Inception creates the world’s fastest, most efficient AI models. Our Mercury model is the world’s fastest reasoning LLM and first commercially available diffusion LLM, delivering 5x greater speed and efficiency than today’s LLMs, with best-in-class quality.

We are the AI researchers and engineers behind such breakthrough AI technologies as diffusion models, flash attention, and DPO.

The Role

We seek experienced Full Stack Software Engineers to build the applications and infrastructure that bring our diffusion LLMs to users. You will design and develop both frontend interfaces and backend services — creating intuitive experiences and robust APIs capable of serving at scale. You'll work closely with ML engineers and researchers to bridge the gap between complex AI models and user-friendly products.

Key Responsibilities

Design and develop scalable web applications and APIs for our models, building both frontend interfaces and backend services.
Build systems for internal experimentation and monitoring that provide observability across our entire tech stack.
Develop RESTful APIs to expose model capabilities to external applications.
Implement authentication, authorization, and security best practices for enterprise deployments.
Collaborate with ML engineers to integrate model serving infrastructure with the application layer.
Design infrastructure as code, deployment automation, and CI/CD pipelines.

Qualifications

BS/MS/PhD in Computer Science, Machine Learning, or a related field (or equivalent experience).
5+ years of experience building production web applications.
Strong proficiency in modern JavaScript/TypeScript and Python.
Experience with frontend frameworks (e.g., React) and state management solutions.
Solid understanding of backend development, including API design, database management, and microservices architecture.
Experience with SQL and NoSQL databases (e.g., Neon).
Familiarity with Kubernetes, CI/CD pipelines, and cloud infra (AWS and/or Azure).
Experience with version control (Git) and collaborative development workflows.
Strong problem-solving skills and the ability to work in a fast-paced startup environment.

Preferred Skills

Experience building applications that integrate with AI/ML systems.
Knowledge of streaming architectures and real-time data processing.
Experience with monitoring and observability tools (Prometheus, Grafana).
Understanding of ML concepts and experience with ML frameworks (PyTorch, TensorFlow).
Experience with infrastructure as code tools (Terraform).
Experience with testing frameworks and test-driven development.
Experience with UI/UX design and Framer.

Why Join Inception

Work with World-Class Talent: Collaborate with the inventors of diffusion models and leading AI researchers
Shape Foundational Technology: Your decisions will influence how the next generation of AI products are built and used
Immediate Impact: Join at the ground floor where your contributions directly shape product direction and company trajectory

Perks & Benefits

Competitive salary and equity in a rapidly growing startup
Flexible vacation and paid time off (PTO)
Health, dental, and vision insurance
Catered meals (breakfast, lunch, & dinner)
Commuter subsidies
A collaborative and inclusive culture

About Us

Inception creates the world’s fastest, most efficient AI models. Today’s autoregressive LLMs generate tokens sequentially, which makes them painfully slow and expensive. Inception’s diffusion-based LLMs (dLLMs) generate answers in parallel. They are 5x faster and more efficient, while delivering best-in-class quality.

Inception was co-founded by Stanford professor Stefano Ermon, who co-invented such breakthrough AI technologies as diffusion models, flash attention, and DPO, UCLA professor Aditya Grover, who co-invented node2vec, decision transformers, and d1 reasoning, and Cornell professor and Afresh co-founder Volodymyr Kuleshov, who co-invented MDLM and Block Diffusion.

We pioneered the application of diffusion to language, with world’s first (and only) commercially available dLLM, Mercury. We are currently deploying our large-scale diffusion LLMs at Fortune 500 companies. Diffusion is the technology behind today’s image and video AI, and we’re making it the standard for LLMs as well.

Our team includes engineers from AWS, Google DeepMind, Meta AI, Microsoft, HashiCorp, and OpenAI. Based in Palo Alto, CA, we are backed by top-tier venture capitalists, including Menlo Ventures, Mayfield, M12 (Microsoft’s venture fund), Snowflake Ventures, Databricks, and Innovation Endeavors, and by tech luminaries such as Andrew Ng, Andrej Karpathy, and Eric Schmidt.

If you are talented, innovative, and ambitious, come help us invent the future of AI.

We are an equal opportunity employer and encourage candidates of all backgrounds to apply.

Member of Technical Staff, Full Stack, LLM Applications