Titlesby GlyphMember of Technical Staff job title trend since Apr 2011
Research · Emerging · in 1.7% of HN hiring posts · 206 open roles at 40 companies · median $250k
A deliberately flat title from Bell Labs, revived by AI labs for engineers and researchers alike.
first seen Aug 2015, Hacker Newstook off Apr 2025
Why it exists
Written by rule from our own data
First seen in our data in August 2015, in a Hacker News Who is hiring post from Niara. It took off in April 2025, when its share of Who is hiring posts first reached a quarter of its best year. Today 206 open roles use the title at 40 companies, most of them in AI applications. Closest tracked titles: Research Engineer, Research Scientist.
- PostingAsk HN: Who is hiring? (August 2015)Hacker News, Aug 2015 · backs: first sighting
- PostingMember of Technical Staff | Production & Trading PlatformPoesis, Nov 2026 · backs: an open posting with the title
Where it is posted
Sectors
- AI application46
- AI lab18
- AI infrastructure15
- AI data5
- Data platform2
- Consumer2
- Developer tools2
- Infrastructure1
Cities
- San Francisco94
- Palo Alto41
- New York30
- London, United Kingdom25
- Bengaluru, India4
- Toronto, Canada4
- Stockholm, Sweden3
- Boston2
- Singapore1
- Paris, France1
Countries and remote
- United States155
- United Kingdom25
- Canada5
- India4
- Sweden3
- Germany2
- Singapore1
- France1
Remote option33%
Posted pay
Middle half $220k to $313k, median $250k from 115 postings that state a base range (USD a year).
Pay by level and city on SalariesWho is hiring for it
Open postings on their own job boards, read 6h ago| # | Company | Open roles | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 41 | ||
| 2 | 18 | ||
| 3 | 13 | ||
| 4 | xdofA company hiring most for Member of Technical Staff and Forward Deployed Engineer. | 12 | |
| 5 | Coram.aiA company hiring most for Member of Technical Staff and Product Designer. | 11 | |
| 6 | 10 | ||
| 7 | Artificial AnalysisA company hiring most for Member of Technical Staff and Forward Deployed Engineer. | 9 | |
| 8 | Ataraxis AIA company hiring most for Member of Technical Staff. | 8 | |
| 9 | Radical NumericsA company hiring most for Member of Technical Staff and Machine Learning Engineer. | 8 | |
| 10 | Parallel Web SystemsA company hiring most for Member of Technical Staff and Product Designer. | 6 | |
| 11 | DimensionalA company hiring most for Member of Technical Staff and Forward Deployed Engineer. | 5 | |
| 12 | FootprintA company hiring most for Member of Technical Staff and Forward Deployed Engineer. | 5 |
Open roles
8 of 206; company pages list the rest| Role | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Member of Technical Staff | Production & Trading PlatformPoesisMenlo Park$180k to $280k | Poesis | Menlo Park | $180k to $280k |
| Member of Technical Staff, VA | SF Office | $211k to $248k | |
| Member of Technical Staff (Migrations) | New York, NY; Toronto, Canada | $180k to $235k | |
| Member of Technical Staff - Engineering LeadAiucSan Francisco$200k to $400k | Aiuc | San Francisco | $200k to $400k |
| Member of Technical Staff, Robotics DataxdofSan Mateo Hybrid$180k to $250k | xdof | San Mateo Hybrid | $180k to $250k |
| Member of Technical Staff (Software Engineer, GPU Cluster Infrastructure) | San Francisco | $250k to $485k | |
| Member of Technical Staff, LeadNectar SocialPalo Alto, CA$200k to $300k | Nectar Social | Palo Alto, CA | $200k to $300k |
| Member of Technical Staff, Financial Data | Hybrid - San Francisco, New York City | $264k to $396k |
Share of Hacker News hiring posts
64 posts since Apr 2011 · +177% in 6 monthsNovember 2026 2 of 207 postings, 0.97%
Related titles
Research EngineerWrites the code that makes research run: training runs, experiments, infrastructure.1.6% of HN posts, 12 mo · 161 open · $340k median · since Apr 2011Research ScientistDesigns and runs experiments to push what models can do; usually a PhD role.1.4% of HN posts, 12 mo · 122 open · $232k median · since Mar 2012Applied ScientistResearch methods pointed at a product problem; Amazon made the title mainstream.0.39% of HN posts, 12 mo · 26 open · $243k median · since Feb 2016AI TutorWrites and grades data that teaches a model a language or a subject; a model-training role, not teaching people.10 open · seen Jul 2020AI ScientistBuilds and trains new AI models for one field, such as biology or enterprise data, from research methods to the models a product relies on.3 open · $275k median · seen Sep 2026AI Red TeamerAttacks models before release: finds jailbreaks, harmful outputs and misuse, and turns them into fixes and evals.0% of HN posts, 12 mo · since Aug 2024
About this title
A deliberately flat title from Bell Labs, revived by AI labs for engineers and researchers alike.
Also counted: MTS, technical staff
First sighting
...send a mail to me at riteshn AT gmail Full Stack Engineer (Member of Technical Staff) This is the job for you if you like to work on every aspect of...
Median posted salary $250k from 115 postings that state a base pay range (the median of their midpoints, USD a year). Not a survey of what people earn.