Model Engineer - Founding AI Team (San Francisco, Hybrid)

Location: San Francisco, CA (on-site at least 3 days/week)

Experience Level: 2+ years in model development

Type: Full-time | Founding Team

Recruitment Partner: Carter Wellington

About the Opportunity

Carter Wellington is proud to partner with an ambitious, next-generation AI company that’s reinventing how networks think, heal, and evolve. Their vision is bold, to build intelligent, autonomous systems capable of predicting faults, modelling complex network states, and self-repairing in real time.

We’re now seeking a Model Engineer to join their founding core AI team, a rare opportunity to shape the technical direction, culture, and long-term AI strategy of a company redefining the future of intelligent networking.

The Role

As a Model Engineer, you’ll take full ownership of the end-to-end model development process from data pipeline design to large-scale model training and deployment. You’ll work directly with the founders to define the company’s modeling approaches, evaluate performance in production environments, and set the technical standard for AI in modern networking systems.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop and train end-to-end models for fault prediction, network state modeling, and autonomous repair.
• Build multi-modal architectures that integrate structured networking data and perform function-calling for real-time decision-making.
• Evaluate and fine-tune models across both hardware and virtualized environments.
• Collaborate with firmware and application teams to deploy models into live production systems.
• Partner with founders to shape the AI roadmap, team culture, and strategic direction.
• Drive innovation and set the technical foundation for the company’s AI modernization efforts.

Ideal Profile

• 2+ years of hands-on experience developing, training, and scaling neural networks from scratch.
• Strong coding proficiency in Python and PyTorch, with expertise in deep learning frameworks.
• Proven track record in full-stack model development, including data cleaning, pipeline design, evaluation, and deployment.
• Experience training or fine-tuning Large Language Models (LLMs) or advanced generative systems.
• Entrepreneurial mindset with experience as a founding engineer, co-founder, or early-stage startup contributor.
• Degree in Computer Science, Machine Learning, or AI from a top-tier university, or equivalent experience (PhD/dropouts welcome).

Bonus Points

• Experience integrating AI models into networking, systems, or embedded software environments.
• Contributions to open-source ML projects, research papers, or personal projects demonstrating creativity and technical depth.
• A proactive, ownership-driven mindset and enthusiasm for building in a fast-paced, high-growth startup environment.

Why This Opportunity

• Join a founding team shaping the AI backbone of an industry-transforming company.
• Collaborate directly with visionary founders and engineers at the frontier of autonomous networking.
• Build real-world models that go beyond research, powering self-healing, intelligent infrastructure.
• Competitive compensation, early equity, and the chance to influence both technology and culture from the ground up.

Interested in redefining the future of AI-driven networking?

Apply today through Carter Wellington and take your place at the heart of a company building the networks of tomorrow.