AI Research Engineer

## About the role We are seeking a Senior to Principal-level AI Research Engineer to lead the design and development of next-generation agentic AI systems. This role sits at the intersection of research and production, with a strong emphasis on: - Agent architecture design - Harness and memory engineering - Robust evaluation and benchmarking of model and agent performance You will work closely with product and engineering teams to translate cutting-edge research into scalable, real-world systems. In this role, you will directly shape the core intelligence layer of Dropzone AI. Your work will define how our agents reason, remember, and improve over time, influencing both our product capabilities and the broader direction of applied AI systems. ## What we're looking for - Someone who thinks in context/harness engineering, not just models - A learner who can follow latest research and test them in real-world deployment - Deep curiosity about how to convert non deterministic outputs from LLMs to consistent reliable outcomes and replicate expert human intuitions - Strong ownership mindset and ability to drive ambiguous problems to clarity ## What you'll do ### Agentic Architecture - Design and implement advanced multi-step reasoning agents (tool use, planning, reflection, self-improvement loops) - Develop frameworks for multi-agent coordination and task decomposition - Improve reliability, latency, and cost efficiency of agent execution ### Memory Systems - Architect short-term and long-term memory subsystems (episodic, semantic, retrieval-based, hybrid) - Build mechanisms for context compression, retrieval, and grounding - Explore novel approaches to continual learning and state persistence ### Evaluation & Reliability - Define and implement evaluation frameworks for agent performance (task success, reasoning quality, robustness) - Build automated eval pipelines (synthetic data, adversarial testing, regression testing) - Establish metrics and benchmarks for agent reliability in production ### Research → Production - Translate latest community research ideas into production-grade systems - Run experiments, analyze results, and iterate quickly - Contribute to internal