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Software Engineer, Research Tooling

Cursor is hiring a Software Engineer, Research Tooling in Palo Alto, United States. Level rates it ; you can apply on Level.

Level's read on this job

  • Works on AI ●●●○ is how Level rates this software engineer role: the daily work is on AI products, without building the model.
  • The posting mentions Grok, Python and React among its tools and skills.
  • Level classes it as a mid-level role.
  • Cursor has 133 other open roles on Level.
  • This posting went up in the last few days.

AI in this role

Build full-stack tooling and infrastructure to accelerate AI research and experimentation workflows.

grokpythonreacttypescript
ai-evaluationfull-stack-developmentinfrastructureexperimentation-platforms

SpaceX was founded under the belief that a future where humanity is out exploring the stars is fundamentally more exciting than one where we are not. Today, SpaceX is actively developing the technologies to make this possible, with the ultimate goal of making life multiplanetary and expanding consciousness to the stars.

SpaceXSI is building Super Intelligence to help humanity understand the universe. Our teams are building the full Super Intelligence stack: from our Colossus supercomputers, to Grok models, to our suite of applications, including Grok Bot, Grok Build, Grok Imagine, Grok Voice, and X. We're creating a powerful flywheel where more compute trains better models, better models power more useful products, and what we learn from people using those products shapes what we build next.

About the role

As a Software Engineer on the Research Tools team, you'll build the infrastructure and applications that enable our researchers to iterate quickly, run complex experiments, and extract insights. This is a full-stack product-engineering role.

You'll work directly with researchers and engineers to deeply understand their workflows, identify bottlenecks, and rapidly ship solutions that multiply their productivity. Whether you're creating platforms for experiment orchestration, developing novel visualization tools for model evaluation, or building abstractions for understanding model behavior at scale, your work will directly accelerate our mission of building frontier AI models.

We're looking for someone who can jump into new problems, quickly develop domain expertise, and independently drive impactful projects from conception to delivery. No prior ML or research experience is required.

What you’ll do

  • Build and maintain the full-stack applications and infrastructure researchers rely on daily, covering experiment setup, feedback collection, and results analysis.

  • Own complete product areas from user needs through design, implementation, and iteration, setting standards for how to build research applications.

  • Create reusable platforms and tools that speed up new research applications, then prototype, ship, and iterate quickly based on real-world usage.

  • Partner with research teams to turn their workflows and pain points into intuitive interfaces and abstractions that make complex research tasks fast and approachable.

You may be a fit if

  • You’ve had experience building tools, platforms, or infrastructure for technical users (engineers, researchers, data scientists, analysts, etc.)

  • You’ve shipped full-stack products and owned systems from user interface to storage or services, using technologies such as TypeScript and React alongside Node, Python, or Go.

  • You’ve built dense, data-facing tools such as transcript viewers, diffing systems, review queues, observability products, or operational dashboards—and you have strong opinions about how structured data should be rendered.

  • You have strong product instincts, can identify the right problems to solve, and can move from concept to working prototype with ease.

  • You move quickly under ambiguity, collaborate closely with researchers and domain experts, and take open-ended problems from rough need to reliable product.

Applying

If there appears to be a fit, we'll reach out to schedule 2-3 short technicals. After, we'll schedule an onsite in our office, where you'll work on a small project, discuss ideas, and meet the team.

How we rate this

Software Engineer, Research Tooling at Cursor rates 65 out of 100 for how much of the daily work is AI. That makes it Works on AI (AI Level 3 of 4). The level is about AI in the job, not seniority.

Classification

Works on AI. The daily work is on AI products, without building the model.

  1. ●●●● Builds AI80 to 100
  2. ●●●○ Works on AI60 to 79
  3. ●●○○ Uses AI40 to 59
  4. ●○○○ Little AI0 to 39

Levels come from how often the tools, models and workflows of the role are named in the posting itself. Open the description and count.

Prepare for this job

Built from this posting and from similar jobs on Level.

Skills and AI tools this role asks for

AI EvaluationFull Stack DevelopmentInfrastructureExperimentation PlatformsGrokPythonReactTypeScript

Also common in software engineer jobs at this level

Pay

Typical software engineer job
$168k

This posting doesn't list pay. Use the typical software engineer figure when pay comes up. See software engineer jobs

Questions you could be asked

  1. How do you decide that one model's output is better than another's for a given task?
  2. Tell me about a project where full stack development was part of your work. What did you do?
  3. Tell me about a project where infrastructure was part of your work. What did you do?
  4. Tell me about a project where experimentation platforms was part of your work. What did you do?
  5. Walk me through how you've used Grok in your day-to-day work.

Adapt your resume

  • List these exact terms on your resume: AI Evaluation, Full Stack Development, Infrastructure, Experimentation Platforms, and Grok. An applicant tracking system matches the wording, not the idea.
  • Attach one line of real, concrete experience to at least one of them. A tool named with nothing behind it rarely survives a human read.
  • Show where AI is part of your daily process, not a one-off project. This role expects it to be a running habit.

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