# Gauntlet AI

> Fully funded 10-week AI engineering fellowship with job placement

Gauntlet AI is an intensive, selective fellowship for experienced software developers looking to build production-grade AI systems. Over ten weeks (three remote, seven in Austin, Texas), participants build and ship real AI systems using coding agents, RAG, and fine-tuning. The program is completely free for accepted engineers, with travel, housing, meals, and compute covered by hiring partners.

Website: https://gauntletai.com/apply

## What it is for

- Transition from traditional full-stack or backend engineering into a production AI engineering role
- Master AI-assisted software development using coding agents, Cursor, and the Model Context Protocol
- Build real-world client AI systems under production constraints to showcase directly to hiring partners

## Features

- 10-week structure with 3 weeks remote followed by 7 weeks on-site in Austin, Texas
- Fully funded format covering travel, housing, food, laundry, compute, and model access
- Hands-on curriculum covering MCP, RAG architectures, multi-agent systems, and model fine-tuning
- Direct pipeline to hiring partner interviews for high-paying AI engineering roles ($200k+)
- Two distinct tracks: Gauntlet Prime (corporate roles) and Gauntlet for America (government work)

## Pricing

Free. Completely free for students; funded by hiring partner recruiter fees.

## Details

- Type: Article or course
- Category: [Learning](https://xiry.app/topics/learning.md)
- Open source: no
- Platforms: Web, other
- For: Experienced software engineers with 1 to 3+ years of production experience wanting to become AI engineers.
- Tags: ai engineering, fellowship, career, bootcamp, software engineering, llm development

## Why it was saved

- [@Austen, 19 March 2026](https://x.com/Austen/status/2034617662072889826): A concrete opportunity worth revisiting: free to the student, including flights, housing, food and laundry, with revenue from hiring-partner recruiter fees instead.

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Updated 10 October 2026. Page: https://xiry.app/resources/gauntlet-ai

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