Interested in this Research Engineer role at CRAFCO?
Apply Now →About This Role
Crafco has an opening for a Research Engineer at our corporate headquarters in Phoenix, AZ.
The Research Engineer is responsible for research, formulation development, production instructions, and specification conformance of asphaltic and pavement materials, emulsion and modified asphalt coatings, adhesives, RTV silicones and other assigned Crafco products, and providing technical support for sales and marketing. The Research Engineer has responsibility for investigation of alternate raw material sources for use in manufacturing processes and development of new products. Extensive understanding of specifications for products assigned and for raw materials and use characteristics is required. The Research Engineer will require a research-oriented mindset, skills in experimental methods and experimental design, and a data-driven approach to solving material and product performance problems.
This position offers a competitive salary rate with an excellent benefits package including: Profit Sharing, Matching 401(k), Health, Life, Disability, Dental, Vision, Holiday, Personal & Sick pay, Maternity/Paternity leave and more!
Specific Duties include:
- Formulation development and specification conformance of asphaltic and pavement materials, coatings, adhesives and silicone products.
- Working with the product development group on research projects across Crafco's product portfolio, including asphalt, coating, roofing, pavement preservation, adhesives and silicone products.
- Issuing and updating raw material specifications, production formulations, manufacturing instructions for assigned products and all checklist documentation.
- Adjustment of product formulations as required to maintain production of in-specification materials at the lowest cost consistent with quality, performance and sustainability objectives.
- Working with product engineers and managers on monitoring of raw materials characteristics used in production and adjustments of product formulas as required to maintain uniform product characteristics.
- Providing technical assistance to other company functions regarding use and application of assigned products.
- Communication with vendors regarding raw materials of use in Crafco products.
- Monitoring of specification conformance of assigned products in conjunction with Quality Assurance Manager.
- Planning and coordinating experimental analyses of raw materials, manufacturing methods, and finished products for use in developing formulations, manufacturing instructions and procedures. Designing controlled experiments, analyzing data statistically, and using results to support technical decisions and product improvements.
- Planning and coordinating research activities involved with development of assigned products. Owning projects from problem definition through laboratory evaluation, field or production validation, and implementation, with clear objectives, milestones and timely communication of progress and risks.
- Performing laboratory testing and evaluations in a safe, accurate and consistent manner in accordance with specifications.
- Stay current with relevant technical literature, standards and advances in rheology and materials testing. Develop or adapt test methods as needed, establish repeatability and relevance to intended use, and document procedures for consistent use by other teams.
- Occasionally represent Crafco at technical meetings, conferences and industry committees, presenting research findings clearly and communicating relevant technical developments to internal teams.
- Maintain appropriate records and files of data, instructions, and procedures in the Materials Engineering Filing System, including traceable test conditions, results, analyses and technical conclusions.
- Timeliness of performing required functions.
- Must keep equipment clean and in good working condition.
- Must keep work area clean and organized.
- Cooperation with other employees in the department and the company regarding performance of assigned duties and other company activities. Demonstrate selfless leadership by putting team and company goals first, sharing knowledge and credit, supporting colleagues, and taking responsibility for outcomes.
- Perform other tasks assigned by supervisor.
Qualifications:
- Minimum of a BS degree or equivalent experience in a science or engineering field (chemistry, physics, materials or polymer science, chemical, civil or petroleum engineering, or a related field).
- Minimum of three years' experience or equivalent with formulation, evaluation and development of modified asphalt, pavement materials, sealants, adhesives, coatings or related products.
- Strong working knowledge of asphalt modification and hands-on laboratory experience with asphaltic and pavement materials.
- Proficiency in rheology, including dynamic shear rheometry, interpretation of viscoelastic behavior, and familiarity with current and emerging test methods and applicable ASTM and AASHTO standards.
- Ability to develop, validate and document test methods when existing methods do not adequately address product performance or research needs.
- Knowledge of polymer chemistry and the chemistry of paving materials is preferred.
- Intellectual curiosity, sound experimental judgment, and the adaptability to work on multiple products and concurrent projects across Crafco's product lines.
