AI 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)

AI 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 conditions. Fellows deliver weekly shipments, collaborate with seasoned operators, and gain direct access to CTOs, founders, and hiring partners.

Participants in our latest cohort generated over 300 first-round interviews with hiring partners. We aim for 100% of graduates to receive offers from our partner network, with starting compensation no lower than $200,000.

The fellowship spans 10 weeks: the initial 3 weeks are remote, followed by 7 weeks onsite in Austin, Texas. Participants should anticipate a rigorous schedule (80–100 hours per week) structured to optimize learning velocity, demonstrable output, and career advancement.

Program Outcomes:

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

If you ship quickly, perform under pressure, and prefer your work — rather than your resume — to define your next opportunity, submit your application now.

What you will be doing

  • Deliver production-ready AI applications weekly against strict deadlines
  • Develop systems using modern AI-first workflows (agents, tool use, evaluations, retrieval, deployment)
  • Work and compete alongside elite engineering talent in a high-feedback setting
  • Demonstrate your work directly to CTOs, founders, and hiring partners
  • Convert real project briefs into scoped, reliable, deployable systems

What you will NOT be doing

  • Investing weeks in theory, tutorials, or passive study without shipping deliverables
  • Creating demos that are never exposed to real usage or evaluation
  • Refining resumes and portfolios rather than building and deploying functional systems
  • Attending weeks of lectures and coursework before engaging with real code

Key responsibilities

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

Candidate requirements

  • 3+ years of professional engineering experience (or equivalent demonstrated ability)
  • Must have independently designed, implemented, and deployed at least one working software system to production or active users
  • Highly responsive to feedback and capable of extreme execution intensity
  • Authorized to work in the U.S. without requiring visa sponsorship
  • Able 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 (coding agents, MCP, real-time collaboration)
  • Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), embeddings, and vector databases
  • Rapid project sprints with emphasis on shipping under constraints

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

  • Agent systems, evaluations, verification, and observability (LangChain/LangSmith/LangFuse/CrewAI)
  • Enterprise-grade delivery: quality assurance, reliability, and execution to high standards
  • Fine-tuning and deployment patterns (LoRA/QLoRA + production integration)
  • Multi-agent modernization applied to real-world codebases
  • Multimodal AI development (image/video/voice) and scalable infrastructure (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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