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400K Engineer Jobs in California (NOW HIRING)

Research Engineer

San Francisco, CA · On-site

$200 - $400/hr

About the Role As a Research Engineer, you'll be responsible for building industry-leading ... 200K - $400K + Offers Equity This range reflects the expected compensation for this role.

Research Engineer

San Francisco, CA · On-site

$200 - $400/hr

About the Role As a Research Engineer, you'll be responsible for building industry-leading ... 200K - $400K + Offers Equity This range reflects the expected compensation for this role.

Research Engineer

San Francisco, CA · On-site

$200 - $400/hr

About the Role As a Research Engineer, you'll be responsible for building industry-leading ... 200K - $400K + Offers Equity This range reflects the expected compensation for this role.

Research Engineer

San Francisco, CA · On-site

$200 - $400/hr

About the Role As a Research Engineer, you'll be responsible for building industry-leading ... 200K - $400K + Offers Equity This range reflects the expected compensation for this role.

About the Team The Agent Engineering team at Decagon deploys mission-critical AI agents to our ... Prior experience working with multi-modal models Compensation $200K - $400K + Offers Equity ...

Growth Engineer (North America) About the Role We're looking for a Growth Engineer to be the ... Compensation * $300k-$400k total compensation including base salary, bonus, equity (competitive ...

Showing results 21-40

400K Engineer information

What is a 400k engineer?

A 400K Engineer is a software engineer or tech professional who earns a total annual compensation of $400,000 or more, typically through a combination of base salary, bonuses, and stock options. These high earnings are usually found at top tech companies such as FAANG (Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Google) or other leading firms. Achieving this level of compensation generally requires a mix of experience, specialized skills, negotiation, and sometimes working in high cost-of-living locations. The title is not an official job position but rather refers to a compensation milestone within the tech industry.

How does a 400k engineer typically collaborate with cross-functional teams to deliver high-impact projects?

A 400K Engineer is often expected to work closely with product managers, designers, and other engineers to drive complex projects from ideation to launch. This role involves not only technical expertise but also strong communication skills to align stakeholders and ensure project requirements are clearly understood. Collaboration might include participating in architecture reviews, code reviews, sprint planning, and strategy meetings. Being proactive in sharing knowledge and mentoring junior team members is also common, contributing to overall team success.

What are the key skills and qualifications needed to thrive as a 400k engineer, and why are they important?

To thrive as a 400K Engineer, you need a solid background in electrical engineering, with expertise in high-voltage power systems design and analysis, often supported by a bachelor's degree and relevant certifications like a Professional Engineer (PE) license. Familiarity with industry-standard tools such as AutoCAD, ETAP, and power system simulation software is typically required. Strong problem-solving abilities, attention to detail, and effective teamwork are crucial soft skills in this role. These skills and qualifications are important to ensure the safe and efficient design, operation, and maintenance of high-voltage electrical systems.

What is the difference between 400K Engineer vs Software Developer?

Aspect400K EngineerSoftware Developer
CredentialsTypically requires a bachelor's or master's in CS or related field, with extensive experienceUsually holds a bachelor's degree in CS or related field
Work EnvironmentHigh-level technical roles, often in tech firms, startups, or financeDevelops software applications across various industries
Industry UsageCommon in tech, finance, and consulting sectorsWidely used across tech, healthcare, finance, and more

The 400K Engineer and Software Developer roles share foundational skills in programming and problem-solving. However, 400K Engineers typically have more experience, higher compensation, and focus on system architecture or high-level technical leadership, whereas Software Developers focus on coding and application development. Both roles are essential in tech-driven industries, but the 400K Engineer often operates at a senior or specialized level.

What are popular job titles related to 400K Engineer jobs in California?

For 400K Engineer jobs in California, the most frequently searched job titles are:

What job categories do people searching 400K Engineer jobs in California look for?

The top searched job categories for 400K Engineer jobs in California are:

What cities in California are hiring for 400K Engineer jobs?

