Interview prep · job titles
Member of Technical Staff: what the title means, and how to read the role behind it
Member of Technical Staff (MTS) is one title that xAI, Cohere, Perplexity and Abridge give to software engineers, machine learning engineers and researchers alike, from interns to leads. The title tells you almost nothing on its own. The track, the level and the pay are all in the posting, and they decide how you should prepare.
Updated 12 October 2026 · counts and pay from each company's job board that day
The short version
- The title is flat on purpose. The words after it, like “(AI Researcher)” or “Inference Infrastructure”, name the track.
- The level is in a prefix (Senior, Lead), the years asked for, or the pay band.
- Posted US pay on 12 October 2026 ran from $167K for early career at Abridge to $600K at the top of xAI's model bands.
- OpenAI and Anthropic post functional titles such as Research Engineer and Software Engineer.
- Prepare for the track the posting describes. That decides the rounds you will face.
Who uses the title
On 12 October 2026, these companies had open roles titled Member of Technical Staff on their public job boards:
- xAI: 13 of 307 open roles, for model work and product work alike. One product posting says “No prior AI experience required—just sharp thinking, relentless execution”.
- Cohere: 19 of 119, including Senior and Lead variants, such as “Member of Technical Staff, Integration/RL Team (Research Engineer)”.
- Perplexity: 45 of 134, with the function in brackets: engineers, machine learning, researchers, analysts and even a technical program manager.
- Abridge: 10 of 46, covering machine learning, research science, data, health-record integrations, early-career roles and interns.
OpenAI and Anthropic, the labs most people link with the title, used none of it in their public postings that day: 0 of 809 at OpenAI and 0 of 647 at Anthropic. Their postings use titles such as Research Engineer, Software Engineer and Senior Staff Software Engineer. If you are applying there, read the OpenAI and Anthropic guides for the role you applied to.
Where the title comes from
It is an old research-lab title. Bell Labs used it for its scientists and engineers, and gave a Distinguished Technical Staff Award. No AI company has published why it uses one flat title today. The closest thing is Anthropic's careers page, which says “engineers here do lots of research, and researchers do lots of engineering”. One title for both fits that.
Read the track from the posting
The track decides your interview, so find it first. Companies name it in three ways:
- In brackets: Perplexity's “Member of Technical Staff (AI Researcher)” or “(TPM, Inference)”.
- After a comma: Abridge's “Member of Technical Staff, Research Science” or Cohere's “…, Inference Infrastructure”.
- After a dash: xAI's “Member of Technical Staff - Post-Training and RL” or “- Grok Product”.
When the title is vague, the requirements settle it. A posting that asks for papers, experiments or training runs is a research track; one that asks for production systems, APIs and on-call is an engineering track. Anthropic's own advice applies everywhere: “If you have an engineering background, apply as an engineer—you'll perform better in the interviews.”
Read the level from the posting
The same title covers very different levels. Four places give it away:
- A prefix: Cohere posts “Senior Member of Technical Staff” and “Lead Member of Technical Staff”. The Lead infrastructure posting asks for “8+ years of engineering experience running production infrastructure”.
- The years asked for: one Perplexity posting asks for “5+ years (Senior) or 8+ years (Staff) of software engineering experience”; another says “typically 4+ years for mid-level, more for senior and staff”.
- A separate early-career posting: Abridge posts “Member of Technical Staff, Early Career”, and Perplexity hires new graduates into “full-time Member of Technical Staff positions”.
- The pay band: a band as wide as xAI's $180,000 to $440,000 spans several levels. Where you land in it is the level, so ask the recruiter which level the role is hired at before you talk numbers.
