Careers - Lab86 AG

Join Our Team

Lab86 is hiring AI-first engineers for its core team in Zug, Switzerland. No legacy code. No daily meetings. No reports to non-technical managers.

Core team: what you'll work on and how

You will work on the core of our AI technology and AI-enabled applications, with real-time code in a safe subset of Rust, and non-real-time & tools in Python.
You will rely heavily on AI tools & agentic workflows to exceed what is possible.
You will use closed- and open-source LLMs from multiple vendors both for development and inside our products.
Everyone fullstack. Even your manager.
You will not work on any task for more than a week. If it can't be done in a week - it will be abandoned or not even started. It will not get boring.
You will work with little/no supervision. There is no one to cover for you. No hand holding.
Core engineering positions are on-site.

Requirements

Extensive experience in AI-powered development, especially with CLI tools & agents. Using tab-autocomplete in Cursor or VS Code is <1% of what is needed.
Deep understanding of AI/ML concepts and underlying technology (especially LLMs and their internal operation, context management, RAG).
Proficiency in Python, Git, and any strongly-typed non-garbage-collected language, Linux as the main development/deployment platform.
Fluent English - this is the language of all internal communication and documentation.
You can always justify your engineering choices, but accept that sometimes there are multiple correct ways to complete a task.
You understand all code you commit and take responsibility for it. This sounds like a joke, but it is no longer a joke.

Would be an advantage (but it's really not required for everyone)

Extensive experience with Prolog, OCaml, or Haskell.
Experience with SAT/SMT/ASP solvers.
Fluent German would be helpful for integration, but is not required for the job.

Would be a disadvantage

Extensive experience in enterprise application development and heavy frameworks.
Extensive experience with closed-source / serverless platforms / microservices.
Extensive experience in politically-driven organizations and stepping on heads.

Hiring process

Our aim is to reduce the time wasted on both sides. There are 4 stages of hiring, only 2 of which are scheduled events:

Your self-assessment goes first. To help with that, we are more verbose than usual here so that you can better judge whether we will be a good fit for each other.
Filling out the form on this page includes a test task. Feel free to use any AI tools, but remember that we are interested in seeing answers augmented by your experience - we already know what all naked LLMs answer to the questions below. It is advised not to spend more than 1 hour - we have no way to enforce that, but there is no need to prepare overly complicated solutions / answers.
Single interview, which typically takes no more than 2 hours. There is only 1 decision maker. You will be allowed and expected to use AI tools during most of the interview process. There will be no LeetCode on the whiteboard.
Paid on-site 1-day practice, where you come to us for at least 1 full day of work + 1 day for you to look around. We cover your work for this 1 day, travel and 2 nights in a local hotel. It can be scheduled on a weekend so as not to interfere with your current job.

So, in a nutshell, there is something you should know when considering working for us:

No legacy code.
No bureaucracy. No politics and non-technical managers claiming what you achieved as theirs.
A single person develops every feature end-to-end. So it's all on you - both wins and losses.
You will not be able to focus on a small piece of the product and get comfortable there. You will have to learn and figure stuff out continuously in diverse areas. Think of it as an eternal hackathon.
This is a startup, and it comes with risks and opportunities.
There are no non-technical managers tracking hours spent per task or bugging you: "Is it done already?", "Why?"
No daily standups. No scrum poker.
If you procrastinate, you will fail. We will compare your performance under minimal oversight versus no oversight. We expect you to perform better with no oversight. If it's not the case, we won't be a good match.

Application Form

First Name *

Last Name *

Email *

What is your citizenship(s)? *

Do you have a work/residence permit in Switzerland? *

What is your preferred start date? *

What have you personally created with or for AI? Include links if public and indicate your personal contribution. *

Which of these types of work are suitable for you? *

Nearly 100% on-site in Zug, Switzerland. Partially on-site, partially remote. Fully remote.

Salary Expectations *

Lab86 is an agile startup and we do not have fixed payment grades. Compensation will include base salary and stock options. What are your expectations for base salary?

