Join 1851 Labs

Josh built the systems at Wish that scaled to 100M+ users. You'll work directly with him. This isn't a backlog-and-sprint job — you'll own hard problems end-to-end: latency, scale, production ML. Ship something on Monday, see users hit it by Tuesday.

What you'll do

• Own frontend + backend + infra
• Build ultra-low-latency systems for real-time image creation
• Put image models into production — hosting, routing, monitoring
• Build MLOps — rollouts, fallbacks, quality checks, cost and speed

Tech stack

• TypeScript / Node.js / React
• Convex, CDN, S3, large-scale image pipelines
• Hyper-fast diffusion models and low-latency LLMs

What we want

• Ships, then improves
• Moves fast without needing permission
• Cares about outcomes, not just clean code
• Takes ownership by default

We think about product feel constantly and will push back hard. So should you. Creation has to feel like entertainment — every screen, every interaction. You'll work directly with the founders and ship alongside engineers, not after them. Your work will be seen by millions.

What you'll do

• Own the core creation flows — the most-touched parts of the app
• Design, prototype, and ship — not just spec
• Define the visual language for a product used by millions
• Run design experiments fast and cut what doesn't convert

Tools

• Figma
• React / CSS — comfortable shipping in code is a strong plus
• PostHog — you design with data, not just instinct

What we want

• Designs for outcomes, not portfolios
• Strong opinions on what makes creation feel good
• Iterates in hours, not weeks
• Takes ownership by default

We generate in ~2 seconds. We want faster. Speed isn't a nice-to-have — it's what makes creation feel like play. You'll own the full ML pipeline and work directly with Josh, who's deep in infra and will be right there with you. No research-only work here — you own production.

What you'll do

• Own inference end-to-end — speed, quality, cost
• Run and optimize diffusion models in production
• Build MLOps — rollouts, A/B testing, fallbacks, monitoring
• Evaluate new models fast and ship the ones that win

Tech stack

• Python / PyTorch
• Hyper-fast diffusion models and low-latency LLMs
• AWS GPU infrastructure, inference optimization

What we want

• Cares about what users feel, not just benchmark scores
• Owns production, not just experiments
• Thinks in systems: latency, cost, quality, scale
• Takes ownership by default

You'll work directly with Mo. The job is simple to describe, hard to do: make the team faster. Some days it's running growth experiments. Some days it's fixing the hiring process. The scope is wide — you'll figure it out and own it.

What you'll do

• Track execution and follow up until things ship
• Run growth experiments — coordination, tracking, learnings
• Build systems for hiring, onboarding, and operations
• Take on high-leverage projects and drive them to completion

What we want

• Moves fast and takes ownership by default
• Organized, reliable, communicates directly
• Thrives in ambiguity
• Runs projects end-to-end without supervision