Member of Technical Staff at Clera in San Francisco, CA

About the Role

We are an early-stage AI and robotics company (Series A/B equivalent, 11–50 people) tackling some of the hardest open problems in artificial intelligence — the kind where existing solutions simply don't exist yet. Our work spans custom database and memory systems, real-time LLM token state management, custom Unix OS distributions for human-AI interaction, and UX paradigms grounded in organizational behavior and human psychology.

We're looking for a Member of Technical Staff who is obsessed with technically difficult, overlooked problems and who can build large, complex, and maintainable systems at an extraordinary pace. This is a high-ownership, high-impact role at the frontier of AI infrastructure and systems engineering.

Visa sponsorship is available.

What You'll Do

• Solve novel, hard technical problems that lack existing solutions to push the frontier of AI forward.
• Design and build custom database and memory systems tailored to advanced AI workloads.
• Implement real-time LLM token state management at large scale.
• Develop custom Unix OS distributions optimized for human-AI interaction.
• Rethink product UX informed by organizational behavior and human psychology fundamentals.
• Contribute to mechanistic interpretability research to better understand and control AI models.
• Work closely with a small, highly technical team in a hands-on, ownership-driven environment.

What We're Looking For

Required:

• A genuine obsession with novel, technically difficult, or overlooked problems.
• Demonstrated ability to build large, complex, and maintainable systems in roughly one-third the time most engineers would estimate — speed and quality, not one or the other.
• Experience with one or more of: TypeScript, Rust, Python, graph databases, or flexible data pipelines.
• Outlier technical ability — evidenced by a top academic background, exceptional open-source work, or a strong track record of outstanding engineering.

Nice to Have:

• Familiarity with graph databases, ontological modelling, and flexible data pipeline architectures.
• Interest in and comfort applying insights from psychology and organizational behavior to product and UX decisions.
• Experience with compounding micro-optimizations in performance-critical systems.
• Background in distributed systems, AI infrastructure, or systems-level programming.

Compensation & Benefits

• Cash compensation: $200,000 – $400,000 annually
• Equity: Meaningful variable equity package
• Visa sponsorship available

Location

This is a fully on-site role based in San Francisco, CA (South Park neighborhood). We believe deeply in in-person collaboration and expect team members to be present daily.