Software Engineer, Sandboxing at ThinkingMachines

Department: Core Engineering

Compensation

$300,000 – $350,000/yr

Setup: On-site
Location: San Francisco, California
Type: Full-time
Level: not_specified
Posted: Sep 22, 2026

Description

Thinking Machines is hiring a Software Engineer to design, build, and operate sandboxed execution environments for untrusted model-generated code and tool calls. The role focuses on isolation technologies such as containers, microVMs, and gVisor-style kernels; scheduling, resource management, and sandbox lifecycle systems; observability and abuse detection; and end-to-end reliability and performance. The position is based in San Francisco, California, with an expected annual salary of $300,000-$350,000 USD and visa sponsorship.

Required Skills

Python
Rust
Containers
MicroVMs
gVisor
Linux internals
Kubernetes
Threat modeling

Additional Information

Minimum Education: Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience in computer science, engineering, or a similar field
Required Previous Experiences: Experience building or operating isolation or virtualization technology, including containers, microVMs, or sandboxed runtimes
Knowledge of Linux isolation technologies, including namespaces, cgroups, seccomp, capabilities, and networking
Experience operating across the technology stack and owning projects end-to-end
Preferred Qualifications: Experience securing systems that execute untrusted or adversarial code, including threat modeling and hardening against sandbox escapes
Familiarity with large-scale, multi-tenant infrastructure on Kubernetes or similar orchestration systems
Experience with performance-sensitive systems programming and reducing cold-start latency for ephemeral compute
Track record of contributing to open-source infrastructure or security tooling
Interest in how AI agents use tools and code execution and how that shapes safe execution environments