Applied AI Research Engineer - Model Cost Optimization
About The Position
Blitzy is a Cambridge, MA based AI software development platform on a mission to revolutionize the software development life cycle by autonomously building custom software to unlock the next industrial revolution. We're transforming how enterprises build software, turning enterprise requirements into production-ready code with an agentic software development platform that can autonomously execute 80% of the quantum of software development work. We're backed by multiple tier 1 investors, and have proven success as founders of previous start-ups. The Role Blitzy's agentic platform routes enormous volumes of work across many different models, and the model landscape shifts constantly, with new releases changing the price-performance tradeoff on a near-weekly basis. We're looking for an Applied AI Researcher to join as an early member of our applied AI research team, dedicated to model cost optimization: choosing the right model for the right task at the right time. You'll build the research, evaluation, and routing logic that lets Blitzy's platform dynamically select the most cost-effective model for every step of the software development lifecycle, without sacrificing output quality.
Requirements
- Strong experience in applied machine learning or AI research, ideally with hands-on work evaluating or fine-tuning large language models.
- Solid software engineering skills with the ability to ship production-quality code, not just research prototypes.
- Familiarity with LLM evaluation methodologies and benchmarking frameworks.
- Comfort working with the economics of model inference, including cost, latency, and throughput tradeoffs.
- A strong bias toward experimentation and rapid iteration.
Nice To Haves
- A PhD or equivalent degree in AI Systems or Applied AI Research from a reputable university.
- Prior experience building model routing, model selection, or model-cascading systems in production.
- A track record of publications, open-source contributions, or projects related to LLM evaluation or optimization.
- Experience working directly with foundation model providers or API ecosystems across multiple vendors.
- A founder's mentality: comfort with ambiguity and a drive to build from zero as an early team member.
Responsibilities
- Design and maintain evaluation pipelines that benchmark models across cost, latency, and quality for Blitzy's core software development workflows.
- Build and iterate on dynamic model-routing logic that selects the optimal model for a given task in real time.
- Continuously track the model landscape and rapidly integrate and evaluate new model releases as they ship.
- Partner with the platform engineering team to productionize routing and optimization logic at scale.
- Define and track the metrics that quantify the cost-to-quality tradeoff across the platform.
Benefits
- bonus + equity commensurate with experience
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Senior
Education Level
Ph.D. or professional degree
