AI Agent Engineer

<div class="content-intro"><h2>Build to Protect Civilization</h2> <p>TRM is a blockchain intelligence company that’s on a mission to build a safer world for billions of people. We’re a lean, high-impact team tackling some of the world’s most critical challenges, ranging from human trafficking and financial fraud to terrorist financing. We are builders who power governments, financial institutions, and crypto companies when the clock is running and the consequences are real. This is why every TRMer is a bet on our future and has the power to change our trajectory.</p></div><p>The AI Engineering Team is chartered with enabling <strong>next-generation AI applications</strong>, with a special focus on <strong>Large Language Models (LLMs)</strong> and <strong>agentic systems</strong>. Our mission is to build robust pipelines, high-performance infrastructure, and operational tooling that allow AI systems to be deployed with <strong>speed, safety, and scale</strong>.</p> <p>We manage petabyte-scale pipelines, serve models with millisecond-level latency, and provide the observability and governance needed to make AI production-ready. We’re also deeply involved in <strong>evaluating and integrating cutting-edge tools in the LLM and agent space</strong> — including open-source stacks, vector databases, evaluation frameworks, and orchestration tools that unlock TRM’s ability to innovate faster than the market.</p> <p></p> <p><strong>The impact you will have:</strong></p> <ul> <li>Architect and implement a robust agentic framework that supports tool use, context retrieval, memory, and planning</li> <li>Build intelligent, modular agents that automate investigative tasks and augment analyst decision-making</li> <li>Extend and scale our LLM infrastructure (e.g. OpenAI, Anthropic, local models), including prompt engineering, RAG, and evaluation loops</li> <li>Design safe, observable, and auditable agent behaviors — ensuring reliability in high-sensitivity environments</li> <li>Evaluate performance across metrics like reasoning, latency, success rate, and hallucination, and iterate based on user feedback and system telemetry</li> <li>Contribute to a culture of high ownership, rapid experimentation, and ethical AI deployment</li> <li>&nbsp;</li> </ul> <p><strong>What we’re looking for:</strong></p> <ul> <li>Strong engineering background with deep experience in backend or systems work (Python preferred)</li> <li>Hands-on experience building with LLMs, agents, and tooling frameworks (LangChain, semantic caches, vector DBs, etc.)</li> <li>Comfort working with agentic pipelines and optimizing information flow into AI systems</li> <li>Thoughtful approach to system design, with an eye for safety, scalability, and explainability</li> <li>High product empathy -&nbsp;you care about how agents impact real users (analysts) and optimize accordingly</li> <li>Bias toward experimentation and iteration - you’re excited to try, learn, and ship fast</li> <li>Previous experience with knowledge graphs, task orchestration, or AI safety a plus</li> </ul> <p><strong>About the Team:</strong></p> <ul> <li> <p>The AI Engineering team operates with a high level of collaboration and interdependence, fostering an inclusive culture where connections extend beyond work. We value diverse personalities and seek someone who is both results-driven and sociable, with strong communication, leadership, and teamwork skills, along with a positive, solutions-oriented mindset</p> </li> <li> <p>As a globally distributed team, members may observe different timezones. However, most of the team will overlap between the hours of 7am-12pm PST for meetings and collaboration</p> </li> <li> <p>All team members, regardless of location must have at least 4 hour overlap with PST business hours&nbsp;</p> </li> </ul> <p><strong>Learn about TRM Speed in this position:</strong></p> <ul> <li><strong>Rapid Issue Resolution.</strong>&nbsp;TRM Engineers identify and resolve critical onsite issues in minutes to hours, not weeks. We create virtual war rooms, implement fixes, and share lessons with both customer stakeholders and internal teams within 48 hours.</li> <li><strong>Navigating Bureaucracy.</strong>&nbsp;We anticipate and address procedural hurdles, build trust with key stakeholders, and find alternative pathways to approvals. This keeps projects moving even in complex environments.</li> <li><strong>Efficient Knowledge Transfer.</strong>&nbsp;Engineers document and share updates in real time, ensuring the entire team—onsite and remote—has full visibility into plans, blockers, and resolutions. Knowledge sharing sessions and clear documentation reduce friction and accelerate delivery.