OPT AI Jobs
AI jobs on OPT are widely available across tech, research, and enterprise sectors, but your 90-day unemployment limit means you can't afford a slow search. Many AI roles at larger companies qualify for STEM OPT extension, giving you up to three years of work authorization without an H-1B visa.
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BeaconFire is based in Central NJ, specializing in Software Development, Web Development, and Business Intelligence; looking for a strong agentic AI developer who can build and productionize Vertex AI–based RAG systems (Vertex AI Search / Vertex AI RAG patterns), design reliable tool-using agents, and work comfortably with vector databases and graph databases.
About the Role
You’ll own end-to-end delivery: ingestion, retrieval, agent orchestration, evaluation, and deployment.
Responsibilities
- Collaborate with the team to design and develop high quality Web applications using Python, Flask, Django, and related technologies.
- Write clean and efficient code, and ensure code maintainability and reusability.
- Design and implement RAG pipelines on Google Cloud / Vertex AI (chunking, embeddings, indexing, retrieval, reranking, grounding).
- Build agentic workflows (tool use, planning, reflection/guardrails, structured outputs) using Python-first frameworks.
- Perform code reviews to ensure code quality and consistency.
- Conduct testing to ensure application quality and reliability.
- Create and maintain technical documentation for web applications.
- Participate in project planning, estimation, and prioritization.
- Stay up to date with the latest technologies for Python development.
- Define and run evaluation (retrieval metrics, answer quality, hallucination/grounding checks), and improve system quality iteratively.
- Ship to production: APIs, monitoring/observability, cost/performance optimization, CI/CD, and security best practices.
Qualifications
- Experience in software development in Python3.
- Decent understanding of the software development/testing life cycle.
- Knowledge of relational databases (e.g. MySQL, PostgreSQL, etc).
- Experience with version control tools, such as Git.
- Experience building RAG solutions (hybrid search, reranking, chunking strategies, embeddings, prompt + schema design).
- Familiar with at least one agentic framework (e.g., LangGraph/LangChain, LlamaIndex, Semantic Kernel, AutoGen) and tool/function calling patterns.
- Solid knowledge of vector search concepts and at least one vector DB in production.
- Strong engineering practices: code reviews, testing, telemetry, secure-by-design, reliability mindset.
Preferred Skills
- Master’s Degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or related field.
- 1+ year professional experience in Python web application development with either Flask or Django.
- Experience in RESTful API development in Python.
- Understanding of Python web application frameworks such as Flask or Django.
- Experience with Cloud services, such as AWS.
- Experience with Vertex AI and GCP fundamentals (IAM, logging/monitoring, CloudRun/GKE, storage).
- Knowledge graphs for RAG (entity linking, graph traversal + retrieval fusion).
- Streaming/messaging (Pub/Sub, Kafka), document pipelines (Document AI), and multilingual retrieval.
- Experience with evaluation tooling (RAGAS, TruLens, custom eval harnesses), prompt/version management.
- Frontend integration (basic React/Next.js) or platform enablement (internal developer tooling).
Pay range and compensation package
BeaconFire is an E-verified company and provides equal employment opportunities (visa sponsorship provided).
Equal Opportunity Statement
BeaconFire is committed to diversity and inclusivity.
About the Company
BeaconFire is based in Central NJ, specializing in Software Development, Web Development, and Business Intelligence; looking for a strong agentic AI developer who can build and productionize Vertex AI–based RAG systems (Vertex AI Search / Vertex AI RAG patterns), design reliable tool-using agents, and work comfortably with vector databases and graph databases.
About the Role
You’ll own end-to-end delivery: ingestion, retrieval, agent orchestration, evaluation, and deployment.
Responsibilities
- Collaborate with the team to design and develop high quality Web applications using Python, Flask, Django, and related technologies.
- Write clean and efficient code, and ensure code maintainability and reusability.
- Design and implement RAG pipelines on Google Cloud / Vertex AI (chunking, embeddings, indexing, retrieval, reranking, grounding).
- Build agentic workflows (tool use, planning, reflection/guardrails, structured outputs) using Python-first frameworks.
- Perform code reviews to ensure code quality and consistency.
- Conduct testing to ensure application quality and reliability.
- Create and maintain technical documentation for web applications.
- Participate in project planning, estimation, and prioritization.
- Stay up to date with the latest technologies for Python development.
- Define and run evaluation (retrieval metrics, answer quality, hallucination/grounding checks), and improve system quality iteratively.
- Ship to production: APIs, monitoring/observability, cost/performance optimization, CI/CD, and security best practices.
Qualifications
- Experience in software development in Python3.
