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Research Software Engineer Jobs in Berkeley, CA (NOW HIRING)

Hebbia

Applied Research Engineer, Agents

San Francisco, CA · On-site

$241K/yr

... software engineers to integrate agentic capabilities into existing systems or develop new ... research into production software systems Preferred : • Master's degree in Computer Science ...

Alembic

Research Engineer - Causal AI

San Francisco, CA · On-site

$200K - $250K/yr

At Alembic, we're not just building software-we're decoding the chaos of modern marketing. Join ... Engineering * 5+ years developing and shipping research code in production environments * Strong ...

Autoscience

Software Engineer

Menlo Park, CA · On-site

  • PTO

The Software Engineer will be responsible for developing and maintaining back-end systems ... The role involves collaboration with our research teams to enhance our automated research ...

Profluent

Machine Learning Research Engineer

Emeryville, CA · On-site +1

$237K/yr

  • Medical

  • Dental

  • Vision

  • Retirement

  • PTO

We're looking for an experienced Machine Learning Engineer to build and improve the models and ML ... Develop software and infrastructure that enable the ML team to work quickly and frictionlessly in ...

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Showing results 21-40

All JobsResearch Software Engineer JobsResearch Software Engineer Jobs in Berkeley, CA

Research Software Engineer information

See Berkeley, CA salary details

$136.5K

$252.2K

How much do research software engineer jobs pay per year?

As of Aug 17, 2026, the average yearly pay for research software engineer in Berkeley, CA is $245,512.00, according to ZipRecruiter salary data. Most workers in this role earn between $251,000.00 and $251,000.00 per year, depending on experience, location, and employer.

What does a research software engineer do?

As a Research Software Engineer, your daily work often involves designing and implementing software to support cutting-edge research projects, collaborating with scientists to understand their computational needs, and ensuring code reliability and reproducibility. You may spend time optimizing algorithms, writing unit tests, documenting software, and participating in code reviews within a collaborative team environment. Additionally, you might help deploy research applications on high-performance or cloud computing platforms and contribute to research publications. Balancing independent programming tasks with ongoing communication is key to making meaningful contributions to both the research and software development processes.

What skills and qualifications are needed to be a research software engineer?

To thrive as a Research Software Engineer, you need strong programming skills (often in Python, C++, or Java), a solid understanding of algorithms, and an academic or industry background in computer science or a related field. Familiarity with version control systems like Git, cloud platforms, and experience using scientific computing libraries and frameworks are valuable, while a master's or Ph.D. can be advantageous for specialized roles. Excellent problem-solving, communication, and collaborative skills help in working closely with researchers and multidisciplinary teams. These capabilities are crucial for successfully translating complex research problems into robust, reproducible software solutions that advance scientific inquiry.

What are popular job titles related to Research Software Engineer jobs in Berkeley, CA?

For Research Software Engineer jobs in Berkeley, CA, the most frequently searched job titles are:

What job categories do people searching Research Software Engineer jobs in Berkeley, CA look for?

The top searched job categories for Research Software Engineer jobs in Berkeley, CA are:

What cities near Berkeley, CA are hiring for Research Software Engineer jobs?

Cities near Berkeley, CA with the most Research Software Engineer job openings:

Research Software Engineer jobs near you
Infographic showing various Research Software Engineer job openings in Berkeley, CA as of August 2026, with employment types broken down into 88% Full Time, 8% Part Time, and 4% Contract. Highlights an 88% Physical, 3% Hybrid, and 9% Remote job distribution, with an average salary of $245,512 per year, or $118 per hour.