- Working knowledge of Word, Excel and PowerPoint, including data analysis and preparation of clear technical reports and presentations.
- Strong team player with effective presentation, coordination and communication skills across research, quality, manufacturing, product management, sales and other teams.
- Working knowledge of MRP systems is preferred.
- Ability to travel up to 25% of the time.
- Ability to lift 50 pounds.
- Clean driving record.
About Crafco, Inc.
Crafco, Inc. has delivered confidence through innovation, quality, and value to our customers since 1976. Crafco is the world's leading manufacturer in quantity and diversity of packaged pavement preservation products and equipment. As a subsidiary of Ergon, Inc., our core values consist of Empowered Service, Selfless Leadership, Purposeful Growth, and Respectful Relationships, which provide an excellent work environment for future growth. We have a great culture of people working together. If you are looking for a great career with a job you enjoy, check us out.
Learn more about Crafco and Ergon:
http://crafco.com
https://ergon.com/sustainability
Contact us to see if you can be a part of our TEAM.
Role Details
About This Role
Research Engineers bridge the gap between research and production. They implement papers, build experiment infrastructure, optimize training pipelines, and make research prototypes production-ready. They're the engineers who make research work at scale.
The role sits at a unique intersection. You need to understand the math well enough to implement novel architectures correctly, and you need the engineering chops to make them run efficiently on distributed systems. When a research scientist has a breakthrough idea, you're the person who turns it from a notebook prototype into a training pipeline that runs on 256 GPUs.
Across the 11,520 AI roles we're tracking, Research Engineer positions make up 2% of the market. At CRAFCO, this role fits into their broader AI and engineering organization.
Research Engineer roles are growing as AI labs recognize that research velocity depends on engineering quality. The role is less competitive than Research Scientist (no PhD required), but the bar for engineering skill is very high. These roles are concentrated at major labs and well-funded startups.
What the Work Looks Like
A typical week involves: implementing a new attention mechanism from a recent paper, profiling and optimizing a training pipeline that's bottlenecked on data loading, building evaluation infrastructure for a new benchmark, debugging distributed training issues across a GPU cluster, and pair-programming with a research scientist on their latest experiment. The work is deeply technical.
Research Engineer roles are growing as AI labs recognize that research velocity depends on engineering quality. The role is less competitive than Research Scientist (no PhD required), but the bar for engineering skill is very high. These roles are concentrated at major labs and well-funded startups.
Skills in Demand for This Role
Strong software engineering fundamentals plus ML knowledge. Python, C++, and CUDA experience are common requirements. You'll need to read papers and turn ideas into working code. Distributed systems experience (especially distributed training) is highly valued. Performance optimization skills separate great candidates from good ones.
Experience with large-scale training infrastructure (FSDP, DeepSpeed, Megatron), GPU programming (CUDA, Triton), and the internals of ML frameworks (PyTorch internals, custom autograd functions) is what makes candidates stand out. The best research engineers can debug issues that span the full stack from GPU memory management to numerical precision to algorithmic correctness.
Strong postings mention the team's recent research, the infrastructure scale, and the specific technical challenges. They often list the research areas you'd support. Look for roles that emphasize both implementation quality and research understanding.
Compensation Benchmarks
Research Engineer roles pay a median of $252,000 based on 476 positions with disclosed compensation. Mid-level AI roles across all categories have a median of $193,200.
Across all AI roles, the market median is $213,480. Top-quartile compensation starts at $264,000. The 90th percentile reaches $318,400. For comparison, the highest-paying categories include AI Safety ($266,050) and AI Engineering Manager ($253,461). By seniority level: Entry: $112,320; Mid: $193,200; Senior: $230,000; Director: $272,250; VP: $235,830.
CRAFCO AI Hiring
CRAFCO has 1 open AI role right now. They're hiring across Research Engineer. Based in Phoenix, AZ, US.
Location Context
Across all AI roles, 6% (708 positions) offer remote work, while 10,737 require on-site attendance. Top AI hiring metros: New York (3,257 roles, $221,000 median); San Francisco (2,766 roles, $260,550 median); Los Angeles (1,580 roles, $210,000 median).
