Senior or Staff Applied AI Engineer

TRM Labs is a blockchain intelligence company committed to fighting crime and creating a safer world. By leveraging blockchain data, threat intelligence, and advanced analytics, our products empower governments, financial institutions, and crypto businesses to combat illicit activity and global security threats. At TRM, you'll join a mission-driven, fast-paced team made up of experts in law enforcement, data science, engineering, and financial intelligence, tackling complex global challenges daily. Whether analyzing blockchain data, developing cutting-edge tools, or collaborating with global organizations, you'll have the opportunity to make a meaningful and lasting impact.

The AI Engineer (Models) will join our Model Engineering Team, a group focused on advancing model selection, fine-tuning, and evaluation strategies for production-scale AI systems. As a senior individual contributor, this person will lead technical efforts to push the boundaries of model performance and orchestration, directly impacting the competitiveness of our AI Engineering platform.

The impact you will have:

• Design, build, and own a production-grade evaluation system that drives measurable improvements in model accuracy and latency.
• Lead experimentation, fine-tuning, and feedback-based evaluation loops for continuous model optimization.
• Advance the orchestration of AI/ML systems, ensuring scalable, resilient, and high-impact deployments.
• Elevate technical standards through engineering craftsmanship, mentorship, and leadership as a senior IC.

What we’re looking for:

• Advanced programming expertise in Python and SQL, with strong system design skills.
• Deep experience deploying machine learning/deep learning models in production (LLM/GenAI strongly preferred).
• Strong foundation in experimentation frameworks, evaluation metrics, and ML Ops practices.
• Proven ability to own critical systems end-to-end and collaborate effectively with cross-functional partners.

About the Team:

• The AI Engineering team operates with a high level of collaboration and interdependence, fostering an inclusive culture where connections extend beyond work. We value diverse personalities and seek someone who is both results-driven and sociable, with strong communication, leadership, and teamwork skills, along with a positive, solutions-oriented mindset

• As a globally distributed team, members may observe different timezones. However, most of the team will overlap between the hours of 7am-12pm PST for meetings and collaboration

• All team members, regardless of location must have at least 4 hour overlap with PST business hours

• The team is involved in 2 different on-calls:

  ◦ Analytics on-call: only requires focus on working time (average of < 1 hour a day every month)

  ◦ Data Science on-call: full week on-call to ensure Data Science pipelines are running smoothly (average of 1-2 hours a day every 3 months)

Learn about TRM Speed in this position:

• Rapid Issue Resolution. TRM Engineers identify and resolve critical onsite issues in minutes to hours, not weeks. We create virtual war rooms, implement fixes, and share lessons with both customer stakeholders and internal teams within 48 hours.
• Navigating Bureaucracy. We anticipate and address procedural hurdles, build trust with key stakeholders, and find alternative pathways to approvals. This keeps projects moving even in complex environments.
• Efficient Knowledge Transfer. Engineers document and share updates in real time, ensuring the entire team—onsite and remote—has full visibility into plans, blockers, and resolutions. Knowledge sharing sessions and clear documentation reduce friction and accelerate delivery.

Engineer: Responsible for helping to define project milestones and executing small decision decisions independently with the appropriate tradeoffs between simplicity, readability, and performance. Provides mentorship to junior engineers, and enhances operational excellence through tech debt reduction and knowledge sharing.

Senior Engineer: Successfully designs and documents system improvements and features for an OKR/project from the ground up. Consistently delivers efficient and reusable systems, optimizes team throughput with appropriate tradeoffs, mentors team members, and enhances cross-team collaboration through documentation and knowledge sharing.

Staff Engineer: Drives scoping and execution of one or more OKRs/projects that impact multiple teams. Partners with stakeholders to set the team vision and technical roadmaps for one or more products. Is a role model and mentor to the entire engineering organization. Ensures system health and quality with operational reviews, testing strategies, and monitoring rigor.

The following represents the expected range of compensation for this role:

• Individual pay is determined by skills, qualifications, experience, and location. The compensation details listed in this posting reflect the US base salary only.
• The estimated base salary range for this role is $215,000 - $230,000.
• Additionally, this role may be eligible to participate in TRM’s equity plan.
• Please note – we factor in the different costs for geographies outside the United States.

Leadership Principles

Our Leadership Principles shape everything we do—how we make decisions, collaborate, and operate day to day.

• Impact-Oriented Trailblazer – We put customers first, driving for speed, focus, and adaptability.
• Master Craftsperson – We prioritize speed, high standards, and distributed ownership.
• Inspiring Colleague – We value humility, candor, and a one-team mindset.

Accelerate your Career 

At TRM, you’ll do work that matters—disrupting terrorist networks, recovering stolen funds, and protecting people around the world. You will:

• Work alongside top experts and learn every day.
• Embrace a growth mindset with development opportunities tailored to your role.
• Take on high-impact challenges in a fast-paced, collaborative environment.
• Thrive in a culture of coaching, where feedback is fast, direct, and built to help you level up. 

What to Expect at TRM

TRM moves fast—really fast. We know a lot of startups say that, but we mean it. We operate with urgency, ownership, and high standards. As a result, you’ll be joining a team that’s highly engaged, mission-driven, and constantly evolving.

To support this intensity, we’re also intentional about rest and recharge. We offer generous benefits, including PTO, Holidays, and Parental Leave for full time employees.

That said, TRM may not be the right fit for everyone. If you're optimizing for work life balance, we encourage you to:

• Ask your interviewers how they personally approach balance within their teams, and
• Reflect on whether this is the right season in your life to join a high-velocity environment.
• Be honest with yourself about what energizes you—and what drains you

We’re upfront about this because we want every new team member to thrive—not just survive.

The Stakes Are Real

Our work has direct, real-world impact:

• Jumping online after hours to support urgent government requests tracing ransomware payments.
• Delivering actionable insights during terrorist financing investigations.
• Collaborating across time zones in real time during a major global hack.
• Building new processes in days, not weeks, to stop criminals before they cash out.
• Analyzing blockchain data to recover stolen savings and dismantle trafficking networks.

Thrive as a Global Team 

As a remote-first company, TRM Labs is built for global collaboration.

• We cultivate a strong remote culture through clear communication, thorough documentation, and meaningful relationships.
• We invest in offsites, regional meetups, virtual coffee chats, and onboarding buddies to foster collaboration.
• By prioritizing trust and belonging, we harness the strengths of a global team while staying aligned with our mission and values.

We’re looking for team members who thrive in fast-paced, high-impact environments and love building from the ground up. TRM is remote-first, with an exceptionally talented global team. If you enjoy solving tough problems and seeing your work make a difference for billions of people, we want you here. Don’t worry if your experience doesn’t perfectly match a job description— we value passion, problem-solving, and unique career paths. If you’re excited about TRM’s mission, we want to hear from you.

Recruitment agencies

TRM Labs does not accept unsolicited agency resumes. Please do not forward resumes to TRM employees. TRM Labs is not responsible for any fees related to unsolicited resumes and will not pay fees to any third-party agency or company without a signed agreement.
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