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 seasoned engineers who want to advance their careers by demonstrating their ability to build and deploy production-grade AI systems under authentic, high-pressure conditions. Participants ship work on a weekly basis, collaborate with seasoned operators, and gain firsthand exposure to CTOs, founders, and hiring partners.

Challengers from our latest cohort earned 300+ first-round interviews with partner organizations. We aim for every graduate to receive job offers from our partner network, starting at a minimum of $200,000 in compensation.

The fellowship spans 10 weeks: the first 3 weeks are conducted remotely, followed by 7 weeks onsite in Austin, Texas. Participants should anticipate an intensive time commitment (80–100 hours per week) structured to optimize learning velocity, professional visibility, and career advancement.

Expected Outcomes:

  • Delivery of 10+ deployed AI applications over the course of the fellowship
  • Entry into Gauntlet's alumni and hiring partner network
  • Job offers of $200,000 or more from partner companies upon completion

If you prioritize rapid iteration, thrive under deadline pressure, and want your work—not your CV—to shape your next opportunity, submit your application now.

What you will be doing

  • Deliver production-ready AI applications weekly, adhering to firm deadlines
  • Develop systems using contemporary AI-native workflows (agents, tool integration, evaluation frameworks, retrieval methods, deployment pipelines)
  • Work alongside and compete with elite engineering professionals in a high-feedback, fast-paced setting
  • Showcase your work directly to founders, CTOs, and hiring partners
  • Convert real project briefs into scoped, dependable, shippable systems

What you will NOT be doing

  • Devoting weeks to theoretical study, tutorials, or passive content consumption without building
  • Creating demo projects that are never subjected to actual usage or assessment
  • Refining resumes and portfolios instead of constructing and launching functional systems
  • Attending extended lecture series and coursework before engaging with real code

Key responsibilities

Build and ship production-grade AI systems on a weekly cadence, converting demonstrated engineering capability into $200K+ career opportunities via Gauntlet's hiring partner ecosystem.

Candidate requirements

  • 3+ years of professional software engineering experience (or demonstrable equivalent capability)
  • Prior independent experience designing, implementing, and deploying at least one functional software system to production or live users
  • Strong receptiveness to feedback and capacity for sustained, intense execution
  • U.S. work authorization without need for visa sponsorship
  • Ability to commit to an 80–100 hour weekly schedule 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 of AI-First Engineering

  • AI-native development workflows (coding agents, MCP, real-time collaboration tools)
  • Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), embeddings, and vector database implementation
  • Fast-paced project sprints emphasizing delivery under resource and time constraints

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

  • Agent architectures, evaluation frameworks, verification, and observability tools (LangChain/LangSmith/LangFuse/CrewAI)
  • Enterprise-standard delivery: quality assurance, system reliability, and high-bar execution practices
  • Fine-tuning and deployment strategies (LoRA/QLoRA + production-level integration)
  • Multi-agent modernization applied to existing production codebases
  • Multimodal AI development (image/video/voice processing) and scalable cloud 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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