</li> </ul> <h4><strong>About TRM's Engineering Levels:</strong></h4> <p><strong>Engineer:&nbsp;</strong>Responsible for helping to define project milestones and executing small decision decisions independently with the appropriate tradeoffs between simplicity, readability, and performance. Provides mentorship to junior engineers, and enhances operational excellence through tech debt reduction and knowledge sharing.</p> <p><strong>Senior Engineer:&nbsp;</strong>Successfully designs and documents system improvements and features for an OKR/project from the ground up. Consistently delivers efficient and reusable systems, optimizes team throughput with appropriate tradeoffs, mentors team members, and enhances cross-team collaboration through documentation and knowledge sharing.</p> <p><strong>Staff Engineer:&nbsp;</strong>Drives scoping and execution of one or more OKRs/projects that impact multiple teams. Partners with stakeholders to set the team vision and technical roadmaps for one or more products. Is a role model and mentor to the entire engineering organization. Ensures system health and quality with operational reviews, testing strategies, and monitoring rigor.</p> <p><strong>The following represents the expected range of compensation for this role:</strong></p> <ul> <li><span class="notion-enable-hover" data-token-index="0">Individual pay is determined by skills, qualifications, experience, and location. The compensation details listed in this posting reflect the US base salary only.</span></li> <li>The estimated base salary range for this role is $215,000 - $230,000.</li> <li>Additionally, this role may be eligible to participate in TRM’s equity plan.</li> <li><span class="notion-enable-hover" data-token-index="0">Please note – we factor in the different costs for geographies outside the United States.</span></li> </ul><div class="content-conclusion"><hr> <h3>Life at TRM</h3> <p>We build to protect civilization. That promise shows up in how we work every day.</p> <p>TRM runs fast. Really fast. We’re a high-velocity team that expects ownership, clarity, and follow-through. People who thrive here are inspired by hard problems, experimentation, direct feedback. If it takes months elsewhere, it often ships here in days. If you are optimizing primarily for consistent work-life balance, use the interview process to pressure-test fit. We want teammates who thrive here, not just survive here.</p> <p>We coach directly, assume positive intent, and play for the front of the jersey.</p> <h3>Leadership Principles</h3> <ul> <li>Impact-Oriented Trailblazer: We put customers first, driving for speed, focus, and adaptability.</li> <li>Master Craftsperson: We prioritize speed, high standards, and distributed ownership.</li> <li>Inspiring Colleague: We value humility, candor, and a one-team mindset.</li> </ul> <p>Want to learn more about how we interview at TRM Labs? Check out more about our leadership principles and hiring process <a href="https://www.trmlabs.com/resources/blog/interviewing-at-trm-how-we-hire-and-what-success-looks-like">here</a>.</p> <h3>What You’ll Do Here</h3> <p>This work has teeth. At TRM, your week might include:</p> <ul> <li>Driving critical investigations that can’t wait for typical business hours.</li> <li>Shipping products in days when others would schedule quarters.</li> <li>Partnering with teams across time zones to deliver insights while the story is still unfolding.</li> <li>Building new solutions from first principles when the playbook doesn’t yet exist.</li> <li>Protecting victims and customers by tracing illicit activity and disrupting criminal networks.</li> </ul> <h3>Join our Mission</h3> <p>We look for people who want their work to matter, who build with speed and rigor, and who take pride in protecting others through their craft. If you’re excited by TRM’s mission but don’t check every box, apply anyway. We hire for slope, judgment, and the will to learn fast.</p> <p>Build to protect civilization. Let’s do it together.</p> <p><strong>Recruitment agencies</strong></p> <p>TRM Labs does not accept unsolicited agency resumes. Please do not forward resumes to TRM employees. TRM Labs is not responsible for any fees related to unsolicited resumes and will not pay fees to any third-party agency or company without a signed agreement.</p> <p><strong>Privacy Policy</strong></p> <p>By submitting your application, you are agreeing to allow TRM to process your personal information in accordance with the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.trmlabs.com/policies/privacy-policy">TRM Privacy Policy</a></p> <p><strong>Learn More</strong>:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.trmlabs.com/culture">Company Values</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.trmlabs.com/interviewing">Interviewing</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.trmlabs.com/faq">FAQs</a></p></div>