Data Scientist

AE Studio builds products, platforms, and internal ventures that increase agency for all conscious beings. We combine world-class software engineering, AI expertise, and product design to ship ambitious projects that matter.

As a Data Scientist at AE Studio, you’ll work on a mix of client projects and internal research initiatives. You’ll solve real-world problems, help build meaningful products, and contribute to groundbreaking AI alignment research. Your work will involve building data-driven solutions, leveraging machine learning models, and using your creativity to deliver results that matter.

In addition to client projects, you’ll have the opportunity to propose and pursue high-impact research projects, especially those aligned with our mission of increasing agency. Promising projects could even become prioritized skunkworks initiatives.

We want problem-solvers who are adaptable, collaborative, and excited to push boundaries. If this sounds like you, let’s talk.

You thrive on solving challenging problems and bring a mix of technical expertise, creativity, and humor to your work. You enjoy working independently but also love collaborating with a team that shares your passion for making a difference.

• Fluency in Python..
• Experience with LLM lifecycle: prompt design/engineering, prompting techniques (RAG, few-shot, CoT, etc.), vector databases, multimodality, fine-tuning, and evaluation.
• Proven data science experience: You’ve been a key contributor to impactful projects and know how to deliver results with real-life outcomes.
• Statistical & causal ML fundamentals: expertise in experimental design, uncertainty quantification, and rigorous model evaluation across tabular, time-series, and foundation-model fine-tuning tasks.
• Deep learning experience: Expertise in building/training NLP or computer vision models with PyTorch, TensorFlow, or JAX.
• Agile & AI-powered development: You run lean Kanban/Scrum cycles and leverage AI-powered tools like Cursor to prototype quickly and ship high-impact solutions.
• Growth mindset: You embrace challenges, value progress over perfection, and constantly seek to improve.
• Self-management: You can work independently, take ownership of projects, and deliver without constant oversight.
• Product and UX understanding: You care about delivering a seamless, user-friendly experience.
• Effective communication in English: Clear, concise, and maybe even witty communication is essential.

• Self-managed projects: Ideally something that you helped develop from zero and shipped to real users.
• Startup experience: You thrive in dynamic environments and enjoy taking on new challenges.
• Client relationship management: Experience managing clients and delivering excellent results.
• Passion for AI alignment: You care deeply about humanity’s future and want to help navigate the challenges of advancing AI.

• Remote-first culture: Work from anywhere, or join us in one of our offices.
• Flexible schedules: We care about outcomes, not micromanagement.
• Competitive pay: Regular performance-based raises and a diversified employee equity program.
• Opportunities for growth: Work on cutting-edge R&D and propose projects that could become our next skunkworks focus.
• Supportive environment: A team that collaborates, mentors, and shares knowledge.
• Perks: Health insurance, free lunches (at the office), weekly knowledge-sharing talks, and an annual team retreat.

Salary range from $120k/year to $220k/year (if you're based in LA). Not in the range? That's fine, you can still apply and our team may fit you in a more senior position that we're not actively hiring for right now, since we are growing fast and may have other openings soon.

Equity

Working at AE means receiving equity in some of our client projects and in the Skunkworks projects we incubate. The equity granted is priced at a value of $0 when you receive it. If it were otherwise, you’d be forced to pay taxes. But to be clear, there are no free lunches, only the choice of who pays for your sandwich.

At AE, the equity you receive is not free to AE. We invest millions annually in Skunkworks projects - paying our employees to build technology for which no client pays a bill. We receive equity from certain clients, which means we accept less in terms of our billable rate. We then pass that equity on to our employees. Sure it’s priced at $0 on day 1 - a call option on a stock trading at $100 with a strike price of $100 is priced at $0 today for tax purposes, but you’d want to receive that option. If you received that option on a dozen stocks, you’d be fairly confident that some of them would be worth a lot more than $0.

Offering this equity (by investing in Skunkworks or offering clients a lower rate) comes out of AE’s margins. Theoretically, we should be lowering salaries to compensate. But we’re competitive on that front as well. Over the long-term, we believe AE employees who stick around are likely to fare extremely well monetarily (no legal promises). We think long-term. You should too when you choose your employer.

We are looking to hire people who think long term. People create exponentially more value here in their 3rd or 4th year rather than their 1st or 2nd, and that only increases. The value you create leads to more equity issued every year, and you retain it while you remain at AE or at a Skunkworks co that spins out, in order to free up equity for others, which is how we afford to be generous with the equity.

* Disclaimer: If you leave AE on good terms, you can retain 20% of your equity if you continue to send leads our way, share our core values, etc. If you leave AE for your own AE-incubated Skunkworks project (or someone else’s), you retain 100% of your equity. Folks create exponentially more value here in their 3rd and 4th years than their 1st or 2nd - we want folks who think long-term like we do.