AI Engineer, xAI
HCI / Model Designer
$180-440k
+ Equity
More information about location
5 days a week in office (Palo Alto, CA)
Building artificial intelligence
Be an early applicant
Building artificial intelligence
1001+ employees
Be an early applicant
$180-440k
+ Equity
More information about location
5 days a week in office (Palo Alto, CA)
1001+ employees
Company mission
To build AI systems that can help humanity understand the world better.
Role
Who you are
- Work ethic and strong prioritization skills are important. All engineers are expected to have strong communication skills. They should be able to concisely and accurately share knowledge with their teammates
- HCI and UX Expertise: Proven track record in human-computer interaction, user experience design, or related fields, with a portfolio demonstrating high-taste designs for complex systems—ideally in AI or tech products
- AI/ML Engineering Background: Hands-on experience building or fine-tuning AI models (e.g., LLMs, agents), combined with skills in software engineering (Python, frontend frameworks like React) to prototype and deploy interactive AI features
- Research Acumen: Experience conducting user studies, A/B experiments, or HCI research, with publications or projects in areas like AI explainability, information visualization, or conversational interfaces
- Creative Problem-Solving: Demonstrated ability to innovate on information display and agent transparency, such as designing tools for reasoning visualization or adaptive UIs, with a strong aesthetic sense for what "feels right" to users
- Collaborative Mindset: 3+ years in fast-paced environments, preferably at AI startups or tech companies, where you've balanced technical depth with user empathy to deliver impactful solutions
What the job involves
- As an AI Engineer & Researcher - HCI / Model Designer at xAI, you will play a pivotal role in bridging the gap between cutting-edge AI models and exceptional user experiences. This position sits at the intersection of human-computer interaction (HCI), AI engineering, and model design, where you'll collaborate with cross-functional teams to reimagine how users engage with our AI systems
- Your work will focus on elevating the intuitiveness, clarity, and delight of interactions, ensuring that complex AI capabilities are presented in ways that feel natural, insightful, and empowering
- With a keen eye for user-centric design, you'll iterate on interfaces, information architectures, and visualization techniques to make our models more accessible and transparent—ultimately helping users unlock the full potential of AI in their daily lives
- Enhance User Interactions: Design and implement intuitive interfaces that improve how users query, receive, and iterate on responses from our AI models, prioritizing seamless and engaging experiences
- Information Organization and Display: Develop strategies for structuring and presenting AI-generated content, ensuring clarity, hierarchy, and relevance to help users quickly grasp key insights without overwhelm
- Innovate on Agent Transparency: Create novel ways to visualize and convey the internal reasoning processes of AI agents, such as step-by-step thought traces or dynamic feedback loops, to build trust and understanding
- Prototyping and Iteration: Rapidly prototype new HCI features for AI interfaces, incorporating user feedback and A/B testing to refine how models deliver value in real-world scenarios
- Cross-Disciplinary Collaboration: Work closely with AI researchers, engineers, and product teams to integrate HCI principles into model training and deployment, fostering innovations that align technical capabilities with human needs
Application process
- After submitting your application, the team reviews your CV and statement of exceptional work. If your application passes this stage, you will be invited to a 15-minute interview (“phone interview”) during which a member of our team will ask some basic questions. If you clear the initial phone interview, you will enter the main process, which consists of four technical interviews:
- Coding assessment in a language of your choice
- 2x post-training technical sessions: These sessions will be testing your ability to formulate, design and solve concrete problems in training data for post-training
- Meet the Team: Present your past exceptional work and your vision with xAI to a small audience
- Our goal is to finish the main process within one week. All interviews will be conducted via Google Meet
Our take
xAI is Elon Musk's venture into the world of artificial intelligence, and like all things Musk, it's going big. Its setting out to build AI that helps humanity understand the universe and its starting with Grok, its conversational AI chatbot already integrated into X (formerly Twitter). With access to real-time data and a powerful ecosystem of Musk-led companies, xAI is certainly pushing towards artificial general intelligence at serious scale.
Like all bold ventures, xAI has faced its share of controversy, from questions about regulation to the overlap across Musk's businesses. But fans are still seeing the bigger picture: an interconnected tech ecosystem where AI, social media, and space exploration feed into one another.
Recently, the company made headlines with its massive "Colossus" supercomputer project, powered by tens of thousands of Nvidia GPUs. While the data center's temporary power setup has faced environmental scrutiny, the scale of ambition is certainly undeniable. From launching tap-to-pay features on X to building one of the most powerful AI training systems on Earth, xAI is moving fast.
Steph
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Company
Funding (last 2 of 4 rounds)
Jul 2025
$5bn
GROWTH EQUITY VC
Dec 2024
$6bn
SERIES C
Total funding: $17.1bn
Company benefits
- Health and wellness: Comprehensive health insurance including medical, dental, vision, and disability coverage
- Life and family: Life and AD&D insurance and fertility benefits to ensure our team’s well-being and peace of mind
- Flexible vacation: We work hard but avoid burn out. Take time off when you need it
- Visa sponsorship: We support international talent with visa sponsorship to join our team
- 401(k) plan: Retirement savings plan to secure your financial future
Company HQ
Downtown, Burlingame, CA
Leadership
Elon Musk
(Founder)Founder, Chairman, CEO, and CTO of SpaceX. CEO and Product Architect of Tesla. Chairman and CTO of X Corp, founder of the Boring Company, co-founder of Neuralink and OpenAI, and president of the Musk Foundation.
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