Lead NLP Research Engineer

Overview Seated in our Los Angeles or Bay Area office, Genies is seeking a Lead NLP Research Engineer. As our first NLP leadership hire, you will play a pivotal role in utilizing advanced NLP and ML tools to create emotionally intelligent avatars that connect with users. You will recognize and respond to emotional cues, give each avatar a distinct voice and persona, and shape the future of AI-driven content and gameplay, ensuring immersive and unique experiences. Collaborating with the broader innovative R&D team, you will integrate multimodal techniques, enabling avatars to understand and respond to text, motions, speech, gestures, and facial expressions. Genies leads the way in developing next‑gen AI avatars for celebrities, enabling personalized interactions and adaptive learning. Thousands of cultural influencers have already embraced Genies, training their smart avatars for fully personalized conversations, interactions, and gameplay in Genies' avatar social network. Our vision is to elevate digital interaction to an unprecedented level of personalization and immersion, bringing creators and influential tastemakers to life within our ecosystem. Join us on this journey to redefine the realm of digital avatars and elevate social interactions to new heights. Responsibilities Identify innovative NLP solutions for our product suite and define the roadmap for their implementation. Lead the training, fine‑tuning, and deployment of large language models. Oversee the AI lifecycle from data acquisition to model deployment and real‑time monitoring, guaranteeing efficiency at each phase. Collaborate with cross‑functional units, fostering knowledge exchange and enhancing business impact through machine learning. Qualifications Established expertise and genuine passion for natural language processing (NLP), machine learning, deep learning, and large language models. Minimum of 3 years in model training, deployment, and procedures for efficiently acquiring and validating human‑labeled data. Experience training, fine‑tuning, and deploying large language models (LLM). Proven track record of implementing NLP techniques to develop conversational agents, chatbots, or virtual assistants. Proficiency with deep learning frameworks like TensorFlow, PyTorch, and JAX. Familiarity with NLP toolkits such as spaCy and Hugging Face Transformers. Solid communication skills complemented by a history of fruitful collaborations. Thrive in a high‑tempo setting, demonstrating flexibility as project requirements shift. Strong foundation in algorithms, data structures, and object‑oriented programming. Self‑motivated and adept at operating independently. Nice to Have Advanced degree (PhD or Master’s) in computer science, artificial intelligence, or a related discipline. Prior roles as a tech lead or manager. Experience crafting machine learning models in cloud environments like AWS or GCP, with specific knowledge of SageMaker being a plus. Published contributions in renowned machine learning conferences (NeurIPS, ICML, EMNLP, CVPR, MLSys, etc.) or journals. Experience with game theory, AI creator bots, and emotionally intelligent avatars. Benefits Genies is a well‑funded, growing start‑up that cares deeply about each of our employees' growth and success. Full‑time employees may also be eligible for equity compensation, in addition to a robust health, wellness, and benefits package. Starting Salary Range: $180,000.00 to $306,000.00 USD. Work with a team you can learn from and grow with, including support for your own professional development. Helm of your own career, shaping it with your own innovative contributions to a nascent team and product with flexible hours and a work‑from‑home policy. Culture and perks of a startup, with the stability of being well‑funded. Comprehensive health insurance for you and your family (Anthem + Kaiser options available), dental and vision insurance. Competitive salaries for all full‑time employees. Unlimited paid time off, sick time, paid company holidays, and paid parental leave, bereavement leave, and jury duty leave for full‑time employees. Health & wellness support through programs such as monthly wellness reimbursement. Working in a brand new, bright, open‑environment and fun office space — there’s even a slide! #J-18808-Ljbffr Genies, Inc.