# Applied AI Engineer at OpenRouter

- Company: OpenRouter
- What the company does: The unified interface for every model. Find the best models & prices for your prompts. Backed by a16z and Menlo.
- Company website: https://openrouter.ai
- Type: Startups (AI role)
- Level: Mid level
- Location: Remote (US)
- Work setup: Remote
- Pay: $215K to $280K base salary per year (USD)
- Posted: 2026-07-15
- Apply by: 2026-10-08
- Apply: https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/openrouter/407f71b5-4b1f-4666-91bd-394f3c26f19d
- Page: https://www.1752.vc/careers/jobs/openrouter-applied-ai-engineer/

## About the role

Build internal agentic workflows end-to-end on OpenRouter, from prototype to production, that automate support and GTM operations Integrate our systems with the tools the company runs on, and steadily replace those tools where it makes sense to

## What they're looking for

- Build-over-buy conviction. You build on internal tools first and champion them over polished external options, even when the internal path is slightly more painful. You buy only for genuine expertise, never for something buildable in a day
- You push the last 20%. You've worked on internally-built tooling and made it good enough that people chose it. You're energized by reliability, edge cases, and polish, and you don't delegate the hard part
- Domain fluency in support or GTM. Hands-on with ticketing, CRM, sales ops, or customer-facing workflows, so you know which work is actually worth automating
- Architectural range. You understand systems end-to-end and can jump into any part of one. Deep backend orientation, front-end work is not the point here
- A security mindset. You'll be building integrations with broad internal access. You think about permissions, blast radius, and the second-order effects of what an agent is about to do before it does it
- Evals and data rigor. You measure automation impact quantitatively rather than asserting it

Tags: Engineering