Research Scientist - Agency and Reasoning

Job DescriptionJob DescriptionZyphra is an artificial intelligence company based in Palo Alto, California.

The Role:

As a Research Scientist, you will be a core contributor to Zyphra’s Agency and Reasoning Team. You will be involved with performing novel research in reinforcement learning, post-training, and human preference learning, and applying your ideas at scale to our next of models.

What We’re Looking For:

• Strong research taste and intuition

• The ability to work through a research project from conception to execution to write-up

• Strong implementation and prototyping skillset

• A researcher who can take an idea from conception to experimentation extremely quickly

• The ability to work well and cooperate with others in a high-paced research setting

• Curiosity, interest, and joy in understanding intelligence.

Qualifications:

• Experience and aptitude with reinforcement learning, either in the context of model reasoning or more classical RL tasks

• Experience with model supervised finetuning and preference learning methods such as DPO, simPO, etc.

• Experience with context-length extension methods

• A good intuitive ability to understand model behaviors and correct them through iterative fine-tuning

• Interest in grappling in detail with data and spending significant time involved in data engineering and synthetic data

• Postgraduate degree in a scientific subject (Computer Science, EE/EECS, Mathematics, Physics)

• Previously published machine learning research in well-respected venues

• Highly proficient with PyTorch and Python

• We are excited and able to rapidly learn new fields and implement new ideas

• Excellent communication and collaboration skills, and can work effectively on both research and engineering implementation at scale

Why Work at Zyphra:

• We strongly value new and crazy ideas and are very willing to bet big on new ideas

• We move as quickly as we can; we aim to minimize the bar to impact as low as possible

• We all enjoy what we do and love discussing AI

Benefits and Perks:

• Comprehensive medical, dental, vision, and FSA plans

• Competitive compensation and 401(k)

• Relocation and immigration support on a case-by-case basis

• On-site meals prepared by a dedicated culinary team; Thursday Happy Hours

• In-person team in Palo Alto, CA, with a collaborative, high-energy environment