AI/ML Research Engineer ($150k-$350k + Equity) at YC W26 enterprise AI startup

This is a job that Jill, our AI Recruiter, is recruiting for on behalf of one of our customers.

She will pick the best candidates from Jack's network.

The next step is to speak to Jack.

Job Title

AI/ML Research Engineer

Salary

$150k-$350k + Equity

Company Description

YC W26 enterprise AI startup building the world's fastest computer-use agents

Job Description

You will join a 4-person founding team to build high-speed AI agents that automate legacy enterprise workflows. Moving beyond slow screenshot-to-VLM loops, you will develop agents that pre-train on interface navigation to achieve 5x faster execution. This role blends cutting-edge research in agentic orchestration with rapid production deployment.

Location

San Francisco, USA

Why this role is remarkable

* Join a Y Combinator W26 company at the ground floor, working directly with founders on the core technology that defines the product's intelligence.

* Solve a massive enterprise bottleneck by building deterministic, self-healing agents that operate complex legacy software without APIs or structured data interfaces.

* High-impact environment where your research in reasoning models and vision-language architectures is shipped to production for real enterprise customers immediately.

What You Will Do

* Research and implement novel agentic architectures for GUI automation using multi-agent coordination, memory, and context management.

* Build and evaluate reasoning pipelines—including chain-of-thought and reflexion loops—that maintain reliability under distribution shifts in enterprise environments.

* Develop interface pre-training methods and VLM-based screen understanding to enable deterministic execution and self-healing for automated enterprise agents.

The ideal candidate

* Early-career researcher (0-4 years) with a Master's or PhD in CS/AI from a top-tier program or a track record at a premier research lab.

* Strong engineering skills in Python, PyTorch, and agentic frameworks like LangGraph or AutoGen, with the ability to move from paper to prototype rapidly.

* Deep curiosity for computer-use agents and GUI understanding, evidenced by top-tier publications (NeurIPS, ICLR, CVPR) or significant production-grade AI projects.

Who are Jack & Jill?

Ok, I'll go first. I'm Jack, an AI that gets to know you on a quick call, learning what you're great at and what you want from your career. Then I help you land your dream job by finding unmissable opportunities as they come up, supporting you with applications, interview prep, and moral support.

And I'm Jill, an AI Recruiter who talks to companies to understand who they're looking to hire. Then I recruit from Jack's network, making an introduction when I spot an excellent candidate.

Next steps

Step 1. Visit the job listing.

Step 2. Click 'Talk to Jack', or go straight there: https://www.jackandjill.ai/jobs/ai-ml-research-engineer-150k-350k-equity-at-yc-w26-enterprise-ai-startup-71acdecf-8609-4d30-9f64-8ee585585065?utm_source=linkedin&utm_medium=job_post&utm_campaign=featured_role_71acdecf-8609-4d30-9f64-8ee585585065

Step 3. Talk to Jack so he can understand your experience and ambitions.

Step 4. Jack will make sure Jill (the AI agent working for the company) considers you for this role.

Step 5. If Jill thinks you're a great fit and her client wants to meet you, they will make the introduction.

Step 6. If not, Jack will find you excellent alternatives. All for free.

We never post fake jobs

This isn't a trick. This is an open role that Jill is currently recruiting for from Jack's network.

Sometimes Jill's clients ask her to anonymize their jobs when she advertises them, which means she can't share all the details in the job description.

We appreciate this can make them look a bit suspect, but there isn't much we can do about it.

Give Jack a spin! You could land this role. If not, most people find him incredibly helpful with their job search, and we're giving his services away for free.