Staff Software Engineer

Idler builds reinforcement learning environments that teach AI models to code like 0.01% engineers, based on real-world coding scenarios. They have secured a multimillion-dollar contract and are rapidly scaling to meet demand for training data for frontier AI. This Staff Software Engineer role involves building agentic systems to create and QA coding environments at scale, designing sound systems, and critically evaluating coding environments for quality and fairness. The role also includes working with AI researchers and supporting new product lines.

Must Have

• Design and build scalable systems that generate RL environments
• Create automated QA systems to validate environment quality and fairness
• Work directly with AI researchers at leading labs to understand what makes training data effective
• Support new product lines as we expand beyond coding environments
• Lead the process of identifying, specifying, and implementing core technology primitives
• Understand and own the technology stack end-to-end
• 8+ years of professional software engineering experience
• Lead and mentor more junior members of the team

Perks & Benefits

• Healthcare coverage
• 401(k)
• 15 days PTO
• Meals, coffee, and snacks covered during working days
• Latest MacBook Pro and equipment
• Relocation assistance available
• Team offsites and events

About Idler

Idler builds reinforcement learning environments that teach AI models to code like 0.01% engineers. Our training environments are based on real-world coding scenarios that frontier models will actually encounter.

We've closed a multimillion-dollar contract with a leading foundation lab (the largest they've issued to date), and demand is outpacing our capacity to deliver. We're scaling fast to build the training data layer for frontier AI. Every breakthrough model will need environments like ours to learn real-world skills at scale.

We're a tight-knit founding team. We move quickly, think deeply about what makes good training data, and play to win. Join us if you want to win too.

About the role

What we do

Idler builds reinforcement learning environments that teach AI models to code like 0.01% engineers. Our training environments are based on real-world coding scenarios that frontier models will actually encounter.

We've closed a multimillion-dollar contract with a leading foundation lab (the largest they've issued to date). Demand is outpacing our capacity to deliver, so we're scaling the team fast.

What you'll do

Build agentic systems that create and QA coding environments at scale. Most of your day will be spent designing these systems to be extremely sound. A big part of our work is thinking critically about what makes a coding environment and task "good" and "fair". This requires high agency and philosophical thinking alongside technical execution.

Concretely, you'll:

• Design and build scaleable systems that generate RL environments
• Create automated QA systems to validate environment quality and fairness
• Work directly with AI researchers at leading labs to understand what makes training data effective
• Support new product lines as we expand beyond coding environments

Staff Engineer Responsibilities & Requirements

• Lead the process of identifying, specifying, and implementing core technology primitives that maximize the leverage of the rest of the team.
• Understand and own the technology stack end-to-end.
• 8+ years of professional software engineering experience.
• Lead and mentor more junior members of the team.

You'll work with

The founding team, a founding engineer, and a small group of engineers (we're hiring quickly). You'll have direct access to AI researchers at frontier labs.

Tech stack

Typescript, React, NodeJS, Postgres, Redis, Vercel, Cursor

Benefits

• Healthcare coverage, 401(k), and 15 days PTO.
• Meals, coffee, and snacks (that you will actually enjoy) covered during working days.
• Latest MacBook Pro and equipment.
• Relocation assistance available.
• Team offsites and events (we love hanging out).

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

Technology

TypeScript, React, NextJS, Postgres, NodeJS, various AI completions