Engineering · Equity-based · approximately 1.0%
Founding ML Engineer
About Aetherya
Aetherya is a frontier cognitive simulation lab building computational models of human perception, behavior and decision-making.
Our research focuses on synthetic humans: persistent, behaviorally grounded agents capable of interpreting information, experiencing uncertainty, forming objections, changing beliefs and making decisions within simulated environments.
We combine foundation models with cognitive architectures, behavioral dynamics, population grounding and multi-agent simulation to study how individuals and groups react before real-world exposure.
Overview
This is not primarily a conventional generative-AI application role. Our researchers help define how people behave. You help make those behaviors computationally real.
What you would own
- THYMOS and simulation architecture
- Agent state, memory and behavioral dynamics
- Probabilistic variation and population generation
- Synthetic audience construction and agent heterogeneity
- Model routing, uncertainty and behavioral calibration
- Evaluation, reproducibility and large-scale inference
- ML infrastructure, performance and cost optimization
Problems you might solve
- Prevent thousands of agents from becoming reworded versions of one model
- Give past experiences meaningful influence on future decisions
- Calibrate simulated populations against empirical distributions
- Propagate uncertainty instead of collapsing into a confident answer
- Run large populations efficiently while retaining individual differences
- Translate trust, cognitive load, hesitation and memory decay into computational behavior
Technical profile
- Python and PyTorch, JAX or equivalent frameworks
- LLM APIs, open-weight models and inference systems
- Embeddings, probabilistic modeling and agent architectures
- Evaluation systems, distributed or async processing and APIs
- Databases, experiment tracking and statistical analysis
- Rust, behavioral modeling, RL, multi-agent systems or simulation are valuable advantages
What this role requires
You enjoy ambiguous technical problems. You can move from research paper to hypothesis, prototype, experiment, evaluation and production system. You are comfortable challenging assumptions when evidence says they are wrong.
We are looking for consistent, serious involvement as part of Aetherya’s core technical team, not occasional contribution.
Compensation
This is an equity-compensated founding-team role. Indicative grant: approximately 1.0% of Aetherya, based on ability, commitment, responsibility, opportunity cost and contribution to core IP. Vesting and final legal documentation apply. There is currently no cash salary.
What success looks like
- A substantially improved THYMOS architecture
- Calibrated behavioral models
- Large-scale population simulation infrastructure
- Robust evaluation systems and persistent agent state
- Improved model economics and published technical research
Interested?