Principal AI Research Engineer
Archer Aviation
San Jose, CA · Posted May 6, 2026
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Where San Jose, CA ranks
Where San Jose, CA placed in our monthly rankings, month by month. Each month stays online at its own address.
November 2026
- #1Best cities for marketing pay after cost of living$204k · of 16
- #1Best cities for aerospace and defense pay after cost of living$187k · of 19
- #2Best cities for security pay after cost of living$220k · of 10
- #3Best cities for technology pay after cost of living$205k · of 80
- #5Best cities for technology jobs1,449 openings · of 100
- #5Cities with the most jobs that do not need a four-year degree in the West Coast162 jobs · of 47
Rankings about data & analytics jobs
- Best cities for data and analytics jobs #1 New York (1,713 openings)
- Best cities for data and analytics pay after cost of living #1 Foster ($232k)
- Most requested AI skills in data and analytics jobs #1 Machine learning engineering (17.1%)
- AI tools named most often in data and analytics jobs #1 Databricks (7.6%)
- Employers with the most data and analytics jobs #1 Amazon (711 roles)
Data & Analytics jobs · Top Data & Analytics employers · All rankings
How AI is used in this kind of work
Among computer and information research scientists, AI is already used for a large share of the tasks. Measured exposure for computer and information research scientists: 34% (high).
Share of this job’s tasks that AI is already used for at work, from real usage. It is not a forecast of job loss, and a low number means no use seen yet. Source: Anthropic Economic Index.
Skills this job asks for
Say which you have and which you want to build. We use it to match you to jobs like this one.
About the job
Headquartered in Silicon Valley, California, Archer is a leader in the next-gen aerospace sector building an end-to-end advanced air mobility platform that delivers air taxis, unmanned aircraft systems (“UAS”), aviation-related physical artificial intelligence (“AI”) solutions, and other technologies to customers worldwide across the commercial aerospace and defense sectors.
Our sights are set high and our problems are hard, and we believe that diversity in the workplace is what makes us smarter, drives better insights, and will ultimately lift us all to success. We are dedicated to cultivating an equitable and inclusive environment that embraces our differences, and supports and celebrates all of our team members.
What You’ll Do:
As a Principal AI and ML fundamentalist who is an expert at developing cutting-edge AI solutions to complex problems, you will develop code that eventually integrates into production and be responsible for:
Design, implement, and evaluate novel machine learning and deep learning algorithms.
Iterate on AI model development; starting from the data needed for training, architecture, input/output representations, evaluation, and deployment.
Collaborate with other researcher engineers to prototype and validate complex solutions from academic literature.
Conduct experiments to benchmark new techniques and evaluate model behavior.
Develop tools and frameworks to support scalable and reproducible research and development.
Communicate research findings to leadership in a concise, and convincing manner.
Stay current with the latest developments in AI/ML and identify relevant innovations.
Assist in transitioning research prototypes into production-ready systems.
What You Need:
M.S or PhD degree in Computer Science, or Computer Engineering with strong emphasis on AI and ML.
Enjoys solving less-defined and complex problems
Familiarity with good SW practices and development, including code quality, version control, etc.
Very strong with ML frameworks such as Pytorch, or Tensorflow
Good understanding of Transformer architectures, attention mechanisms, multi-modal foundation models, diffusion policies, fine-tuning, model distillation, mixture of experts, and other similar topics.
Has strong ability to debug and determine requirements for AI models in terms of data, training, and evaluation.
Is up to date with research literature and recent ML techniques and methodologies.
Bonus Qualifications:
Experience with Reinforcement Learning, self-supervised training, and imitation learning is a plus.
Experience developing VLA (Vision Language Action) models for robotic manipulation and mobility is a plus.
Experience developing production AI models is a plus.
Publications at top conferences are a plus.
Please note that this job description is intended to provide a general overview of the position and does not include an exhaustive list of responsibilities and qualifications
At Archer we aim to attract, retain, and motivate talent that possess the skills and leadership necessary to grow our business. We drive a pay-for-performance culture and reward performance that supports the Company’s business strategy. For this position we are targeting a base pay between $270,000.00 - $340,000.00 Actual compensation offered will be determined by factors such as job-related knowledge, skills, and experience.
Archer is proud to be an Equal Opportunity employer committed to diversity and inclusivity in the workplace. All aspects of employment are decided on the basis of merit, qualifications, and business needs. We do not discriminate based upon race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, age, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, gender identity or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws.
Archer is committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodations to job applicants with physical or mental disabilities, and those with sincerely held religious beliefs. Applicants who may require reasonable accommodation for any part of the application or hiring process should provide their name and contact information to Archer’s People Team at people@archer.com . Reasonable accommodations will be determined on a case-by-case basis.
Information collected and processed as part of any job applications you choose to submit is subject to Archer's Candidate Privacy Policy .
Certain positions may be eligible for visa sponsorship.
Archer is proud to be an Equal Opportunity employer committed to diversity and inclusivity in the workplace. All aspects of employment are decided on the basis of merit, qualifications, and business needs. We do not discriminate based upon race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, age, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, gender identity or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws.
Archer Aviation does not engage with external recruiting agencies/individual recruiters with whom it does not have a prior written agreement. Archer reserves the right to make use of any unsolicited resumes that it receives and bears no responsibility for payment of any fees asserted from the use of unsolicited resumes. If you are a recruiting agency or individual recruiter wishing to do business with Archer, please reach out to People@archer.com . All employment processes are managed by the Archer People Team.