AI Research Scientist

AKIVA is an AI-native engineering firm specializing in enterprise services, domain-specific solutions, and high-performance infrastructure from strategy through deployment. We build innovative systems that drive measurable results for commercial enterprises and government agencies. AKIVA is a certified Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB).

Position Overview

Conduct applied and fundamental research in agentic systems, custom inference, and emerging AI paradigms. Publish, prototype, and translate breakthroughs into production capabilities used by enterprise and government clients.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead original research in multi-agent systems, RL for tool use, custom inference, or post-training methods (RLHF, DPO, GRPO)
• Author publications and technical reports; represent AKIVA at top-tier venues
• Prototype novel architectures and evaluation methodologies
• Collaborate with engineering to harden research artifacts into production systems
• Mentor junior researchers and applied AI engineers

Required Qualifications

• PhD in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Statistics, or related discipline (or equivalent research output)
• Strong implementation skills in PyTorch and modern ML tooling
• Track record of translating research into deployed systems

Preferred Qualifications

• Postdoctoral or industry research lab experience
• Peer-reviewed publications, preprints, or technical reports in relevant areas of AI, ML, or applied research
• Open-source contributions to widely used ML libraries
• Experience with reinforcement learning, mechanistic interpretability, or alignment research

Tools, Technologies & Frameworks

PyTorch, JAX, Hugging Face Transformers, Weights & Biases, Ray, custom training infrastructure

What AKIVA Offers

• Professional development and skill-building opportunities
• Supportive management team with Veteran-owned company values
• Opportunity to work on impactful client engagements
• Long-term contract engagement with potential for extension
• AI productivity tools and training provided at no cost to employees
• 401(k) with generous company match
• Medical Insurance
• Vision Insurance
• Short-Term & Long-Term Disability Insurance
• Paid Time Off (PTO)
• Profit Sharing

AKIVA is a certified Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB).

Equal Employment Opportunity Statement

AKIVA is committed to providing an environment of mutual respect where equal employment opportunities are available to all applicants and teammates without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, physical disability, marital status, military and Veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law. We believe that diversity among our teammates is critical to our success as a company, and we seek to recruit, develop, and retain the most talented people within a qualified candidate pool.