Senior Software Engineer, Vector Index Research

Zilliz

Redwood City, CA • On-site

$175K - $250K/yr

Full-time

Medical, Dental, Vision, Retirement, PTO

Re-posted 26 days ago

Job description

Zilliz is a fast-growing startup developing the industry's leading vector database for enterprise-grade AI. Founded by the engineers behind Milvus, the world's most popular open-source vector database, the company builds next-generation database technologies to help organizations quickly create AI applications. On a mission to democratize AI, Zilliz is committed to simplifying data management for AI applications and making vector databases accessible to every organization.
The Vector Index team focuses on building the core vector retrieval capabilities behind Milvus, Zilliz Cloud, and Vector Lakebase. We work on making similarity search over massive embedding datasets faster, more accurate, and more cost-efficient, while continuously advancing ANN algorithms, index structures, quantization, compression, recall optimization, CPU/GPU acceleration, and high-performance retrieval frameworks.
This role sits at the intersection of research and engineering. You will read papers, evaluate new algorithms, build prototypes, and turn promising ideas into production-grade vector indexing and retrieval systems. We are looking for engineers who enjoy research, but also have strong engineering fundamentals, performance optimization skills, and engineering taste.
What you'll do:
  • Research, evaluate, and implement new vector indexing and retrieval algorithms for Milvus, Zilliz Cloud, and Vector Lakebase
  • Read papers and track emerging work in vector search, ANN algorithms, index structures, quantization, compression, reranking, GPU acceleration, and AI retrieval systems
  • Build high-performance vector indexing components, including index building, query paths, vector preprocessing, quantization, compression, memory layout, and CPU/GPU acceleration
  • Optimize vector retrieval performance across latency, throughput, recall, memory usage, index build time, and cost efficiency
  • Design benchmarks and evaluation frameworks to compare algorithms and implementations under real data scale, real query patterns, and real AI workloads
  • Debug and solve complex performance issues across algorithm implementation, CPU/GPU execution, SIMD/vectorization, memory access, concurrency, and I/O
  • Turn research prototypes into maintainable, testable, and evolvable production-grade indexing capabilities
  • Use AI tools across the research and engineering workflow, including paper analysis, prototype generation, code implementation, testing, benchmarking, documentation, and performance analysis

What we're looking for:
  • 3+ years of experience in vector search, ANN algorithms, search systems, high-performance computing, or performance-critical systems
  • Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience
  • Strong C++ or Rust programming ability and solid engineering fundamentals
  • Experience with vector similarity search, ANN algorithms, index structures, quantization, compression, reranking, or high-performance retrieval systems is a strong plus
  • Strong interest in research-driven engineering: reading papers, evaluating tradeoffs, building prototypes, and turning ideas into production systems
  • Experience with performance optimization and systematic debugging is a strong plus, especially around CPU/GPU execution, SIMD, memory layout, concurrency, I/O, or large-scale data processing
  • Interest in using AI tools to improve research, coding, testing, benchmarking, documentation, and performance analysis

How we operate:
  • Research-driven, production-focused: We track frontier algorithms, but care most about whether they work under real data scale, real query patterns, and real production constraints
  • Extreme performance: We care about every memory access, every query path, and every tradeoff between recall and latency
  • AI-first engineering: We actively use AI to accelerate paper reading, prototyping, coding, testing, documentation, and performance analysis, but human judgment and engineering taste still matter most
  • Fast and pragmatic: We work on hard vector indexing and retrieval problems, but we ship them into Milvus, Zilliz Cloud, and Vector Lakebase
  • Open source by default: Milvus is a core part of our engineering culture, and strong indexing capabilities should stand up to public design, code, and community usage

Benefits:
  • Competitive compensation (cash + equity)
  • Regular bonus and equity refresh opportunities
  • Medical, dental, and vision insurance
  • Paid time off, including vacation, sick leave, and global reset/wellbeing days
  • Generous 401(k) and regional retirement plans

$175,000 - $250,000 a year
Zilliz is an Equal Opportunity Employer and welcomes people from all backgrounds, experiences, abilities, and perspectives. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment regardless of race, color, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, age, physical disability, or length of time spent unemployed.
We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process, such as reviewing applications, analyzing resumes, or assessing responses and identifying potential inconsistencies or verification signals in application materials based on available information. These tools assist our recruitment team but do not replace human judgment. Final hiring decisions are ultimately made by humans. If you would like more information about how your data is processed, please contact us.

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