Company details

HEADCOUNT

25-99

ORG TYPE

Startup

SECTOR

Technology & Digital

WEBSITE

https://www.cusp.ai

About the company

CuspAI is a frontier AI company building an AI-powered “search engine” for next-generation materials, aiming to speed up materials discovery for areas like energy, carbon capture, and clean water. The company was incorporated in March 2024 and is led by CEO and co-founder Dr Chad Edwards alongside CTO and co-founder Prof. Max Welling. Public milestones include a $100m+ Series A reported in September 2025 and a strategic partnership announcement with Hyundai Motor Group in November 2025. Recent hiring has centred on senior technical roles such as “Applied ML Researcher (Molecular Simulation)”, “Applied AI/ML Engineer (Property Prediction Foundational Models)”, and “Business Intelligence Engineer”, often framed as “Member of Technical Staff”.

Locations and presence

CuspAI is an AI-for-materials company aiming to speed up discovery of new molecules and materials for areas like carbon capture, clean water, advanced compute, and sustainable energy. The company talks publicly about running end-to-end “design, simulate, experiment, learn” loops with industry partners and expanding deployments across sectors such as mobility and water treatment. CuspAI has raised a $100M+ Series A (following a Seed round) and publishes regular updates via its Medium newsroom. Leadership listed publicly includes co-founders Dr Chad Edwards and Prof. Max Welling, with a senior scientific and engineering team and a named group of external advisors.

Palpable Score

59.4

/ 100

CuspAI publicly lists hubs across Cambridge, Amsterdam, Berlin, and Tokyo, and has shared plans to open a London King’s Cross office in January 2026. Multiple role posts state candidates may be based in Amsterdam, Berlin, Cambridge, or London with an in-office expectation three days per week.

Pillar 1: Early-career access

Score

9.0

/ 20

The company’s publicly listed roles (for example Applied ML Researcher roles and “Member of Technical Staff” framing) set a bar at PhD level or multiple years of industry experience rather than 0–3 years.

CuspAI’s open roles visible on public boards lean toward specialised research engineering in generative models, molecular simulation, and property prediction rather than junior, associate, or graduate titles.

The company does not publicly show an internship, apprenticeship, or trainee pipeline on the main careers surface, which caps entry points for new graduates.

Pillar 2: Hiring fairness and transparency

Score

15.4

/ 20

The company’s job descriptions include concrete interview timelines (for example “start interviewing mid-January” with an offer target) and set expectations about office attendance and travel.

CuspAI’s role posts spell out “Must Have” versus “Bonus Points” and clarify the internal level naming (joining as “Member of Technical Staff” even when the advert uses a descriptive title).

The company includes equal opportunities language and a clear invitation to request interview adjustments, which improves accessibility and candidate experience.

Pillar 3: Learning and support

Score

13.0

/ 20

The company offers a professional development budget for conferences and technical training, which is a practical learning signal for early-career hires who do get in.

CuspAI’s role descriptions repeatedly describe tight collaboration across chemists, materials scientists, and software engineers, which can translate into day-to-day learning through cross-discipline work.

The company does not publicly describe onboarding, mentoring structures, calibration, or feedback cycles in job ads, so support looks real but not yet clearly systematised for juniors.

Pillar 4: Pay fairness and stability

Score

13.0

/ 20

The company states roles come with “competitive salary plus equity package” and lists paid time off (28 days holiday), which signals stable, permanent employment conditions.

CuspAI advertises full-time roles and highlights equity as part of total reward, which is often meaningful for early-career hires at fast-scaling startups.

The company does not publish salary ranges in the job descriptions reviewed, which limits a fair-pay assessment and caps the score even without negative evidence.

Pillar 5: Early-career outcomes

Score

9.0

/ 20

The company publicly reports rapid organisational scaling (including “20x in 21 months”) and new site openings, which signals growth but not early-career progression by itself.

CuspAI’s LinkedIn job posts show multiple specialised roles being opened and filled across late 2025 to January 2026, but this does not reveal whether junior hires are being promoted or retained.

The company has limited publicly accessible early-career outcome data (for example, few visible junior stories, promotion case studies, or review volume), which keeps outcomes uncertain.