Senior Software Engineer

We are a nonprofit raising policymaker awareness about AI risks, aiming to slow potentially dangerous research and accelerate technical safety. We have ambitious goals and need to move fast. About Palisade

As a Senior SWE, you will build AI risk demos and research infrastructure. You will ship features daily in a tight loop with the stakeholders and be responsible for our technical excellence.

What you'll do

1. Engineering

   • Build and ship AI risk demos in the span of days

   • Maintain and improve our core technical stack

2. Technical Leadership

   • Lead technical architecture decisions and establish engineering best practices

   • Mentor junior engineers and review code

3. Collaboration

   • Work closely with researchers to implement their requirements

   • Coordinate with demo users and external collaborators

Our collaboration process

• We post daily statuses for each other to keep in sync regarding our directions. Each project has a daily sync, and there’s a weekly lab demo to show off our results.

• We propose new ideas or directions by writing up a doc, sharing it, and getting comments. This enables async communication.

• Our median response time to each other is in hours, not minutes; we work in an independent and self-directed fashion. Your supervisor helps you maintain direction; colleagues help with the implementation; you keep track of your tasks and milestones.

• We offer high intellectual freedom and value curiosity. You are welcome to challenge anything we do.

What you'll need

Experience level

• 6+ years of relevant technical experience

• Proven track record of leading complex engineering projects to completion

• Demonstrated success in leadership in engineering or research teams

Core skills

• Technical Expertise: Expert-level Python, JavaScript, and software architecture skills

• LLM Engineering: Experience with LLM APIs, RAG systems, and agent frameworks

• Best Practices: Strong background in testing, CI/CD, and code review

• Communication: Clear technical writing and presentation abilities

• C1+ English proficiency

• Agentic coding excellence

Hiring process

1. Application

2. Paid takehome task

3. Paid trial day

4. Paid trial period, 1–2 weeks

Compensation and benefits

• Compensation: $48–90k per year based on fit & location. Please note that we cannot transact with countries under U.S. sanctions.

• Comprehensive global health and dental insurance

• Coworking space stipend

• Partial fitness compensation