What are your favorite coding LLMs and why? What are your favorite AI coding tools/agents and why? *

In your experience, on which tasks do LLMs still have a higher probability of mistakes / failure? Why, and how can this be mitigated? *

Now it is easy to generate any amount of code. What is the role of a human engineer then, and what is now limiting the development performance of the team? How can the development process be improved here? *

Python Task: *

Write a Python program that connects to any LLM provider of your choice via an OpenAI-compatible API endpoint (using mini/flash model varieties or a 30B local model). The program should generate 10 diverse Fortran solutions that calculate the sum of prime numbers from 1 to N, with variety in speed and compactness. Requirements: (1) automatically verify all solutions for correctness, (2) rank them by the metric "performance * test time". Submit only the Python generator program with your API key replaced by a placeholder. Reference answer for N=1000000 is 37550402023.

Upload Python file (.py) Browse files

Resume (PDF) * Upload Resume (PDF) Browse files

Law requires us to ask you:

I confirm that I have read and understood the Privacy Notice

Privacy Notice

For the purposes of this Privacy Notice, personal data shall mean any information related to an identified or identifiable natural person. This includes information such as, for example, your name, address, telephone number and date of birth as well as data relating to your career, etc. by reference to which, with reasonable effort, you can be identified as a specific individual.

This Privacy Notice applies only to the personal data of job applicants and potential candidates for employment, including where personal data is provided through lab86.com website.

Who are we?

We are Lab86 AG, with our registered office at Bahnhofstrasse 19, 6300 Zug, Switzerland (hereinafter "we", "us" or "our"). We are responsible for processing your personal data that we collect or receive for the purposes defined in this Privacy Notice.

What data is collected?

We will collect and store the following personal data:

Contact details. Your full name, email address, and phone number.
Information included in the application. Any additional personal data, such as your date of birth, gender, photo, nationality or address, that may be contained in your CV, cover letter, work samples, references, letters of recommendation or other documents or information that you provide as part of your application.
Data collected during interviews and assessments. Such as notes from interviews conducted with you, the results of assessments or tests, salary requirements and availability.
Communications data. Your communications with us, together with any information that we receive with these communications.
Information in your public profile. The information we collect about you from public sources related to your professional experience, such as LinkedIn or the website of your current employer.
Special categories of personal data ("sensitive data"). If you include sensitive data in your communications with us or in your CV, we will process it only to the extent necessary and justified in accordance with the consent you have given us.

Only staff involved in the recruitment process will have access to your personal data.

For what purposes do we process your personal data?

We process your personal data for the following purposes:

For the recruitment and selection process.
To communicate with you.
To protect our legitimate business interests and legal rights.
To be able to consider you and your application and contact you for future job openings.
For further processing with your consent.

On what legal bases do we process your personal data?

We process your personal data on the following legal bases:

Legitimate Interests. Most of our processing activities are based on our legitimate interests, which include conducting and managing the recruitment and selection process, communicating with you, considering your application for future job opportunities, as well as protecting and enforcing our legal rights, including assessing and defending legal claims. When relying on legitimate interests, we balance our interests against your rights and freedoms to ensure that they are not overridden.
Consent. We may process your personal data based on your consent, particularly where you request or permit additional processing beyond the purposes described above. Any sensitive personal data you provide to us will be processed only on the basis of your explicit consent, unless another legal basis applies.
Legal Obligations. Where necessary, we may process and retain personal data to comply with applicable legal requirements.

Where does your personal data come from?

Directly from you. Most of the information we process about you is received from you. You may directly or indirectly give us information about yourself in different ways, for example when you contact us or through your application. You can always choose not to provide us with certain information. However, some personal data is necessary in order for us to process your application.
From other sources. We may collect personal data about you from public sources, such as LinkedIn or the website of your current employer and/or through third parties such as a recruitment service provider, in a process commonly known as "sourced recruiting". Furthermore, our employees may recommend potential candidates. This Privacy Notice also applies to personal data collected through sourced recruiting.

