About Thinking Machines Lab
What is Thinking Machines Lab?
Thinking Machines Lab is an artificial intelligence research and product company building "a future where everyone has access to the knowledge and tools to make AI work for their unique needs and goals." The company frames the gap it's addressing this way: "the scientific community's understanding of frontier AI systems lags behind rapidly advancing capabilities. Knowledge of how these systems are trained is concentrated within the top research labs, limiting both the public discourse on AI and people's abilities to use AI effectively. And, despite their potential, these systems remain difficult for people to customize to their specific needs and values."
The team is a who's-who of frontier AI: "We are scientists, engineers, and builders who've created some of the most widely used AI products, including ChatGPT and Character.ai, open-weights models like Mistral, as well as popular open source projects like PyTorch, OpenAI Gym, Fairseq, and Segment Anything." The company has announced a Long-Term Gigawatt-Scale Strategic Partnership with NVIDIA, and the product portfolio publicly includes Tinker and the Connectionism publication.
The research thesis spans four pillars: science is better when shared (frequent technical blog posts, papers, open code); AI that works for everyone (human-AI collaboration over fully autonomous systems, multimodal personalization); solid foundations matter (frontier models in science + programming, infrastructure quality, advanced multimodal); and learning by doing (research-and-product co-design, empirical iterative AI safety).
Where will I work?
Thinking Machines Lab is headquartered in San Francisco with relocation support offered for new hires. The team is hiring across 32 active roles spanning research, infrastructure, product, design, operations, and people functions.
What is the Thinking Machines Lab team like?
The team profile is unusually deep: members have built ChatGPT, Character.ai, Mistral, and the open-source projects (PyTorch, OpenAI Gym, Fairseq, Segment Anything) that underpin the modern ML ecosystem. The careers tagline says it directly: "We're building AI systems that push technical boundaries while delivering real value to as many people as possible. Our team combines rigorous engineering with creative exploration."
Roles span research engineers, infrastructure engineers, product engineers, designers, and operations / people / talent partners. The Compensation Partner JD itself signals the operating philosophy: "We're looking for a compensation partner who brings a point of view, not just a process" — applicable across functions.
Work-Life Balance
Thinking Machines Lab offers Unlimited PTO alongside generous health benefits and paid parental leave. The careers framing emphasises depth and longevity: "We aim to build things correctly for the long haul, to maximize both productivity and security, rather than taking shortcuts."
Perks and Benefits
- Unlimited PTO
- Generous health, dental, and vision benefits
- Paid parental leave
- Relocation support as needed
- SF-based team with deep frontier-AI experience (ChatGPT, Character.ai, Mistral, PyTorch, OpenAI Gym, Fairseq, Segment Anything)