Cantina Labs · 1 day ago
Prompt Engineer
LA Metro Area
Full-time
Hybrid
Mid Level
$150K/yr - $180K/yr
3+ years expCantina Labs is a social AI company developing advanced real-time models for storytelling and connection. The Prompt Engineer will shape user experiences with AI characters by creating engaging prompts and collaborating with product and design teams.
Artificial Intelligence (AI)Social NetworkSoftware
Responsibilities
Define and author core behavior system prompts that shape how Cantina bots express personality, emotion, dialect, and social behavior across text, voice, image, and video
Identify key personality traits that make AI personas compelling, and create datasets and prompt structures that reliably reproduce those traits
Prototype new bot traits and product features through prompt engineering and iterate based on qualitative and quantitative evaluation
Balance short-term feature development with long-term behavioral consistency and quality across the Cantina ecosystem
Collaborate with research to build and maintain behavioral evaluations that measure bot performance, personality fidelity, and interaction quality over time
Partner with product, design, and engineering to translate creative intent and user feedback into scalable prompt systems
Review, refine, and evolve prompts as they move into production, helping establish best practices and launch criteria
Track emerging issues in bot behavior, prioritize improvements, and drive prompt-level solutions in ambiguous or high-impact areas
Document model quirks, prompting strategies, and guidelines to scale prompt development across teams
Support research and ML in our training efforts by delivering meta-prompts for our synthetic data pipelines and evaluating new model behavior
Qualification
Required
3+ years of experience prompt engineering and developing LLM-based features end-to-end
Strong experience writing, testing, and iterating on complex multi-step and system-level prompts
Deep understanding of LLM capabilities, limitations, and quirks, with strong intuition for how input design shapes model behavior
Experience creating datasets and evaluating model outputs in collaboration with ML or product teams
Strong grounding in psychology, sociology, linguistics, or related fields as they relate to personality, behavior, and dialect
Methodical, hypothesis-driven approach to experimentation and iteration
Ability to manage multiple initiatives, prioritize effectively, and operate independently in ambiguous, fast-moving environments
Excellent communication skills, with the ability to explain prompt design decisions to technical and non-technical stakeholders
Comfortable communicating with executive-level stakeholders
Basic Python familiarity and comfort navigating unfamiliar codebases
Benefits
Competitive salary and generous company equity
Medical, dental, and vision insurance – 99.99% of premiums covered by Cantina
42 days of paid time off, including:
15 PTO days
10 sick days
15 company holidays
2 floating holidays
Generous parental leave & fertility support
401(k) retirement savings plan
Lifestyle spending account – $500/month to use however you’d like
Complimentary lunch and snacks for in-office employees
One Medical membership, and more!
Company
Cantina Labs
Cantina Labs is a social AI company, developing a suite of advanced real-time models that push the boundaries of expression, personality, and realism.
51-200 employees
H1B Sponsorship
Cantina Labs has a track record of offering H1B sponsorships. Please note that this does not
guarantee sponsorship for this specific role. Below presents additional info for your
reference. (Data Powered by US Department of Labor)
Distribution of Different Job Fields Receiving Sponsorship
Represents job field similar to this job
Trends of Total Sponsorships
2025 (9)
2024 (3)
2023 (1)
Funding
Current Stage
Growth StageLeadership Team
Daniel Klaus
President & Co-Founder
Prakash Ramakrishna
Co-Founder
Company data provided by crunchbase