Staff Research Engineer
GitHub is the world’s leading platform for agentic software development — powered by Copilot to build, scale, and deliver secure software. Over 180 million developers, including more than 90% of the Fortune 100 companies, use GitHub to collaborate, and more than 77,000 organisations have adopted GitHub Copilot.
Locations
In this role you can work from Remote, United States
Overview
GitHub has changed the way software is built, and we have a unique opportunity to look further ahead to identify how software development can be faster, safer, easier, and more accessible. We’re looking for talented, experienced polymaths to join us in this mission! This is the rare role that affords both startup-level agency and a larger company’s resources.
GitHub Next has incubated genre-defining products like Copilot, Copilot Workspace, Spark, Agentic Workflows, and more. You’ll work closely with a small group of experienced and talented researchers to explore the future of software development. Each exploration represents a risky bet that GitHub might want to make, and we have to support those bets with working prototypes. We then need to take those prototypes to market ourselves, and find evidence of product-market fit. Our prototypes (and the evidence we gather from the marketplace) inform GitHub’s leadership and roadmap.
Please note that this is not an academic research role. Our job is to dream big about the future of software development and then build it. Our team feels like a permanent startup: every time we succeed, return to the drawing board to do it all over again.
You can see many of our projects at githubnext.com.
Responsibilities
Problem Framing and Solution Implementation: Research Engineers are makers who turn ambitious ideas into reliable prototypes. You will take loosely defined concepts and figure out how to make them real, scoping bets wisely and delivering value quickly. You will push AI capability limits, exploring what’s almost possible today and anticipating what will be common soon.
Data Preparation and Feature Identification:Exploration spans many technologies, requiring comfort reading source code, picking up new stacks, and identifying the technical pieces needed to build prototypes. You will operate as a generalist with deeper knowledge in some areas; hybrids thrive here, though specialists are also considered. You will help shape the data, signals, and features needed to support evolving prototypes.
Coordination-: GitHub Next runs on ideas, and strong communication drives team health and execution. You will collaborate to determine what work needs doing, split responsibilities, and move projects forward. Applies deep understanding of research approaches used across the team, organization, and industry to leverage (and not reinvent) solutions. Brings new technology and approaches into production by applying long-term research efforts to solve immediate product needs.
Providing Consultation & Expertise:Builds and develops collaborative relationships within and outside the organization to share expertise and create business impact. Acts as a subject matter expert and provides consultative expertise to individuals across the organization in ascertaining technical feasibility of AI ideas/opportunities.
Product and Strategy:Assesses feasibility, builds small prototypes to prove viability, and engages in end-to-end AI development lifecycle (e.g., researching, prototyping, minimum viable product, product, improvement iterations, and maintenance). Provides guidance to less experienced team members conducting open-ended exploration without clear specs or pre-determined scope to inform feasibility considerationsAs agents take over more code generation, your value comes from judgment, creativity, and shaping high‑impact ideas.
Qualifications
Required Qualifications:
- 8+ years experience in software development, applied science, machine learning, or related field
- OR Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Software Development, Electrical or Computer Engineering, Mathematical Sciences, or related field AND 6+ years experience in software development, applied science, machine learning, or related field o OR Master's Degree in Machine Learning, Computer Science, Software Development, Electrical or Computer Engineering, Mathematical Sciences, or related field AND 4+ years experience in software development, applied science, machine learning, or related field
- OR Doctorate in Machine Learning, Computer Science, Software Development, Electrical or Computer Engineering, Mathematical Sciences, or related field AND 2+ years experience in software development, applied science, machine learning, or related field
- OR equivalent experience.
Experience creating rapid prototypes that demonstrate a concept to stakeholders and enable decision making.
- Experience identifying and justifying research goals in situations of ambiguity and executing towards those goals without explicit direction.
Preferred Qualifications:
- A deep understanding of GitHub’s industry and business, especially as it is affected by AI. Has experience communicating about these topics in a way that creates clarity and supplies nuance in a noisy marketplace.
- Has held roles that deal with topics at the boundary of human knowledge regarding software development and developers.
- Have significant experience with one of the many technology topics that are relevant to an interdisciplinary innovation group: frontend technologies (react/typescript/etc), backend technologies (infra/datastores/devops/security), ML & AI (prompts/retrieval/agentic systems/etc), programming languages, human-computer interaction, distributed systems.
- Have significant experience with open-source software, communities, and the systems these communities use to self-organize and ship software for others.
Compensation Range
The base salary range for this job is USD $140,400.00 - USD $372,300.00 /Yr.
These pay ranges are intended to cover roles based across the United States. An individual's base pay depends on various factors including geographical location and review of experience, knowledge, skills, abilities of the applicant. At GitHub certain roles are eligible for benefits and additional rewards, including annual bonus and stock. These rewards are allocated based on individual impact in role. In addition, certain roles also have the opportunity to earn sales incentives based on revenue or utilization, depending on the terms of the plan and the employee's role.
This position will be open for a minimum of 3 days, with applications accepted on an ongoing basis until the position is filled.
GitHub values
- Customer-obsessed
- Ship to learn
- Growth mindset
- Own the outcome
- Better together
- Diverse and inclusive
Manager fundamentals
- Model
- Coach
- Care
Leadership principles
- Create clarity
- Generate energy
- Deliver success
Who We Are
GitHub is the world’s leading AI-powered developer platform with 150 million developers and counting. We’re also home to the biggest open-source community on earth (and 99% of the world’s software has open-source code in its DNA). Many of the apps and programs you use every day are built on GitHub.
Our teams are dreamers, doers, and pioneers, leading the way in AI, driving humanitarian efforts around the globe, and even sending open source to Mars (and beyond!). At GitHub, our goal is to create the space you need to do your best work. We’re remote-first and offer competitive pay, generous learning and growth opportunities, and excellent benefits to support you, wherever you are—because we know that people flourish when they can work on their own terms.
Join us, and let’s change the world, together.
EEO Statement
GitHub is made up of people from a wide variety of backgrounds and lifestyles. We embrace diversity and invite applications from people of all walks of life. We don't discriminate against employees or applicants based on gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, race, religion, age, national origin, citizenship, disability, pregnancy status, veteran status, or any other differences. Also, if you have a disability, please let us know if there's any way we can make the interview process better for you; we're happy to accommodate!