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Applied Compute

Custom AI models and enterprise agents

AI Platform Engineer

Full-TimeUpdated on 10/24/2026
$190k - $310k+ Equity
Mid
San Francisco, CA, USA
In PersonRole is based in the San Francisco office in the Mission.
Software EngineeringAI Application Engineering, Full-Stack Engineering
H1B Sponsorship Available

About the job

Requirements
  • Strong full-stack engineering skills with experience shipping production web applications.
  • Deep familiarity with large language model-powered applications and agent architectures.
  • Experience with both real-time and asynchronous systems.
  • Ability to build and iterate on polished, functional applications quickly with high engineering craft.
Responsibilities
  • Own the full stack of the platform, AC2.
  • Integrate new platform capabilities such as memory, context, and auto-research.
  • Design interfaces for interacting with agents, including the platform console, dashboards, resource management views, and observability user interfaces.
  • Build tools that allow subject matter experts to capture and communicate their workflows.
  • Develop the AC software development kit that internal and customer-facing engineers use to build domain-specific agents and applications.
  • Build the agent sandboxing user experience and deployment surfaces that let agents operate across different environments.
  • Work closely with product research engineers to integrate platform capabilities into polished user experiences and with applied research engineers to build for customer deployments and bring learnings back into the platform.
Desired Qualifications
  • Experience with reinforcement learning from human feedback or similar human-in-the-loop learning systems.
  • Previous experience as a founder or early engineer at a zero-to-one company.
  • Published work or open-source contributions in artificial intelligence or machine learning systems.

About the company

Applied Compute builds custom AI models and in-house AI agents for enterprises, a concept called Specific Intelligence. They train proprietary AI on a company’s own data and fine-tune it for specific workflows, operating on a large GPU cluster with an integrated training stack, agent platform, and development tools. They also embed engineers within customer teams to move from idea to deployed solutions in days, not months. Their goal is to give enterprises a competitive edge by deploying production-ready, specialized AI that deeply integrates into operations and is difficult for others to replicate.

Company Size

11-50

Company Stage

Late Stage VC

Total Funding

$160M

Headquarters

San Francisco, California

Founded

2025

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Simplify's Take

What believers are saying

  • Annualized revenue reached about $50 million by August 2026, nearly quadruple November levels.
  • AC2 launched in August 2026 and entered private beta with broad open-model support.
  • Customer list spans DoorDash, Cognition, Mercor, Harvey, Microsoft, and NVIDIA, validating enterprise demand.

What critics are saying

  • Open-source model vendors compress margins; customers can replicate workflows with cheaper infrastructure quickly.
  • A $3 billion valuation in August 2026 demands flawless growth and retention from a 17-person team.
  • If OpenAI, Microsoft, or Anthropic ship better enterprise agents, Applied Compute loses its wedge.

What makes Applied Compute unique

  • Former OpenAI researchers Yash Patil, Rhythm Garg, and Linden Li launched it in 2025.
  • AC2 unifies training, serving, and production feedback for open models in one stack.
  • Applied Compute embeds engineers inside customers like DoorDash, Cognition, Mercor, and Microsoft.

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Benefits

  • Health Insurance
  • Unlimited Paid Time Off
  • Parental Leave
  • Meal Benefits
  • Relocation Assistance
  • Company Equity

Growth & Insights and Company News

6 month growth

8%

1 year growth

18%

2 year growth

18%
The Information
Aug 10th, 2026
Applied Compute in Talks to Double Valuation to $3 Billion on Open-Source Demand

Applied Compute, a year-old startup that helps companies run and customize open-source models with their own data, is discussing a new funding round that would value it at around $3 billion, more than double its valuation from a round announced four months ago, according to a person with ...

RootData
Apr 9th, 2026
Applied Compute raises $80M at $1.3B valuation to build enterprise AI agents

Applied Compute, a startup building dedicated intelligent systems for enterprises, has raised $80 million in new financing, bringing its post-money valuation to $1.3 billion. Kleiner Perkins led the round, with participation from Elad Gil, Lux Capital, Greenoaks, NEO and Hana Bicapital. Total funding now stands at $160 million. The company develops what it calls "Specific Intelligence" — proprietary intelligent agents trained on real company operations and designed for continuous self-evolution. Applied Compute's technology helps enterprises unlock institutional context, train agents for specific workflows and performance standards, and deploy them to production environments.

Applied Compute
Apr 8th, 2026
The Advantage You Own

Applied Compute Raises $80M to Help Enterprises Advance from Generalized to Specific Intelligence

SiliconANGLE Media
Oct 31st, 2025
Former OpenAI researchers launch Applied Compute with $80M in funding

Former OpenAI researchers launch Applied Compute with $80M in funding - SiliconANGLE