AI Researcher

The role

You make our agents better at the actual work. You own the post-training loop: taking real workflow data from our deployments and turning it into models and evals that push agent accuracy where a demo-grade model fails on the tenth run.

This is applied, production-facing research. Your results ship to agents running inside the world's largest enterprises.

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AI Researcher

Varick Agents, SF

Posted pay

$200K–$250K

a year

Compared with similar jobs

This base pay is below the median for AI research jobs in the Bay Area with no level in the job title.

Median: $238K a year
Other jobs in the group: 520

We compare the middle of each posted range. This is base pay as posted. The group does not include this job.

Location: SF
Work type: Not given
Level: Not given
Posted: Jul 29, 2026
Last check: 7 h ago
Job type: Research, Inference & ML systems, ML / AI engineering

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Varick Agents

Open tech jobs: 4
With posted pay: 100%

About Varick Agents: funding, hiring and pay

Varick Agents

About Varick Agents: funding, hiring and pay

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The role

This is applied, production-facing research. Your results ship to agents running inside the world's largest enterprises.

Nice to have

Published research or open-source work in LLMs and agents
Agentic evals, tool-use training, or long-context work
Reinforcement learning environments
Taking research into production

Culture

Extreme ownership. You own the tasks end-to-end, at an extreme level. You think beyond the task at hand, consider upstream and downstream impact, and are accountable for the entire outcome
An instinctual sense of urgency. You thrive in and help foster an environment with urgency. When a new request comes in, it is instinctually clear to you how that fits into the existing prioritization list. If it goes to the top of the list, you jump on it immediately, help the rest of the team realize the shift, and consider any impact of de-prioritizing other items
Low ego, high agency. We are all on this rocket ship together. If you win, the team wins and vice versa. You don't wait for permission to pursue a task. If you can do something that moves the needle, do it
Curious. Our work requires deep curiosity, both when it comes to understanding the clients' work and what matters to them, and when it comes to keeping up with and adopting the latest AI developments. Examples to showcase this could be pursuing niche interests, reading textbooks on the weekend, questioning the latest research, etc.
Perfectionist. You must be proud of your work product. In a client-facing business, it is critical that we put correct, well-informed, and well-documented material in front of the client. We are held to the highest standards and embody that mindset internally within Varick too
Startup mindset. Things are ambiguous. The hours are long. Weekend work is expected. And this excites you. With AI, the world is moving extremely quickly, and the ways of working are changing every day. We are at the forefront and help facilitate this rapid change. In the next 3, 5, and 10 years, things are going to change significantly, and you join to work hard and be a part of this exciting journey towards an AI-native future
Feedback metabolism. You never need the same correction twice, and you treat every review as compounding rather than criticism. You spot opportunities to give, and are comfortable giving, feedback to all of your peers, be it upward, downward, or horizontal
Competitive. You are here to win. You are driven by performing better than competitors, and by delivering outcomes that move the needle. Your background speaks to your competitive mindset with top performance in e.g., sports, eSports, former career, research, etc.
Based in SF or willing to relocate. On-site in our Financial District office, five days a week

What this role isn't

Not research for its own sake. Every result is measured against real workflows
Not client-embedded. Our forward deployed team works on client sites; you work on the models behind them

Why Varick

Real data. Production traces from agents doing real work at some of the world's largest companies
Your work ships. A better model shows up in client results within weeks
High-bar team. Everyone here is someone you'll want to learn from: operators, engineers, and strategists at the top of their craft
Small, early team. Your judgment shapes the product, the playbooks, and how Varick scales
Meaningful equity at a stage where it still compounds

AI Researcher

The role

AI Researcher

The role

What you will do

What you need

Nice to have

Culture

What this role isn't

Why Varick

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