week to keep you nourished
  • Remote work, education, and health & wellness stipends
  • Support for family planning & gender-affirmation
  • The opportunity to join a passionate team in building something that actually makes peoples' lives better, every single day

Gather is committed to building an inclusive and equitable workplace for individuals of all backgrounds. We strive to build a workplace where employees feel comfortable bringing their authentic selves to work, everyday. Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, ethnicity, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender perception or identity, national origin, age, marital status, pregnancy or parental status, protected veteran status, disability status, or any other basis prohibited by law. Additionally, we're committed to providing access, equal opportunity and reasonable accommodation for individuals with disabilities in employment. If reasonable accommodation is needed to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and/or to receive other benefits and privileges of employment, please notify the recruiter you are working with. We also ask that all applicants consider answering the voluntary demographic questions on our job application to help us track the inclusivity of our recruiting efforts and programs. Answering these questions is entirely voluntary and your answers will not be shared with the hiring team and will not impact the hiring decision.

Technology

A fleet of game servers and video servers. WebRTC, NodeJS, React/Typescript.

Other jobs at Gather

fulltimeUS / CA / Remote (US; CA)Backend$188K - $238K6+ years

fulltimeUS / CA / Remote (US; CA)Backend$188K - $238K6+ years

fulltimeUS / CA / Remote (US; CA)Backend$188K - $238K6+ years

Hundreds of YC startups are hiring on Work at a Startup.

Sign up to see more ›