Head of Research

About the company

Our client is an early-stage AI company building reinforcement learning environments and trajectory datasets used to train frontier models. The team works directly with research labs to improve model capability through applied reinforcement learning and post-training.

The role / why it matters

As Head of Research, you will set the research roadmap and grow an applied research team while remaining hands-on with frontier AI problems. You will work directly with customer research teams and shape how environments, data and trajectories contribute to model capability.

What you'll do

• Set research priorities, allocate resources and own the applied research roadmap.

• Hire and grow the research team, with at least four additional researchers planned.

• Work directly with customer labs on reinforcement learning and post-training problems.

• Run hands-on experiments and improve environments, datasets and trajectories.

• Partner with engineering, delivery and go-to-market teams to turn research into production-ready deliverables.

What we're looking for

• 8+ years as a research scientist or applied researcher.

• Lead researcher experience at a frontier lab, a recognized emerging AI lab or an AI data lab.

• A notable published paper or released model with strong results on a recognized benchmark.

• Real applied reinforcement learning model-training expertise, demonstrated through professional work or substantial projects.

• Ability to set research direction, lead research efforts and recruit a strong team while remaining hands-on.

Bonus points

• Experience at a leading frontier AI lab.

• A PhD involving reinforcement learning research or published NLP research.

• Experience with GRPO on Qwen 2.5.

Compensation and benefits

• $500,000-$750,000 annual base salary plus competitive equity.

• Broad ownership of research direction and the opportunity to build an applied research team.

Location / work model

Full-time, hybrid with three days per week in an office in New York City or Seattle. Existing visa transfers and new sponsorship may be considered.