AI Engineer - Graphite : Job Details

Graphite builds consumer-quality tools for modern software engineering teams, so they can ship faster and create amazing products. Our product Graphite is modern code review for fast-moving teams - we help engineers write and review smaller pull requests, stay unblocked, and ship faster. Anyone can start using Graphite individually without needing their coworkers to change tools - we seamlessly sync code changes and reviews. We started Graphite because we missed internal code review tools like Phabricator (at Facebook) and Critique (Google) that help engineers create, approve, and ship small, incremental changes, and long-term we're passionate about creating products & workflows that help fast-moving eng teams achieve more. Our company We're a small-but-mighty team of 40+ based in Manhattan in the heart of Soho, with a passionate and rapidly growing group of users at top engineering orgs like Datadog, Vercel, Ramp, and Snowflake. We've raised a $52mil Series B (featured in TechCrunch) led by Christine Esserman, following a previous $20mil Series A from Peter Levine at Andreessen Horowitz (who led GitHub's Series A). Other investors include folks like Tom Preston-Werner (founder of GitHub), Sam Lambert (Planetscale CEO & ex-GitHub CTO), Sebastian Markbåge (creator of React), and many more. Our culture centers on putting people first, applying science and craft, practicing disciplined ambition, and giving ownership - both literally (with equity) and in the responsibility and scope you'll have as a part of our early team. Outside of work you'll find us brewing espresso drinks, producing music, or practicing yoga. We can't wait to see what you'll add to the mix! About the Role Graphite is growing quickly, and we're looking for a founding AI Engineer to lead and shape the future of AI within our Diamond product. This role is focused on advancing the state of the art in applied AI, particularly in the areas of large language models (LLMs), program synthesis, and reasoning agents. You'll drive original research initiatives that push the boundaries of how AI can support engineering workflows - from context-aware code generation to autonomous technical planning. Your work will directly influence Diamond's product capabilities and performance, with opportunities to publish, prototype, and scale cutting-edge models and systems. Rethinking the way fast-moving eng teams write and review code every day is no small feat, and we believe that the best solutions are built when most talented, ambitious, and dedicated people from diverse backgrounds come together. What you'll do

• Conduct cutting-edge research in LLMs, reasoning agents, and program synthesis, with a focus on advancing Diamond's AI capabilities.
• Design & develop prototypes and proof-of-concept models for AI applications
• Translate research into practical applications by working closely with engineering to integrate models into production.
• Stay current with the AI research landscape and apply insights from the latest work in transformer models, interpretability, and alignment.

What we're looking for

• Proven track record in advanced AI/ML research, ideally with hands-on experience in training or post-training LLM work at a frontier lab.
• Strong software engineering skills and experience building robust, scalable research or ML infrastructure.
• Ability to navigate ambiguity, define research direction, and work cross-functionally to drive impact.
• Someone with a deep understanding of modern ML practices.

Life at Graphite

• Competitive comp: ($140-200k base + substantial equity). We're backed by some of the best investors and excited to offer competitive compensation packages.
• Role trajectory. We're excited to build a team whose responsibilities and comp to grow as we do.
• Benefits. Top-tier health, dental, and vision coverage and 16 weeks paid parental leave.
• Time to decompress. We ask that our team take 4 weeks of vacation a year to unplug and unwind.
• Relocation expenses. We're an in-person, NYC-based team, and we're happy to help with your relocation expenses!
• The team that eats together. Company-paid lunch, snacks, and coffee during workdays.
• Commuter perks. Ride around NYC with an Unlimited Ride MetroCard, on us.

As a team, we're very aware of the systemic structural issues that have created inequalities for many communities, especially in the tech industry. We recognize that women and underrepresented minorities are statistically less likely to apply for a role that they feel unqualified for. If you are interested in this role but you're concerned about not meeting all requirements, we encourage you to apply anyway - we'd love to get to know you and see if there's a place for you here at Graphite!