LLM Engineer
$200,000+ Offers For Graduates $200,000+ Offers For Graduates 

3 weeks remote, 7 weeks onsite in Austin, TX
80–100 hours/week for 10 weeks
Short-term contract
Hybrid location
full-time (90 hrs/week)

LLM Engineer   $200,000+ Offers For Graduates $200,000+ Offers For Graduates 

Description

Gauntlet is a selective, fully funded 10-week fellowship designed for experienced engineers seeking to advance their careers by demonstrating their ability to build and deploy production-grade AI systems under real-world constraints. Fellows deliver weekly shipments, collaborate with seasoned operators, and gain direct access to founders, CTOs, and hiring partners.

Participants in our latest cohort earned over 300 first-round interviews with hiring partners. We aim for 100% of graduates to secure offers from our partner network, with minimum starting compensation at $200,000.

The fellowship spans 10 weeks: the first 3 weeks are conducted remotely, followed by 7 weeks onsite in Austin, Texas. Fellows must be prepared for a high-intensity commitment (80–100 hours per week) structured to maximize learning velocity, performance signal, and career trajectory.

Program Outcomes:

  • More than 10 deployed AI applications delivered throughout the fellowship
  • Entry into Gauntlet's alumni and hiring partner network
  • Job offers of $200,000 or more from hiring partners for graduates

If you ship quickly, thrive under pressure, and prefer your work—not your resume—to define your next opportunity, submit your application now.

What you will be doing

  • Deliver production-ready AI applications each week under strict deadlines
  • Work with modern AI-first workflows including agents, tool use, evaluations, retrieval, and deployment
  • Collaborate and compete with elite engineering talent in a high-feedback setting
  • Present your work directly to CTOs, founders, and hiring partners
  • Convert real project briefs into scoped, reliable, deployable systems

What you will NOT be doing

  • Spending weeks on theory, tutorials, or passive learning without delivering results
  • Creating demos that never undergo real-world usage or evaluation
  • Refining resumes and portfolios rather than building and deploying functional systems
  • Attending weeks of lectures and coursework before engaging with actual code

Key responsibilities

Build and ship production-grade AI systems on a weekly basis, translating demonstrated engineering performance into $200K+ career opportunities through Gauntlet's hiring partner network.

Candidate requirements

  • 3+ years of professional engineering experience (or equivalent ability)
  • Have independently designed, implemented, and deployed at least one working software system to production or active users
  • High responsiveness to feedback and extreme execution intensity
  • Authorized to work in the U.S. without visa sponsorship
  • Willing to commit to 80–100 hour weeks and relocate to Austin for 7 weeks

Meet a successful candidate

Watch Interview
Fabiano Lucchese
Fabiano  |  SVP of Software Engineering
Brazil

Does your company encourage your natural creativity? This Brazilian engineering leader rediscovered his purpose after unleashing both his an...

Meet Fabiano

Applying for a role? Here’s what to expect.

Crossover's skill assessment process combines innovative AI power with decades of human research, to take the guesswork, human bias, and pointless filters out of recruiting high-performing teams.

Chat-style
screening interview.
STEP 1

Chat-style
screening interview.

Cognitive 
aptitude test.
STEP 2

Cognitive 
aptitude test.

Prove real-world 
job skills.
STEP 3

Prove real-world 
job skills.

Interview with the hiring manager.
STEP 4

Interview with the hiring manager.

Pass
proctored test.
STEP 5

Pass
proctored test.

Accept job offer.
STEP 6

Accept job offer.

Frequently asked questions

About Crossover

What you will learn

Phase 1: Remote (Weeks 1–3) — Foundations in AI-First Engineering

  • AI-first development workflows including coding agents, MCP, and real-time collaboration
  • Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), embeddings, and vector databases
  • Fast-paced project sprints with a focus on shipping under constraints

Phase 2: Onsite in Austin (Weeks 4–10) — Production AI at Scale

  • Agent systems, evaluations, verification, and observability using LangChain/LangSmith/LangFuse/CrewAI
  • Enterprise-grade delivery including QA, reliability, and high-standards execution
  • Fine-tuning and deployment patterns such as LoRA/QLoRA with production integration
  • Multi-agent modernization applied to real-world codebases
  • Multimodal AI development (image/video/voice) and scalable infrastructure on AWS/Azure

Meet some people who've landed similar jobs

Why Crossover

Recruitment sucks. So we’re fixing it.

The Olympics of work

The Olympics of work

It’s super hard to qualify—extreme quality standards ensure every single team member is at the top of their game.

Premium pay for premium talent

Premium pay for premium talent

Over 50% of new hires double or triple their previous pay. Why? Because that’s what the best person in the world is worth.

Shortlist by skills, not bias

Shortlist by skills, not bias

We don’t care where you went to school, what color your hair is, or whether we can pronounce your name. Just prove you’ve got the skills.

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