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 prove their ability to build and deploy production-grade AI systems under real-world conditions. Participants ship work every week, collaborate with experienced operators, and gain direct access to CTOs, founders, and hiring partners.

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

The fellowship spans 10 weeks: an initial 3-week remote phase, then 7 weeks onsite in Austin, Texas. Participants should anticipate a demanding schedule (80–100 hours per week) optimized for rapid learning, clear signaling, and strong career results.

Program Outcomes:

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

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

What you will be doing

  • Deliver production-ready AI applications weekly under firm deadlines
  • Work with modern AI-first tooling and workflows (agents, evals, tool use, retrieval, deployment pipelines)
  • Compete and collaborate with elite engineering peers in a high-feedback setting
  • Present your builds directly to founders, CTOs, and hiring partners
  • Convert real project briefs into scoped, deployable, and reliable systems

What you will NOT be doing

  • Spending weeks absorbing theory, completing tutorials, or learning passively without shipping
  • Creating demo projects that never encounter real users or undergo evaluation
  • Refining resumes and portfolios rather than constructing and deploying functional systems
  • Attending lengthy lectures or coursework before engaging with actual code

Key responsibilities

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

Candidate requirements

  • 3+ years of professional engineering experience (or demonstrable equivalent capability)
  • Independently designed, built, and deployed at least one functional software system to production or live 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 (coding agents, MCP, real-time collaboration tools)
  • Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), embeddings, and vector database usage
  • Fast-paced project sprints emphasizing delivery under constraints

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

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

Crossover Logo White
Follow us on
Have a question?

Get answers to common questions using our smart chatbot Crosby.

HELP AND FAQs

Join the world's largest community of  AI first Remote WorkersAI-first remote workers.