Job Description

About the Company

We are a venture-backed startup on a mission to redefine puzzle and strategy games for the modern era. We’re building strategy games that generate themselves and are here to push the boundaries of what’s possible in gaming. We’re gamers, engineers, and consumer apps veterans, and we’re backed by the best investors in tech, games, and AI, including Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Patron Fund, Marc Merrill (Founder of Riot Games), Mark Pincus (Founder of Zynga), Eric Wu (Founder of Opendoor), Roblox’s Head of AI, the founders of Guild Wars and PlayFab, South Park Commons, and many more.

History has shown us that the most revolutionary products and timeless categories in both tech and games always start as bold, under-appreciated or misunderstood ideas. We’re bringing together the world’s best minds in engineering, games, and AI, who are ready to take on this challenge.

Our first game, Echo Chess, has already proven the widespread potential of this vision, with a highly passionate player base validating the appeal of AI-powered puzzle and strategy games. In just a matter of months, our player base has already spent over a whole decade of playtime enjoying the perfected easy-to-learn, hard-to-master, elements of the world’s best strategy games. But this is still Day 0 on our journey of building a generational company and genre-defining products that stand the test of time.

We’re a small, collaborative team, and we value ownership, speed, impact, and passion for our craft. Everyone here is a builder, and we love shipping real products that people around the world love to use every day. If you’re excited to shape the future of gaming, come join us on this mission to build your life’s work with us.

About the Role

As our founding AI Engineer , you will be joining us on a mission to pioneer the next generation of AI-driven game development. This is a unique opportunity to work on cutting-edge AI applications in gaming, where the goal is to create games that design themselves.

The role involves a mix of research, development, and creative problem-solving. You’ll work at the intersection of machine learning, procedural generation, and game design, experimenting with new techniques and tools to push the boundaries of what’s possible in AI-powered games. If you thrive in an exploratory R&D environment and love bringing bold ideas to life, we’d love to hear from you.

What You'll Do

• Design, build, and train machine learning models that can generate dynamic game content, mechanics, and systems.
• Explore and prototype innovative uses of AI in game design, from procedural generation to player behavior modeling and beyond.
• Collaborate closely with game designers, engineers, and artists to integrate AI systems seamlessly into gameplay and user experiences.
• Conduct research and stay up-to-date with the latest advancements in machine learning, natural language processing, reinforcement learning, and generative AI.
• Optimize AI models for performance, scalability, and efficiency in real-world gaming environments.
• Experiment with new ideas, quickly build prototypes, and iterate based on feedback and testing.
• Analyze player data to refine AI systems and enhance gameplay experiences.
• Push the boundaries of what's feasible with AI and Games by managing your own experiments roadmap and applied product explorations.

What We're Looking For

• 4-6+ years of experience in machine learning and AI, with a focus on generative models, supervised learning, reinforcement learning, or procedural generation.
• Proficiency in Python and machine learning frameworks such as PyTorch, TensorFlow, or similar.
• Familiarity with Natural Language Processing, computer vision, and other related AI disciplines.
• Proven track record of shipping real products to users that are powered by AI/ML models, ideally with applications in games, consumer apps, or other interactive systems.
• A strong R&D mindset: you enjoy experimenting, solving ambiguous problems, and pushing boundaries.
• A deep curiosity about how AI can transform the gaming experience.
• Strong communication skills, with the ability to explain complex technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders.

Awesome if You Also Have

• Experience with procedural content generation in games or other creative applications.
• Familiarity with modern architectures like transformers, diffusion models, and generative AI models.
• A background in Reinforcement Learning or multi-agent systems.
• Contributions to game jams, hackathons, or other creative tech initiatives.
• Frequent open source contributions to popular AI projects and datasets.
• High-ranking submissions on noteworthy Kaggle competitions.
• A deep love for games of all kinds, with a personal passion for strategy games, puzzle games, roguelites, turn-based games, daily games, chess, or chess-like games.
• Advanced graduate degree (Master’s or Ph.D.) in Computer Science, Machine Learning, or a related field (optional).

What We Offer

• Competitive salary and generous equity package.
• Great remote-friendly office space with the best of what tech and gaming have to offer.
• Joining the early team of a breakout startup with massive potential to directly shape the company’s direction with your work.
• Being part of a rocketship funded by the world’s best investors in the field. Nuff said.
• Professional development and opportunities to grow within the company.
• Creative and entrepreneurial working environment where you’re encouraged to think out of the box and bring new ideas to life.
• Yearly personal development stipend to use however you see fit (so you can farm proper stats other than your ELO).
• Yearly personal gaming equipment stipend + yearly Discord Nitro upgrades (to finally git gud at all those games you keep buying).
• Unlimited Paid Time Off.
• 100% coverage for top-tier health insurance.

Location

We’re ideally looking for teammates in Los Angeles or San Francisco with a preference for hybrid work, but all California-based or US remote folks are encouraged to apply.

How to Apply

If you’re excited about building the next big thing in gaming and have a deep passion for creating memorable experiences, we’d love to hear from you. Shoot us a note with your resume, your GitHub profile, and your LinkedIn profile at careers@echochess.com to join us on this exciting journey!

Echo Chunk is proud to celebrate diversity and we’re committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees.

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