Build a new paradigm
Systems that reason—not regurgitate. Machines designed to amplify human thought, not imitate it. Our team of cyberneticists, theorists, and systems architects is building what does not yet exist—and rewriting the laws of intelligence to make it possible.
What We Value and How We Act
We build intelligence that surprises the world by being quietly inevitable. At Iseer, our work isn't theater or iterating for attention—it's craft. Slow, exacting, and full of human judgment. These values aren't wall decorations. They're how we treat each other, how we design, and how we know when we've actually done something worth doing.
First Principles — Then Let Imagination Run
Start with bedrock. Physics, math, clean logic. Then let your mind wander. First principles keep us honest; imagination finds the paths nobody else saw. We don't chase trends. We chase truth. When the industry consensus contradicts fundamental reality, reality wins. Every time. That's how you build things that rewrite the rules.
Go Deep — But Kill Your Darlings
Synthetic intelligence can't be rushed. We work on decade timelines while others sprint in circles. But depth isn't an excuse for endless theorizing. It means stubborn curiosity, brutal iteration, and the spine to throw away beautiful work that doesn't hold up. We compound quality. Shortcuts just decay faster.
Radically Honest — But Not Brutal
We don't oversell. Our claims are falsifiable, our limits are documented, and when we break something, we write the postmortem. But honesty without empathy is just cruelty with better branding. We tell the truth in ways that help people learn from it, not feel small because of it. Intellectual dishonesty isn't a PR problem—it's structural rot.
Operational Excellence Is the Whole Game
Ideas are cheap. Execution is where theory becomes leverage. Security, reliability, observability—not checkboxes, just table stakes. We instrument everything, automate the boring parts, and build systems that fail gracefully when they fail at all. Field-tested, reproducible, battle-hardened. If it doesn't work under pressure, it doesn't ship.
Build Thinking Machines — Not Human Cosplay
We're not trying to fake human cognition. We're architecting reasoning systems that think *differently*. Arete explores computational substrates humans can't access: formal logic at scale, multi-modal synthesis, compositional reasoning. We want asymmetric advantage. Models that solve problems in ways you couldn't even formulate the question.
Own the Complexity, Gift the Simplicity
Hard problems demand sophisticated machinery. That complexity lives in our stack, not in your workflow. We accept the technical weight so users can be fearless and creative. The best craft hides the seams. The most elegant interface is the one that makes the impossible feel obvious.
Build for Impact — Not Just Outcomes
Our systems will touch hospitals, courtrooms, research labs, personal lives. That's not hype—it's accountability. So we model harm pathways before deployment, layer safety gates into the architecture, and make every major decision reversible. We judge success in decades, not quarters. Mediocrity isn't just uninspiring—it's irresponsible.
Exceptional People, Zero Ego
We hire for intellectual range, technical depth, and the humility to know what you don't know. This work demands rigor and intensity, but never at the cost of humanity. Candid feedback, shared ownership, and the courage to do the right thing even when it's uncomfortable. High standards, low posturing. Always.
Stewardship Over Hype Cycles
We're building infrastructure that outlasts us. Durable systems, reproducible research, partnerships chosen for shared values instead of logo chasing. The market will move on to the next shiny thing. We'll still be here, compounding progress while everyone else pivots.
Curious, Kind, Relentless
Three words. Curiosity drives discovery. Kindness preserves clarity. Relentlessness keeps us honest when complexity tries to bury the truth. If you have all three, we should probably talk.
What We Offer
Health & Wellness
At Iseer, we believe that supporting our employees is crucial to our collective success and wellbeing. That's why we offer a range of benefits to best support you and your family, now and in the future.
Compensation & Support
Our goal is to foster an environment where you can thrive professionally while feeling confident that you and your loved ones are taken care of.
Additional Benefits
Technical Interviews
The novel challenges we think about at Iseer demand diverse expertise and perspectives. Our interview process is designed to identify thoughtful candidates who bring unique strengths to our multidisciplinary team. If you think this may describe you, we'd love to hear from you regardless of your background or experience.
One of the most common questions we get is about whether it is worth applying to work at Iseer if you have not worked on modern machine learning systems in the past. Yes! For some roles, ML experience is expected, but many technical staff have arrived at Iseer with no machine learning experience. If you aren't sure about the ML experience needed for your role, ask your recruiter.
Our programming-focused interviews use shared environments like Colab and Replit. We're interested in how you approach problems and analyze tradeoffs. You'll be expected to write, run, and debug solutions. You can use documentation or the web (with screen sharing), but familiarity with basic syntax, standard libraries, and common idioms is crucial to manage time effectively. We also include non-technical questions about your experience and motivation, and provide time for you to ask questions about Iseer.
Other Things
Engineers here do lots of research, and researchers do lots of engineering
The traditional division between engineering and research in machine learning has blurred with the rise of large models. We see a bimodal distribution of engineering and research experience in our candidate pool, and we adapt our interview structure accordingly.
If you have an engineering background, we recommend applying for engineering roles. You'll perform better in the interviews, and if you join you'll have as much input to Iseer's direction and interests as anyone else. As evidence towards this: all of our papers have engineers as authors, and often as first author. Research and engineering hires all share a single title — 'Member of Technical Staff'.
We value direct evidence of ability
We encourage you to highlight any interesting independent research, insightful blog posts, or substantial contributions to open-source software at the top of your resume.
We do not provide feedback on resumes or interviews.
Once you're eligible, we're also keen to sponsor green cards!
All our interviews are conducted over Google Meet. We prefer PST office hours, but we can be flexible if that's difficult for you.
Iseer staff all come to the office regularly. Most staff live in the Bay Area, though a few live further away and come in for one week a month. We also understand that moving can take time, so as a transitional phase some folks start while fully remote.
Iseer sponsors visas! We aren't able to sponsor them for every role and every candidate; operations roles are especially difficult to support. But if we make you an offer, we will make every effort to get you into the United States, and we retain an immigration lawyer to help with this.
We do not require PhDs or previous ML experience — About half of Iseer technical staff have a PhD of some sort; about half had prior experience in ML. We have several brilliant colleagues who never went to college.
Similarly, if interviews don't work out this time, you're welcome to re-apply after 12 months, and earlier if something materially changes about your experience or skills.
If we make an offer, we're happy to give you time to think about it and finish up any other interview processes you're going through.
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Internships
We do not offer internships.