How do we share your personal data?

Sometimes we need to share your personal information with other trusted individuals and companies. Your personal information may be shared with:

Our service providers. We may transfer or share your personal data with service providers who help us in daily operations requiring the processing of personal data.
Authorities and other public actors. We may be legally obliged to share information about you with law enforcement agencies, regulatory agencies or other public and government authorities in response to lawful requests. We may also disclose information if necessary to detect and prevent fraud.
Parties involved in legal proceedings. In the event of potential legal proceedings, your personal data may be shared with the parties involved in the case or their lawyers, including during the preparatory work to allow us to defend or enforce a legal claim.
Parties involved in a merger or acquisition. We may share or transfer your personal data in connection with a merger, sale of company assets, financing or acquisition of all or part of our business in relation to another company.
Other parties. We may share your personal data with other parties if you request or permit us to do so.

Where do we process your personal data?

We generally process and store your personal data in Switzerland, where our main operations are located. We may also transfer your personal data to other countries, including countries outside of Switzerland and the European Economic Area. Any such transfers will be made on a basis that provides adequate data protection.

How long do we keep your personal data?

We keep your personal data only for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected. How long this is depends on the type of information and why we process it. If you apply for a job, we generally keep the collected data during the recruitment process. If you become an employee, we will keep your personal data throughout your period of employment. If your application for employment is unsuccessful, we may keep your personal data in order to consider you for future job openings for up to 12 months from the day your application was submitted.

Furthermore, we save the personal data necessary for us to be able to defend ourselves against any claims made by you.

Personal data processed on the basis of your consent will be deleted when your consent is withdrawn or upon expiry of the purpose for which your consent was given.

Your data may also be stored for a longer period if required by the applicable statutory retention periods.

What rights do you have, and how can you exercise them?

Right to access your data. You have the right to know if we process personal data about you, and to receive a copy of the data we process about you. In connection with receiving the copy of your data, you will also receive information about how we process your personal data.
Right to object. You have the right to object to processing of your personal data based on legitimate interest. This means that we may no longer process your personal data unless we can demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds that override your interests.
Right to transfer your data. You can request a copy of the personal data relating to you that we process for the performance of a contract with you, or based on your consent, in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format. This will allow you to use this data somewhere else, for example to transfer it to another recipient. If technically feasible, you also have the right to request that we transfer your data directly to another recipient.
Right to rectification. You have the right to request that we rectify inaccurate information, and that we complete information about you that you consider incomplete.
Right to erasure ("right to be forgotten"). You have the right to request that we delete your personal data, for example if the data is no longer necessary in relation to the purposes for which it was collected or otherwise processed, or if there is no legal basis for processing the data.
Right to restriction. You are entitled to request that the processing of your personal data be limited until inaccurate or incomplete information about you has been corrected or until an objection from you has been resolved.
Right to withdraw your consent. You may, at any time, withdraw any consent you have given us. However, please note that this will not affect any processing that has already taken place.
Right to complain to the Supervisory Authority. If you have complaints about our processing of your personal data, you can raise a complaint with the supervisory authority, which in Switzerland is Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (FDPIC).

Please note that if you request restriction or erasure, this may affect our ability to process your application or consider you for a job. Moreover, legal rights or obligations may prevent us from disclosing or transferring all or part of your information or from immediately deleting your information.

How do we protect personal data?

We use technical and organizational security measures to protect the data we hold about you against accidental or deliberate manipulation, loss, deletion, or unauthorized access. Our security measures are being improved continuously as new technology develops.

Updates to the Privacy Notice

We may update our Privacy Notice from time to time. We, therefore, encourage you to review this Privacy Notice periodically for any changes. Changes to this Privacy Notice are effective when they are posted on this page.

Contact us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Notice, do not hesitate to get in touch with us at: [email protected] or by mail using the details provided below:

Lab86 AG
Bahnhofstrasse 19
6300 Zug
Switzerland