- Decent understanding of the software development/testing life cycle.
- Knowledge of relational databases (e.g. MySQL, PostgreSQL, etc).
- Experience with version control tools, such as Git.
- Experience building RAG solutions (hybrid search, reranking, chunking strategies, embeddings, prompt + schema design).
- Familiar with at least one agentic framework (e.g., LangGraph/LangChain, LlamaIndex, Semantic Kernel, AutoGen) and tool/function calling patterns.
- Solid knowledge of vector search concepts and at least one vector DB in production.
- Strong engineering practices: code reviews, testing, telemetry, secure-by-design, reliability mindset.
Preferred Skills
- Master’s Degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or related field.
- 1+ year professional experience in Python web application development with either Flask or Django.
- Experience in RESTful API development in Python.
- Understanding of Python web application frameworks such as Flask or Django.
- Experience with Cloud services, such as AWS.
- Experience with Vertex AI and GCP fundamentals (IAM, logging/monitoring, CloudRun/GKE, storage).
- Knowledge graphs for RAG (entity linking, graph traversal + retrieval fusion).
- Streaming/messaging (Pub/Sub, Kafka), document pipelines (Document AI), and multilingual retrieval.
- Experience with evaluation tooling (RAGAS, TruLens, custom eval harnesses), prompt/version management.
- Frontend integration (basic React/Next.js) or platform enablement (internal developer tooling).
Pay range and compensation package
BeaconFire is an E-verified company and provides equal employment opportunities (visa sponsorship provided).
Equal Opportunity Statement
BeaconFire is committed to diversity and inclusivity.
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Get Access To All JobsTips for Finding OPT Sponsorship in AI
Target STEM-designated programs first
Your F-1 degree field determines STEM OPT eligibility. Computer science, data science, and electrical engineering are all STEM-designated. Confirm your CIP code with your DSO before applying so you know your actual authorization window.
Prioritize employers enrolled in E-Verify
STEM OPT extension requires your employer to be enrolled in E-Verify. Ask recruiters early in the process. Large tech companies are almost universally enrolled, but startups vary and you need to confirm before accepting an offer.
Frame your research experience in product terms
AI hiring managers want engineers who ship, not just researchers who publish. Translate your thesis or lab work into product outcomes: model accuracy improvements, inference latency reductions, or dataset scale. Concrete metrics move you past resume screens.
Apply before your OPT start date approaches
Background checks and onboarding at larger companies routinely take four to six weeks. Start your search at least three months before your current authorization expires. Cutting it close creates gaps that are difficult to resolve without jeopardizing your status.
Understand the 90-day unemployment rule across roles
Part-time AI consulting or contract work counts toward employment under OPT, but unpaid research does not. If you take a short-term contract between full-time roles, track those days carefully. Your DSO can help you calculate cumulative unemployment accurately.
Match your job title to your degree field
USCIS scrutinizes whether your role is directly related to your degree. A software engineering title is harder to connect to a biology degree than an AI research title is. Work with your DSO to document the connection before your employer files the I-983.
AI OPT: Frequently Asked Questions
Can I work in AI on standard OPT before applying for the STEM extension?
Yes. Standard OPT gives you 12 months of work authorization after graduation, and AI roles qualify as long as the position is directly related to your degree field. If your degree is STEM-designated, you can apply for the 24-month STEM extension before your standard OPT expires, giving you up to three years total.
What AI job titles are most likely to qualify for STEM OPT extension?
Roles with titles like machine learning engineer, AI research scientist, data scientist, computer vision engineer, and NLP engineer consistently qualify when tied to a STEM degree. The title itself matters less than the job duties and degree connection. Your employer will document the relationship on Form I-983, so the role description needs to clearly reflect your field of study.
Where can I find AI employers who are open to hiring OPT students?
Migrate Mate is built specifically for F-1 OPT and international students, with AI jobs filtered by sponsorship willingness and E-Verify status. Searching there saves significant time compared to filtering through general job boards that don't surface work authorization details upfront.
Does contract or freelance AI work count as valid OPT employment?
Yes, self-employment and contract work are permitted under OPT as long as the work is directly related to your degree. You must work at least 20 hours per week to avoid accruing unemployment days. For STEM OPT, self-employment is technically allowed but the I-983 training plan requirement makes it complex to fulfill in practice.
What happens if my AI job offer falls through while I'm on OPT?
You have 90 cumulative days of unemployment allowed during standard OPT, and an additional 60 days during the STEM extension. If a job offer falls through, notify your DSO immediately and begin searching again. Days accrue from your OPT start date regardless of whether you were actively employed, so timing matters significantly.