Base Labs Fellowship

Who this role is best for

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Skills & requirements

About the role

ABOUT BASETEN

Baseten powers mission-critical inference for the world's most dynamic AI companies, like Cursor, Notion, OpenEvidence, Abridge, Clay, Gamma and Writer. By uniting applied AI research, flexible infrastructure, and seamless developer tooling, we enable companies operating at the frontier of AI to bring cutting-edge models into production. We're growing quickly and recently raised our $1.5B Series F https://www.baseten.co/blog/announcing-our-series-f/, led by Altimeter Capital, Conviction Partners, and Spark Capital. Join us and help build the platform engineers turn to to ship AI products.

ABOUT BASE LABS

Base Labs is a research lab pushing the frontier of open-source LLMs. We think intelligence should be democratized, not controlled by a handful of closed labs and we think very few teams are actually positioned to do something about that.

Backed by Baseten's training and inference infrastructure, we have the compute, resources, and talent to take on hard problems at the frontier and open-source what we learn along the way.

Our mission is to help build a world where intelligence isn't concentrated, but spread across an ecosystem of models that anyone can build on. That mission shapes what we choose to work on, how we work on it, and who we want in the room.

We are accepting applications on a rolling basis for our first cohort of Base Labs Fellows, which is expected to start in late September. Apply using this link.

BASE LABS FELLOWSHIP OVERVIEW

The Base Labs Fellowship is designed to give researchers exposure to what frontier research looks like in industry. We provide funding, mentorship, and full support to our fellows, with the goal of producing rigorous, published research that shapes both the open-source ecosystem and Baseten's technical roadmap.

We run multiple cohorts of Fellows each year and review applications on a rolling basis. This application is for cohorts starting in Sept 2026 and beyond.

WHAT TO EXPECT

• 3 months of full-time research from our San Francisco office

• A dedicated 1:1 mentorship from a senior researcher

• $15,000 Stipend (per 3-months)

• Funding for compute and other research expenses

• Opportunities to publish and present at top venues, including ICML, NeurIPS, and Grace Hopper

• A clear path to a full-time offer for the strongest performers

YOUR MENTORS

Each fellow is matched 1:1 with one of three senior researchers.

Potential mentors include:

• Michael Psenka

• Max Kirkby

• Charles O’Neill

Note: You're welcome to research mentors' prior work, but all applications must go through the official process below, not the mentors directly.

WHO WE'RE LOOKING FOR

A quick note on our view on talent.

Many of the labs that exist today run a credentialist talent model. Concentrate the most already-legible researchers, and assume the concentration compounds. The best researchers in this field are very often not yet legible. Research engineers who have spent years inside a production stack and developed insights no PhD program teaches; PhDs working on the wrong-shaped problem at the right-shaped lab; operators who have been close to real systems long enough to see things traditional researchers have never had to see. If you don’t have the usual qualifications and are doing exceptional work, we’d love to chat.

For the sake of providing some directional criteria for potential fits for this fellowship:

• Are enrolled in or have recently completed a PhD in ML, AI, statistics, or a closely related field

• Have a publication record or research portfolio that demonstrates original, rigorous thinking

• Care about what your work is in service of - not just the problem, but why it matters

• Want to operate with autonomy and don't need a defined roadmap to do your best work

• Are excited to be in San Francisco for the duration of the program, fully embedded in the team

• Are drawn to the idea of building a research culture, not just participating in one

WHY BASE LABS?

• 1:1 by design. Three fellows, three mentors. You will not get lost.

• Real stakes. Your research feeds directly into decisions about what Baseten builds and what workloads it pursues. The line from your work to the product is short.

• A founding moment. We are building Base Labs from scratch. The first cohort shapes what it becomes the culture, the research agenda, the brand.

• Full support. Housing, meals, travel, and compute are all handled. We remove every barrier between you and the work.

• A clear path forward. Top performers are considered for a full-time role.

NOTE: The benefits listed below are only applicable to full-time hires.

BENEFITS

• Competitive compensation, including meaningful equity.

• 100% coverage of medical, dental, and vision insurance for employee and dependents

• Flexible PTO policy including company wide Winter Break (our offices are closed from Christmas Eve to New Year's Day!)

• Paid parental leave

• Fertility and family-building stipend through Carrot

• Company-facilitated 401(k)

• Exposure to a variety of ML startups, offering unparalleled learning and networking opportunities.

Apply now to embark on a rewarding journey in shaping the future of AI! If you are a motivated individual with a passion for machine learning and a desire to be part of a collaborative and forward-thinking team, we would love to hear from you.

At Baseten, we are committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive workplace. We provide equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants without regard to race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, genetic information, disability, or veteran status.

We are an Equal Opportunity Employer and will consider qualified applicants with criminal histories in a manner consistent with applicable law (by example, the requirements of the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, where applicable).

Source: Baseten careers (Ashby)