Research Scientist - RL Training

Role Description

We're looking for a Research Scientist to work on reinforcement learning for training and aligning large language models. This is a foundational research role focused on one of the most consequential open data problems in AI:

• How to generate the data, reward signals, and training procedures that steer LLM behavior in reliable and generalizable directions.
• A core capability that directly differentiates Snorkel's data-as-a-service offering.

You'll work closely with Snorkel's research, engineering, and delivery teams to advance our RL data capabilities:

• Translating research ideas into the preference datasets, reward models, and RL-ready corpora we produce for frontier AI labs.
• Contributing to a research agenda that is central to Snorkel's long-term differentiation as a provider of bespoke training data.

Qualifications

• Deep expertise in reinforcement learning from human or AI feedback, reward modeling, and credit attribution.
• Experience training or fine-tuning 30B+ large language models at scale.
• Strong proficiency in Python and ML frameworks, especially PyTorch and HuggingFace.
• Hands-on experience with RL frameworks such as Verl and SkyRL.
• Solid software engineering fundamentals.
• Familiarity with ML infrastructure and cloud platforms and tools (AWS, GCP, Kubernetes, Slurm, etc.).
• Comfort operating in a high-iteration environment with open-ended research questions.
• Ph.D. in machine learning, reinforcement learning, or a related field strongly preferred.

Requirements

• Research and implement reinforcement learning techniques — including GRPO, RLHF, RLAIF, DPO, and reward modeling.
• Design and build data pipelines that generate high-quality training signals for RL workflows.
• Prototype and iterate on end-to-end RL training recipes.
• Work closely with research scientists, ML engineers, and delivery teams.
• Stay current with the latest developments in large-scale multi-node LLM training, alignment research, and scalable RL methods.
• Contribute to Snorkel's research publications and internal knowledge base in RL and model training.

Benefits

• Become part of a company with market-proven solutions and robust funding.
• Opportunities to shape priorities and initiatives.
• Influence key strategic decisions and directly impact ongoing success.
• Support in building your career in an environment designed for growth, learning, and shared success.