Senior Research Engineer, Applied AI

Job description

Description The Cato Institute seeks qualified candidates for the Senior Research Engineer, Applied AI position. AI tools are proliferating rapidly. Making them genuinely useful for policy research requires someone who bridges the gap between what these systems have the potential to do with the breadth, depth, precision, and traceability that good research demands. The Cato Institute has already begun creating AI-enhanced research capabilities. The Senior Research Engineer, Applied AI, joins that effort as Cato’s first dedicated engineering position focused on the research domain — a role with significant latitude to shape how research technology evolves at Cato. The Senior Research Engineer closely partners with research teams, understanding their problems and identifying where AI and other advanced methods can make a real difference. And the Senior Research Engineer gets their hands dirty, building state-of-the-art, research-grade tooling and capabilities — such as context engineering architectures, AI output benchmarking tools, and literature discovery systems. Project priorities emerge through consultation between the Senior Research Engineer, the CTA, and research leadership —...