AI Engineering Trainee
10-week AI engineering fellowship 100% free to attend; all in-person housing and expenses covered. $200,000/year AI engineering offer upon completion. 

Not accepting applications on crossover.com at this time.

Description

Ready for a career metamorphosis? The Gauntlet isn't just another training program—it's a 10-week crucible that forges ambitious builders into coveted AI engineering talent. No tuition. No theoretical fluff. Just pure immersion in cutting-edge AI development culminating in a $200K job offer.

Gauntlet AI creates battlegrounds, not bootcamps. You'll dedicate 80–100 weekly hours in Austin, TX (all expenses covered) alongside exceptional peers, wielding tools like LangChain, Claude, GPT-4, and Cursor to create impactful products. You'll be surrounded by industry veterans who demand excellence—and deliver it in return.

This isn't about dipping your toes in AI waters—it's about diving headfirst into the deep end. It's where retail employees transform into AI engineers, where dreamers become doers, and where talented developers break through career plateaus. Your gateway to the AI revolution starts here.

Imagine compressing five years of professional growth into just ten weeks, emerging with a $200K AI engineering position. That's the Gauntlet AI promise.

Forget traditional courses—The Gauntlet is an engineering pressure cooker designed for the planet's most driven developers. You'll invest 80–100 hours weekly in an environment that demands your all—and rewards accordingly. Zero tuition. Expenses covered. Real products shipped. Elite mentorship. And ultimately, a $200K/year position in Austin, TX. There's simply no faster path to elite AI engineering status.

We've eliminated everything that hampers traditional learning: lengthy lectures, excessive theory, endless planning cycles. Instead, you'll master through building, failing, shipping, and iterating. You'll become fluent in AI-first development: LangChain, Claude, GPT-4, Replit, LangGraph, CrewAI, and beyond—creating actual tools and solving genuine problems alongside equally committed peers.

The Gauntlet AI Difference:

  • Exceptional Outcome: Median $200,000/year AI engineering offer for graduates
  • Zero Financial Burden: Completely free attendance with housing and expenses covered
  • World-Class Mentorship: Direct access to founders, CTOs, and engineering leaders
  • Accelerated Growth: Compress years of career progression into 10 intense weeks
  • AI-Native Development: Master tools that leading companies are just beginning to explore
  • Tangible Impact: Every project built for real-world application, not academic exercises

Program Journey:

  • Remote Foundation Phase (begins October 17th): Build your AI-first development foundation, RAG systems, and autonomous agent expertise from your current location.
  • Strategic Break: Recharge and prepare for the program's most intensive phase.
  • Austin Immersion Phase (begins November 1st): Relocate to Austin, TX (fully funded) for seven weeks of intensive building, mentorship, product launches, culminating in Demo Day.

Secure your transformation—apply today.

What you will be doing

  • Crafting production-ready AI-powered products daily across web and mobile ecosystems
  • Integrating sophisticated agents, RAG architectures, and open-source models into enterprise-caliber applications
  • Driving open-source contributions, collaborating with industry partners, and delivering MVPs under intense deadlines
  • Showcasing and defending your technical portfolio through rigorous interviews before launching your capstone project on Demo Day
  • Continuously elevating your skills through immediate feedback loops, real user testing, and exposure to cutting-edge technology

What you will NOT be doing

  • Enduring passive learning experiences—this is immersive building, not spectating
  • Creating cookie-cutter projects that never see real-world implementation
  • Wasting time on organizational red tape, workplace politics, or sluggish decision processes
  • Financing your education, accumulating debt, or juggling side hustles to advance your skills
  • Developing without AI assistance—every project leverages AI augmentation by design

Key responsibilities

Evolve into an AI-native engineer capable of conceptualizing, building, and deploying products that outclass traditional development teams—then repeat the process with increasing velocity and sophistication.

Candidate requirements

  • Demonstrable coding proficiency (subject to assessment), coupled with the determination to rapidly enhance your technical arsenal
  • Preferably 2+ years of professional software engineering experience
  • Self-starter mindset with strong entrepreneurial drive
  • Willingness to relocate to Austin, TX by November 1st, 2025 (with all housing and expenses provided)
  • Legal authorization to work in the United States without requiring visa sponsorship

Meet a successful candidate

Watch Interview
Isuru Samarasinghe
Isuru  |  Software Engineer
Sri Lanka  

Isuru saves two hours a day by cutting his daily commute around Colombo, Sri Lanka's capital. Working remotely as a Software Engineer for Tr...

Meet Isuru

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.

Accept Job Offer.
STEP 5

Accept Job Offer.

Pass 
proctored test.
ONE LAST THING

Pass 
proctored test.

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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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