Senior Researcher, Applied Machine Learning

Job Description

Job Description

Description:

foundry10 is an education research organization with a philanthropic focus on expanding ideas about learning and creating direct value for youth. In collaboration with a wide range of partners, we surface, evaluate, and share opportunities to better support youth learning both inside and outside the classroom. Building on more than a decade of impactful work, our unique approach blends applied and basic research, philanthropy, and education programs rooted in evidence-based best practices.

Summary of Role

Machine Learning can provide powerful tools for enhancing learning in and outside of the classroom, and for addressing pressing needs in K-12 and post-secondary education. The Senior Researcher, Applied Machine Learning will be a core team member on a new multi-project focused ML Learning Team at foundry10. This role involves both independent research and analysis as well as multidisciplinary collaboration across a project team and potentially in partnership with external institutions.

Applicants for this role should have a strong interest in education and learning with a desire to improve student outcomes across multiple dimensions. Additionally, applicants should have deep expertise in appropriate domains (data processing, computational approaches, model development, evaluation, and deployment), bring novel ideas and expertise, and experience-based insights. Qualified candidates will also bring the ability to communicate findings through multiple formats, including peer-reviewed publications, technical reports, public-facing writing, prototypes, tools, or other research products.

This position reports within the Research Pillar. The salary range for this position is $191,025 to $318,375 per year, depending on experience.

Areas of Interest

The Senior Researcher will help develop a collaborative research agenda focused on how machine learning can expand what we are able to understand, measure, design, and support in learning environments. This work may include formal and informal K–12, post-secondary, and out-of-school learning contexts.

We are interested in candidates who find the following topics compelling:

• Exploring how ML and AI can help us better understand human learning processes, developmental trajectories, reasoning and other complex dimensions of learning
• Considering principles and knowledge that are not being regularly utilized by traditional educational systems to broaden and shape new ideas around the intersection of learning and ML
• Designing or repurposing tools for research pursuits, data collection, learning gains, and timely interventions
• Identifying how emerging ML methods can help generate new forms of assessment, feedback, reflection, accessibility, or learning support beyond conventional chatbot or tutoring applications

Responsibilities

As part of a focused project team, this role in particular will:

• Work collaboratively within the ML project team to provide new and interesting ideas for lines of research, outputs, tool development and/or other avenues to improve learning outcomes and opportunities for young people
• Collaborate to define output goals for the project team
• Conceive, design, build, adapt, and/or evaluate ML models, research systems, datasets, prototypes, analytic pipelines, and, where appropriate, software or hardware-enabled tools.
• Think critically about data quality, experimental design, and responsible AI practices
• Develop predictive analytics, statistical modeling, data mining and machine learning algorithms
• Crafting interesting and important questions regarding education in a technologically advancing world, specifically around the intersections of ML/AI in learning spaces and attempting to answer these questions through research.

More broadly as a researcher, this role will include:

• Represent foundry10 at conferences, within publications, and face-to-face with a variety of community partners
• Actively read and engage with current research/techniques/technologies and bring new knowledge to the organization and their teams as a result of engagement with relevant topics
• Use various qualitative and quantitative methodologies, analysis strategies, and study designs as needed to address current research questions
• Make informed decisions about when to extend vs. redirect or close off lines of inquiry, depending on progress and likelihood of yielding useful and actionable insights
• Lead operations and partnership tasks (e.g., coordination of external data collection services, communication with external partners) as needed

This is not an exhaustive list, other duties may be assigned as necessary

Education and Experience

• PhD in Machine Learning or related discipline
• 2-5 years relevant post-PhD work experience
• First author publications at peer-reviewed AI conferences (e.g., NeurIPS, CVPR, ICML, ICLR, ICCV, and ACL)
• Experience in both academia and industry preferred
• Experience with Transformer-based Models (e.g. GPT, Llama), model pipelines, pretraining, finetuning, reinforcement learning
• Practical experience independently leading and conducting applied research with minimal supervision
• Experience with machine learning data structures and models, software architecture, framework, and python libraries (Pandas, Pytorch, Numpy)
• End to end project design, execution and completion
• Experience with design/development of software tools, preferably for a variety of age groups
• Experience with using data sets of various sizes and from a variety of domains, including synthetic data generation
• Experience mentoring and/or managing students, junior researchers, and/or research staff
• Strong background in research ethics, particularly research ethics involving children and adolescents

Skills, Abilities, and Knowledge

• Ability to gain background knowledge and expertise in other fields within foundry10’s research domains and interest areas that may intersect with your projects
• Proficiency with R, Python and relevant ML libraries
• Familiarity with Cloud platforms (e.g. AWS, Azure, or GCP), Docker/containerization, Git/GitHub, and Linux-based development environments.
• Ability to work collaboratively with researchers from other fields and specializations
• Ability to ask questions that deviate from the status quo to pursue innovative ways to approach learning
• Nuanced understanding of technology and its impact on children and adolescents
• Knowledge of AI/ML tools and methods, including their strengths, limitations, and the direction of development

We cannot sponsor visa applications, and to be considered for this position, you must be eligible to work in the United States. To protect our staff, partners, and the youth we serve, we require all foundry10 employees to adhere to our masking and COVID testing policies when working in person.

To be considered for this role, please submit the following materials:

• Resume or CV
• Peer-reviewed publication, white paper, conference submission, project summary/report or similar document showcasing your work, clearly state your level of contribution and role
• Answers to all three application questions

Applications without detailed responses will not be considered. The priority deadline is August 20, 2026 at 5 pm.

The interview process will consist of the following steps:

Step 1: Zoom audio interview (1 hour)

Step 2: Zoom video interview with Research team members (1.5 to 2 hours)

Step 3: If needed, Zoom video interview with the Director of Research and/or CEO (1 hour)

Step 4: Background and professional reference checks, upon acceptance of an offer

foundry10 offers competitive salary and benefits that include:

• A 4-day workweek
• A flexible and hybrid work schedule
• Full Medical, Dental, and Vision coverage for employees and their dependents
• $1,500 yearly education stipend
• $3,000 yearly wellness and hobby stipend, before taxes
• Generous paid time off that includes:
  • 4 weeks of vacation time annually and additional accrual with tenure
  • 12 paid holidays
  • 56 hours of paid sick and safe leave frontloaded annually
  • Week-long office closures twice a year - each summer and winter
• 401(k) retirement plan with employer match
• Flexible Spending Account and Dependent Care Reimbursement Account
• Employee Assistance Program at no cost to the employee
• Short Term Disability, Long Term Disability, Life Insurance paid fully by foundry10

Employment decisions are based on merit and business needs. foundry10 strives to provide a work environment free from discrimination and harassment because of a protected characteristic. The organization does not discriminate against employees or applicants based on race, color, creed, citizenship, status, national origin, ancestry, gender, genetic information, sexual orientation, gender expression or identity, age, religion, pregnancy or pregnancy-related condition, physical or mental disability, marital status, veteran status, political affiliation, or any other characteristic protected by law.

We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations to assist individuals with disabilities with the application and interviewing process as well as essential job functions.