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MTS, Agent Research

etchedSan JoseSoftware
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Salary
$175K – $275K
Job type
Full-time
Experience
Lead
Posted
25 Sept 2026
Status
Open · checked 8d ago

About this role

MTS - Agent Research is a full-time research leadership position based in San Jose, perfect for an experienced professional looking to direct self-improving agent development. This role suits a practitioner with a strong background in building complex agentic systems and post-training large language models.

Role Overview

MTS - Agent Research is an in-person role located in San Jose, California. The position involves establishing the research strategy for self-improving agents designed to handle complex engineering tasks. The work connects research exploration directly with infrastructure development, targeting measurable improvements across application domains.

Key Responsibilities

Direct the research strategy for agent systems, determine priorities, and decide when to scale approaches.
Partner with domain specialists to analyze engineering workflows, isolate agent failures, and establish evaluations.
Design architectures for long-running tasks involving context management, memory, tool integration, planning, and agent coordination.
Construct evaluations measuring correctness, efficiency, and reliability on production tasks.
Train custom models utilizing supervised fine-tuning, reinforcement learning, and distillation with the agent harness in the loop.
Scale experiments to manage large numbers of concurrent agents while controlling compute costs and ensuring reproducibility.

Requirements

Demonstrated research judgment and a history of translating ambiguous challenges into clear experiments and operational systems.
Advanced software engineering capabilities spanning research exploration, harness experimentation, debugging, and production deployment.
Practical background in constructing agents for multi-step tasks, including familiarity with evaluation, context, memory, and failure recovery.
Hands-on experience executing large language model post-training via supervised fine-tuning and reinforcement learning.
Track record of achieving progress under data and compute constraints while managing operational costs.
High agency, autonomy, and the ability to define technical direction alongside domain experts.

Nice to Have

Familiarity with application domains such as ASIC design, accelerator kernels, verification, large-scale compute infrastructure, or inference systems.

Skills and Tools

Large language models
Supervised fine-tuning
Reinforcement learning
Model distillation
Agent harnesses
Context and memory management
Tool use and planning

Salary and Benefits

Base compensation range of $175K to $275K per year
Significant equity offering
Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision insurance packages with generous premium coverage
Monthly credit of $500 for waiving medical benefits
Monthly housing subsidy of $2,500 for employees residing within walking distance of the office
Relocation assistance for individuals moving to the San Jose area
Wellness coverage encompassing mental health and fitness benefits
Catered daily lunch and dinner at the office
Unlimited compute budget subject to return on investment justification

About the Company

Etched builds hardware tailored for frontier intelligence by co-designing manufacturing, chips, software, and racks to achieve throughput and latency performance. The organization focuses on inference workloads and operates as a fully in-person team located in Santana Row, San Jose.

How to Apply

Interested candidates should apply directly on the official company careers page.

Skills and tech stack

LLMSFTRLReinforcement LearningFine-tuning

Questions candidates ask

Where is the MTS - Agent Research position located?

The position is a fully in-person role based in San Jose, California, specifically in the Santana Row area.

What is the salary range for this role?

The base compensation range is $175K to $275K, plus significant equity.

What benefits and perks are included?

Benefits include medical, dental, and vision packages, a $500 monthly credit for waiving medical coverage, a $2,500 monthly housing subsidy for those living within walking distance of the office, relocation support, daily catered lunch and dinner, wellness benefits, and an unlimited compute budget subject to ROI justification.

What qualifications are required for agent research?

Requirements include strong research judgment, advanced engineering abilities, practical experience building agents for multi-step tasks, hands-on LLM post-training experience with SFT and RL, a track record of working under compute constraints, and high agency.

Is any nice-to-have experience specified?

Yes, helpful experience includes ASIC design or verification, accelerator kernels, inference systems, or large-scale compute infrastructure.

Ready to apply?

The application is on the official etched careers page.

Apply on company site