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Research Engineer - Agency and Reasoning

Zyphra

Job Description

Job Description

Zyphra is an artificial intelligence company based in San Francisco, California.

The Role:

As a Research Engineer - Agency and Reasoning , 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 generation of language models.

What We’re Looking For / Requirements:
  • 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 / Additional Skills:
  • Experience and aptitude with reinforcement learning, either in the context of language model reasoning or more classical RL tasks

  • Experience with language-model-supervised fine-tuning and preference-learning methods, such as DPO and simPO.

  • 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 generation

  • 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:
  • Our research methodology is to make grounded, methodical steps toward ambitious goals. Both deep research and engineering excellence are equally valued

  • 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) plan

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

  • In-office snacks and meals provided

  • Unlimited PTO and company holidays

  • In-person team in San Francisco with a collaborative, high-energy environment

Vacancy posted 16 days ago
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