Internal Acceleration, Research Engineer (Kernels)

Highlights

• Build agents that accelerate production of frontier tokens.
• Embed with kernels team to turn bottlenecks into daily-used tools.
• Ship full-stack internal products defining how Etched builds hardware.

What they offer

• Medical, dental, and vision packages with generous premium coverage
• $500 per month credit for waiving medical benefits
• $2,500 per month housing subsidy for those living within walking distance of the office
• Relocation support for those moving to San Jose
• Wellness benefits covering fitness, mental health, and more
• Daily lunch and dinner in the office
• Unlimited compute budget subject to ROI justification
• Significant equity

Ideal candidate

High-agency builder with startup experience who thrives in ambiguity, uses coding agents daily, and wants to own internal products end-to-end with founders.

Requirements

• 1-5+ years building and shipping software end to end, ideally at a fast-moving startup
• Built agents for complex, multi-step tasks including tool design, long-context management, evals, and failure analysis
• Strong software engineering background building reliable systems like distributed systems or developer tooling
• Use coding agents heavily and improve the system when agents are confidently wrong
• High agency in unfamiliar domains with ability to find and drive the real problem
• Product sense, design taste, and extreme attention to detail