Cities in California with the most 400K Engineer job openings:

Infographic showing various 400K Engineer job openings in California as of August 2026, with employment types broken down into 95% Full Time, 2% Part Time, and 3% Contract. Highlights an 85% Physical, 6% Hybrid, and 9% Remote job distribution.

Research Engineer

Neura Market

San Francisco, CA • On-site

$200 - $400/hr

Other

Medical, Dental, Vision, Life, Retirement

Posted 5 days ago


Job description

About Decagon

Decagon is the leading conversational AI platform empowering every brand to deliver concierge customer experiences.

Our technology enables industry-defining enterprises like Avis Budget Group, Block's Cash App and Square, Chime, Oura Health, and Hunter Douglas to deploy AI agents that power personalized, deeply satisfying interactions across voice, chat, email, SMS, and every other channel.

We're building a future where customer experiences are being redefined from support tickets and hold music to faster resolutions, richer conversations, and deeper relationships. We're proud to be backed by world-class investors who share that vision, including a16z, Accel, Bain Capital Ventures, Coatue, and Index Ventures, along with many others.

We're an in-office company, driven by a shared commitment to excellence and velocity. Our values - Just Get It Done, Invent What Customers Want, Winners Mindset, and The Polymath Principle - shape how we work and grow as a team.

About the Team

Read more about the research team's work here: https://decagon.ai/blog/introducing-decagon-labs

The Research team develops the model and decision-making stack that powers Decagon's conversational agents for enterprise support. We research, adapt, and implement state-of-the-art techniques in model training, prompting, orchestration, and evaluation in order to make our agents more accurate, robust, and efficient in real-world deployments.

Our goal is to push the frontier of applied conversational AI: agents that reliably understand nuanced intent, track long context, and take the right actions under uncertainty. We measure success the way customers feel it: higher resolution rates, better user satisfaction, and consistent behavior at scale.

About the Role

As a Research Engineer, you'll be responsible for building industry-leading conversational AI models that power Decagon's agent, and taking them all the way from idea to production. You'll own multi-quarter initiatives that push the agent's reliability, capability, and efficiency forward, and you'll design and implement frontier approaches for training, evaluation, and orchestration across the system.

We're looking for strong engineers who want to build the core models and algorithms behind our AI agents. People here own their work end-to-end, ship real improvements, and are trusted to make high-impact technical decisions.

In this role, you will
  • Lead research and engineering efforts to improve core conversational capabilities in production, including instruction following, retrieval, memory, and long-horizon task completion
  • Build and iterate on end-to-end models and pipelines that optimize for quality, efficiency, and user experience
  • Partner with platform and product engineers to integrate new models into production systems
  • Break down ambiguous research ideas into clear, iterative milestones and roadmaps.
Your background looks something like this
  • 2+ years of experience in AI/ML engineering or research.
  • Prior experience post-training and deploying LLMs in production environments.
  • Fluency in Python and modern ML tooling (training, evaluation, data pipelines)
  • Track record of taking research ideas from prototype -> reliable, measurable production impact
Compensation

$200K - $400K + Offers Equity

This range reflects the expected compensation for this role. Compensation within the range is determined based on experience, skills, and the scope of responsibilities, with flexibility for candidates who demonstrate exceptional impact.

In addition to base salary, we offer competitive equity. Final compensation may vary based on location within the United States.

Benefits

We proudly offer the following benefits for our full-time employees:

  • Take what you need vacation policy (subject to local requirements; UK employees receive 25 days of statutory leave)
  • Medical, Dental, and Vision benefits for you and your family
  • Life Insurance and Disability Benefits
  • Retirement Plan (e.g., 401K, pension)
  • Parental Leave
  • Fertility and family building benefits through Carrot
  • Daily lunches and snacks in the office to keep you at your best

These benefits are described in more detail in Decagon's policies, may vary by location, and can change at any time according to applicable compensation and benefits plans.

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