What the role pays
Posted pay ranges on 12 October 2026, from each company's own job board. Ranges are US dollars unless marked.
| Company | Role | Posted range |
|---|---|---|
| xAI | Most MTS roles | $180,000 – $440,000 |
| xAI | Model Training; Post-Training and RL | $180,000 – $600,000 |
| Perplexity | Most MTS software roles (San Francisco) | $220K – $405K, plus equity |
| Perplexity | AI Researcher; AI Inference | $220K – $485K |
| Perplexity | Early career | $180K – $270K |
| Cohere | Most MTS roles (Canada) | CA$250K – CA$535K, plus equity |
| Cohere | Lead MTS (San Francisco) | $235K – $325K |
| Abridge | MTS, Machine Learning | $205K – $300K, plus equity |
| Abridge | MTS, Research Science | $188K – $277K |
| Abridge | MTS, Early Career | $167K – $184K |
Abridge pays interns $40 an hour. For context, OpenAI posted $266K to $445K for one Software Engineer role, and Anthropic $315,000 to $560,000 for a Research Engineer on interpretability.
How the interviews run
Only OpenAI and Anthropic publish their process. xAI, Cohere and Abridge publish no stages; prepare for the track the posting names, using the xAI, Cohere, Perplexity and Abridge guides.
- OpenAI opens with a skills assessment whose “formats vary by team and may include: pair coding interviews, take-home projects, technical tests”, then “4–6 hours of final interviews with 4–6 people over 1–2 days”. It looks for “high-quality code, optimal performance, and good test coverage”. Some formats allow AI tools and some do not, so ask which one you are in.
- Anthropic runs technical rounds in “live coding tools like Colab and CodeSignal. You can look things up”. Its AI rule is strict: take-homes are done “without Claude unless we indicate otherwise”, and live interviews are “all you–no AI assistance unless we indicate otherwise”.
- xAI says only, in one posting, “You will get clarity on your first project before an offer.”
How to prepare
Prepare for the job the posting describes, the way you would for any role with that track: the ML engineer, research engineer or software engineer guide shows the rounds and the bar. Then check the level against the years and the band, so you prepare at the right depth: a lead role expects you to have set direction, an early-career one to have shipped well.
Questions
What is a Member of Technical Staff?
A single job title some companies give to most of their technical hires: software engineers, machine learning engineers and researchers alike. xAI, Cohere, Perplexity and Abridge all post roles under it. The work and the seniority are in the rest of the posting.
Is Member of Technical Staff a senior title?
Not by itself. The same title covers interns, early-career hires and leads. Look for a prefix (Cohere posts Senior and Lead Member of Technical Staff), the years of experience the posting asks for, and the pay band.
Member of Technical Staff or Software Engineer: what is the difference?
The title, mostly. An MTS posting can be a software engineering job, an ML job or a research job. Read the words after the title, such as "(AI Researcher)" or "Grok Product", and the requirements, to see which one it is.
Do OpenAI and Anthropic hire Members of Technical Staff?
Their public job postings use functional titles such as Research Engineer and Software Engineer: on 12 October 2026 none of OpenAI's 809 or Anthropic's 647 open postings used the MTS title. Prepare for the role the posting describes.
How much does a Member of Technical Staff earn?
Posted US ranges on 12 October 2026 ran from $167K to $184K for an early-career role at Abridge, to $180K to $440K for most MTS roles at xAI, with some xAI model roles up to $600K. Equity is extra where offered.
Your MTS posting
See the track, the level and the questions for your posting
Paste the Member of Technical Staff posting you are applying to. Calibrd reads the track and the level from it, says whether a hiring manager would shortlist your CV, and predicts the questions for each round.
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Sources
- xAI careers (Greenhouse): 13 of 307 open roles titled Member of Technical Staff on 12 Oct 2026; pay bands from the postings
- Cohere careers (Ashby): 19 of 119 roles, with Senior and Lead variants
- Perplexity careers (Ashby): 45 of 134 roles; years of experience by level
- Abridge careers (Ashby): 10 of 46 roles, including early career and interns
- OpenAI job board: functional titles; 0 of 809 postings titled MTS on 12 Oct 2026
- OpenAI interview guide: assessment formats, the final round, timelines and AI-tool rules
- Anthropic careers: interview tools and track advice; 0 of 647 postings titled MTS on 12 Oct 2026
- Anthropic: guidance on candidates' AI usage: when Claude may and may not be used in the process
- Bell Labs (Wikipedia): the Distinguished Technical Staff Award, one early use of the title