Member of Technical Staff, Applied Researcher
True Talent Solutions Partners · New York · onsite
ABOUT THE ROLE
Join an applied research team working directly with frontier AI labs on challenging post-training problems. You will help translate open-ended research goals into experiments and deliverables, with a focus on reinforcement learning, training data, and measurable model improvements.
WHAT YOU'LL DO
- Partner with research teams to turn ambiguous goals into concrete environments, datasets, experiments, and deliverables.
- Design and run post-training loops using reinforcement learning methods such as GRPO, preference optimization, and supervised fine-tuning.
- Shape and inspect high-fidelity trajectories and training data, focusing on correctness, edge cases, and quality.
- Build reward functions, rubrics, validators, and evaluation harnesses that resist reward hacking and measure capability gains.
- Analyze training signals and experimental results across distributed GPU clusters to guide next steps.
WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR
- At least 2 years of experience as an applied researcher or research scientist, with 2 to 10 or more years of overall relevant experience.
- Hands-on model training experience in a frontier AI lab, AI research startup, or data lab, or demonstrated research results through a publication or model performing well on a notable benchmark.
- Practical reinforcement learning and agent experience beyond standard machine learning engineering work.
- Strong understanding of reinforcement learning and training data, with evidence of hands-on research results.
- Experience with Python, PyTorch, FSDP, FastAPI, GRPO, and distributed GPU clusters.
- A PhD involving reinforcement learning research or experience at a frontier AI lab is relevant background.
COMPENSATION & BENEFITS
Base salary: $300,000 to $500,000 annually. Visa sponsorship is available.
LOCATION
Hybrid in New York, New York. Seattle is also listed as a work location.