# Research Engineer at Idler

> Onsite · United States · Unspecified · ML / AI · open. Source: https://alderhq.app/jobs/ashby%3Aidler%3Acce9ab39-0ab0-489d-bbf9-4df74c2baeee (read 2026-11-04).

## Facts (observed)

- Company: [Idler](https://alderhq.app/companies/idler)
- Location text: San Francisco
- Where it can be done from (inferred): Onsite · United States (evidence: "Location: San Francisco")
- Posted: 2025-10-14 (386 days ago)
- First seen by alder: 2026-11-02 · last verified: 2026-11-04
- Reposted: 0 times · edited: 0 times
- Apply on the employer's site: https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/idler/cce9ab39-0ab0-489d-bbf9-4df74c2baeee
- Skills listed (inferred): TypeScript, React, Node.js, PostgreSQL, Redis, AWS

## Pay and sponsorship

- Posted pay: $125k–$400k per year (from the listing's pay field)
- Market band for similar posted roles (SF Bay Area, n 397): p25 $200k, median $245k, p75 $300k

## Description (the employer's text)

### About idler

idler is a frontier data research lab. We build the evals and environments that the world's leading frontier labs use to measure and train their models.

After raising a $9m seed round led by Paradigm, we spent the last year developing coding evals for top coding models you know and love. At the same time, we've expanded into other domains besides coding: RSI & Auto-Research, Law, Enterprise Business, Cybersecurity, and others. Now, we are facing more lab demand for our data than we can serve, and are rapidly scaling the team to grow the business.

Our approach to creating training data scales using technology, and all of our data products are built on a unified self-reinforcing platform that learns through experience.

You would be joining a close-knit team that has reached product market fit, and your work would directly help to multiply our revenue.

You can see some of our work here: https://idler.ai/collections

### About the role

As a Research Engineer at idler, you’ll build the systems and infrastructure that our entire company relies on. You will solve open-ended, technical challenges with focus on performance, scale, and simplicity. In the era of AI-coding, systems-level thinking and attention to detail is more important than experience with a particular framework or language.

### Examples of what you'll do

Design and build scaleable systems that generate RL environments

Create agentic QA systems to validate environment quality and fairness

Work directly with AI researchers at leading labs to understand what makes training data effective

Handle petabyte scale ETL and orchestrate millions of concurrent jobs

Support new product lines as we expand beyond coding environments

Manage our security posture and compliance requirements

### What we’re looking for

1-10 years of experience writing excellent production software (new grads OK)

Experience with full-stack applications in a popular programming language

A meticulous problem solver who creates robust systems under time pressure

### Tech stack

Typescript, React, NodeJS, Postgres, Redis, Vercel, Cursor/Claude Code/Codex, Tinker, Modal, AWS, Daytona, GRPO

### Details

In-person in San Francisco

Competitive salary + meaningful equity

Free meals in office

Healthcare, 401(k), 15 days of PTO per year

Relocation assistance

Small, ambitious team

This is an in-person role in San Francisco. We're a tight-knit founding team and we play to win. Join us if you like to win too.

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Data: alder (https://alderhq.app). Cite https://alderhq.app/jobs/ashby%3Aidler%3Acce9ab39-0ab0-489d-bbf9-4df74c2baeee and the date you read it. Observed facts come from the employer's own listing; location reach, level, family and skills are inferences.