Firsthand is headquartered in NYC, with team members working together in-office three days a week.

About The Role We are seeking a Senior Applied Research Scientist to drive our product's AI and agent capabilities. You will join a lean team of applied researchers while working closely with engineering and product teams to translate research into production-ready AI agents. This is a hands-on role — we need a doer who thrives in a startup environment with a high degree of freedom and ambiguity.

This role is hybrid (3 days/week in office), with a strong preference for candidates based in New York.

Key Responsibilities:

• Drive the full life-cycle of AI systems from conception through deployment, including building robust evaluation frameworks to measure and improve agent performance.
• Collaborate closely with engineering and product teams to integrate AI capabilities into the product experience.
• Stay at the forefront of AI by exploring the latest advancements in agents, evals, and applied AI research.
• Provide strategic direction and mentorship while contributing directly to prototyping, building, and iterating on AI systems.

Who You Are:

• 2+ years of professional experience in AI, with leadership experience.
• Deep understanding of software engineering principles and proficiency in Python, AI frameworks, and modern tooling for agents and evals. Experience with deep learning and reinforcement learning is a plus.
• Hands-on builder who takes ownership and drives projects to completion.
• Extensive experience shipping AI systems in production, particularly agents and LLM-powered applications.
• Strong communicator who works well cross-functionally with engineering and product teams.
• Advertising or marketing-related experience is a strong plus.

How To Apply If you are ready to embark on an exhilarating journey at the forefront of AI, seize this incredible opportunity and apply here. We eagerly anticipate hearing from you!

Note: Compensation and equity will be market-competitive for well-capitalized, early stage startups and will be discussed during the interview process.

Compensation Range: $160K - $210K