At a Glance
- Tasks: Develop cutting-edge AI systems for autonomous game testing and improve gameplay understanding.
- Company: Exciting early-stage AI startup revolutionising the gaming industry.
- Benefits: Competitive salary, flexible work environment, and opportunity to shape the future of gaming.
- Other info: Perfect for those who love solving complex problems and want ownership in their work.
- Why this job: Join a small, dynamic team and make a real impact in the gaming world.
- Qualifications: Hands-on experience with Vision-Language Models and real-world ML deployment.
The predicted salary is between 60000 - 80000 £ per year.
We’re working with an early-stage AI startup tackling one of the biggest hidden problems in gaming. Every year, game studios spend countless hours on manual QA, repetitive testing, bug reproduction, and validation. This team believes developers should be spending their time building worlds, not chasing bugs. Their mission is to build autonomous AI agents capable of understanding and interacting with games much like a human player would. The company is still small, highly technical, and moving fast. They’ve already developed proprietary AI models that outperform some of the biggest names in the industry on key benchmarks, and they’re now looking for a Founding AI Engineer to help push the next generation of game-understanding systems into production.
The Role
This is not a research lab role. It is not an API-wrapper role either. You’ll sit at the intersection of cutting-edge AI research and real-world product development, owning core perception systems that help autonomous agents understand what is happening inside games. You’ll work directly on Vision-Language Models, video understanding, temporal reasoning, and production deployment. Your work will become the foundation upon which the company’s autonomous testing agents operate.
What You’ll Be Working On
- Fine-tuning and optimizing Vision-Language Models (VLMs)
- Building systems that understand gameplay from images and video
- Designing approaches that capture temporal context across multiple frames
- Training and evaluating models on large-scale gameplay datasets
- Improving inference speed, latency, and deployment efficiency
- Taking models from experimentation all the way into production
- Working closely with founders to shape the long-term AI roadmap
We’re Looking For Someone Who
- Has hands-on experience fine-tuning Vision-Language Models
- Has worked extensively with video data and temporal modeling challenges
- Enjoys applied AI and shipping production systems
- Can move comfortably between research and engineering
- Understands the trade-offs between accuracy, latency, scalability, and cost
- Has experience deploying ML systems into real-world environments
You may currently be an:
- AI Engineer
- Applied AI Researcher
- Machine Learning Engineer
- Computer Vision Engineer
- Multimodal AI Engineer
What matters most is that you’ve built things, not just studied them.
Nice To Have
- Experience with models such as LLaVA, CLIP, Flamingo, Gemini, Qwen-VL or similar architectures
- CUDA optimization experience
- PEFT, LoRA, quantization, or model compression techniques
- Real-time inference optimization
- MLOps and deployment experience
- Experience working with multimodal foundation models
You’ll Probably Enjoy This Role If
- You like solving difficult technical problems with real-world constraints
- You want ownership rather than a narrow specialization
- You enjoy working closely with founders
- You care about building products, not just publishing papers
- You want to help define the technical foundation of a company from an early stage
Not The Right Fit If
- You’re only interested in academic research
- You prefer highly structured corporate environments
- You avoid production responsibility
- Your experience with VLMs is mostly theoretical
This is an opportunity to join very early, work on genuinely challenging AI problems, and help build the future of autonomous game testing.
Founding AI Engineer in Birmingham employer: Stealth Startup
Join a pioneering AI startup that is redefining the gaming industry by developing autonomous agents to streamline game testing. As a Founding AI Engineer, you'll be part of a dynamic and innovative team, enjoying a collaborative work culture that prioritises hands-on problem-solving and direct impact on product development. With ample opportunities for personal and professional growth, this role offers a unique chance to shape the future of AI in gaming while working closely with visionary founders in a fast-paced environment.
StudySmarter Expert Advice🤫
We think this is how you could land Founding AI Engineer in Birmingham
✨Tip Number 1
Network like a pro! Reach out to people in the gaming and AI industry on LinkedIn or at events. A personal connection can make all the difference when it comes to landing that Founding AI Engineer role.
✨Tip Number 2
Show off your skills! Create a portfolio showcasing your work with Vision-Language Models and any projects you've done with video data. This will help you stand out and demonstrate your hands-on experience.
✨Tip Number 3
Prepare for technical interviews by brushing up on your knowledge of temporal reasoning and production deployment. Be ready to discuss how you've tackled similar challenges in the past.
✨Tip Number 4
Don’t forget to apply through our website! It’s the best way to ensure your application gets seen by the right people. Plus, we love seeing candidates who are proactive about their job search!
We think you need these skills to ace Founding AI Engineer in Birmingham
Some tips for your application 🫡
Show Your Passion for AI:When you're writing your application, let your enthusiasm for AI and gaming shine through. We want to see that you’re not just ticking boxes but genuinely excited about tackling the challenges in game testing with cutting-edge technology.
Highlight Relevant Experience:Make sure to showcase your hands-on experience with Vision-Language Models and any projects where you've tackled video data or temporal modeling. We’re looking for real-world applications, so don’t hold back on the details!
Be Clear and Concise:Keep your application straightforward and to the point. We appreciate clarity, so avoid jargon unless it’s necessary. Remember, we want to understand your skills and experiences without wading through fluff.
Apply Through Our Website:Don’t forget to submit your application through our website! It’s the best way for us to keep track of your application and ensure it gets the attention it deserves. Plus, it shows you’re serious about joining our team!
How to prepare for a job interview at Stealth Startup
✨Know Your AI Models Inside Out
Make sure you’re well-versed in the Vision-Language Models and any other relevant architectures like CLIP or LLaVA. Be ready to discuss your hands-on experience with these models, including any fine-tuning or optimization you've done.
✨Showcase Real-World Applications
Prepare examples of how you've taken AI models from experimentation to production. Highlight specific projects where you tackled challenges related to video data and temporal reasoning, as this will resonate with the company's focus on practical solutions.
✨Understand the Trade-Offs
Be prepared to discuss the balance between accuracy, latency, scalability, and cost in your previous work. This shows that you can think critically about the implications of your engineering decisions, which is crucial for a role that sits at the intersection of research and product development.
✨Demonstrate Your Problem-Solving Skills
Think of some tough technical problems you've solved in the past, especially those with real-world constraints. The company values ownership and innovation, so sharing how you approached and resolved complex issues will help you stand out.
