Role Overview
The Model Designer position at Thinking Machines is a full-time research role based in San Francisco, California. This opportunity suits professionals with a background in technology interaction, product design, or AI model behavior who want to shape how artificial intelligence systems work alongside people.
Key Responsibilities
Collaborate with researchers to understand, predict, and shape model behavior within the model weights.
Design collaboration models that determine when an AI should take initiative, seek oversight, or earn trust to act on behalf of a user.
Develop thoughtful defaults that users can easily adapt to their own values and knowledge rather than imposing a single voice.
Partner with research, product, and design teams to create multimodal and live interaction interfaces.
Gather high-quality data regarding the tacit, difficult-to-articulate knowledge acquired through real-world work.
Establish evaluations focused on joint human and model achievements rather than isolated model performance.
Drive proactive improvements driven by product intuition, user feedback, quantitative insights, and research goals.
Handle multiple projects simultaneously on fast-paced timelines to enhance model collaboration.
Requirements
Strong written communication skills with the ability to explain complex technical ideas clearly.
Demonstrated ability to understand users across diverse contexts, domains, populations, and cultures.
Professional background spanning several years in technology interaction roles, including UX research, product design, conversation design, or AI lab model behavior.
Nice to Have
Background in designing model personality or behavior, or guiding technical roadmaps in unverifiable domains.
Prior involvement in shaping research philosophies, model values, epistemics, or research taste.
Practical experience using large language models, building intuition for behaviors, writing prompts, and evaluating outputs.
A portfolio or writing samples displaying clear taste, ideally influencing communication in products or systems.
History of steering ambiguous, open-ended problems from initial framing to successful delivery across engineering, research, and product.
Experience designing and executing experiments, qualitative studies, model evaluations, or A/B tests to drive data-backed decisions.
Familiarity with quantitative analysis to interpret eval results, spot data patterns, and communicate findings to various audiences.
A defined viewpoint regarding AI supporting human judgment instead of replacing it.
Skills and Tools
Large language models and prompt iteration
Model evaluation and output analysis
Qualitative studies and quantitative analysis
Product design and conversation design
Cross-functional collaboration across research, product, and engineering
Salary and Benefits
Expected annual salary range of $300,000 to $400,000 USD, determined by background, skills, and experience.
Comprehensive health, dental, and vision benefits.
Unlimited paid time off (PTO).
Paid parental leave.
Relocation support if required.
Visa sponsorship available for qualified candidates.
About the Company
Thinking Machines aims to build artificial intelligence that extends human will and judgment. The organization trains frontier models using Inkling, develops Tinker to allow personalized model creation, and designs interfaces that expand human-AI communication to ensure the future remains human-centered.
How to Apply
Interested candidates should visit the official Thinking Machines careers page to submit an application for this role.