Career Path
Common paths into Research Engineer roles include Software Engineer, ML Engineer, Research Intern.
From here, career progression typically leads toward Senior Research Engineer, Research Scientist, ML Architect.
This is one of the best entry points into AI research without a PhD. Build a strong engineering portfolio with ML projects, contribute to open-source ML frameworks, and demonstrate that you can implement complex ideas correctly and efficiently. The transition to Research Scientist is possible with published first-author work, which some research engineer roles support.
What to Expect in Interviews
Technical screens test both engineering skill and research understanding. Expect coding rounds with performance-critical implementations (GPU optimization, efficient data loading). Be prepared to discuss papers relevant to the team's research area and explain how you'd implement key ideas. System design questions focus on training infrastructure: distributed training, experiment tracking, and compute resource management.
When evaluating opportunities: Strong postings mention the team's recent research, the infrastructure scale, and the specific technical challenges. They often list the research areas you'd support. Look for roles that emphasize both implementation quality and research understanding.
AI Hiring Overview
The AI job market has 11,520 open positions tracked in our dataset. By seniority: 140 entry-level, 5,630 mid-level, 4,176 senior, and 1,574 leadership roles (Director, VP, C-Level). Remote roles make up 6% of the market (708 positions). The remaining 10,737 roles require on-site or hybrid attendance.
The market median for AI roles is $213,480. Top-quartile compensation starts at $264,000. The 90th percentile reaches $318,400. Highest-paying categories: AI Safety ($266,050 median, 70 roles); AI Engineering Manager ($253,461 median, 58 roles); Research Engineer ($252,000 median, 476 roles).
Research Engineer roles are growing as AI labs recognize that research velocity depends on engineering quality. The role is less competitive than Research Scientist (no PhD required), but the bar for engineering skill is very high. These roles are concentrated at major labs and well-funded startups.
The AI Job Market Today
The AI job market spans 11,520 open positions across 16 role categories. The largest categories by volume: AI/ML Engineer (8,769), AI Software Engineer (586), AI Product Manager (511). These three account for the majority of open positions, though smaller categories often have higher per-role compensation because of specialized skill requirements.
The seniority mix tells a story about where AI teams are in their maturity. Entry-level roles (140) are outnumbered by mid-level (5,630) and senior (4,176) positions, reflecting that most companies are past the 'build a team from scratch' phase and need experienced engineers who can ship production systems. Leadership roles (Director, VP, C-Level) total 1,574 positions, representing the bottleneck between technical execution and organizational strategy.
Remote work availability sits at 6% of all AI roles (708 positions), with 10,737 requiring on-site or hybrid attendance. The remote share has stabilized after the post-pandemic correction. Senior and specialized roles (Research Scientist, ML Architect) are more likely to be remote-eligible than entry-level positions, partly because experienced hires have more negotiating power and partly because these roles require less hands-on mentorship.
AI compensation is structured in clear tiers. The market median sits at $213,480. Top-quartile roles start at $264,000, and the 90th percentile reaches $318,400. These figures include base salary with disclosed compensation. Total compensation (including equity, bonuses, and sign-on) runs 20-40% higher at companies that offer those components.
Category matters for compensation. AI Safety roles lead at $266,050 median, while Prompt Engineer roles sit at $140,000. The spread between highest and lowest-paying categories reflects the premium on specialized technical skills versus broader analytical roles.
The most in-demand skills across all AI postings: Python (2,267 postings), Aws (1,178 postings), Azure (972 postings), Rag (924 postings), Gcp (715 postings), Pytorch (586 postings), Claude (572 postings), Kubernetes (559 postings). Python dominates, appearing in the vast majority of role descriptions regardless of category. Cloud platform experience (AWS, GCP, Azure) is the second most common requirement. The newer entrants to the top skills list (RAG, vector databases, LLM APIs) reflect the shift from traditional ML toward generative AI applications.
Frequently Asked Questions
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