Member of Technical Staff, Research (2026 PhD New Grad) - Seattle
$200k - $300k • Remote • Greater Seattle Area • FullTime
Posted 1h ago
Job Location
Greater Seattle Area
Tech Stack
Remote Work Policy
Fully remote
Employment Type
FullTime
Categories
AI Research Engineer
About the job
Fireworks is seeking a Member of Technical Staff on the Research team, designed for individuals completing their PhD who want to see their work deployed in production. This role involves pushing the boundaries of generative AI, advancing LLMs and multimodal systems through foundational research. Your work will focus on enhancing model efficiency, accuracy, and scalability, directly contributing to our high-performance AI infrastructure. You will be paired with a senior researcher for mentorship and tackle a real research problem from day one, collaborating with experts in deep learning, distributed systems, and optimization. The goal is to see the models you help create deployed by leading companies, often within weeks.
Responsibilities
- Conduct foundational research to advance LLMs and multimodal systems in terms of capabilities, efficiency, and reliability.
- Design, implement, and evaluate novel model architectures, training methods, and optimization techniques.
- Collaborate with engineering teams to transition research prototypes into production-grade systems.
- Analyze empirical results, identify performance bottlenecks, and iterate quickly to improve model quality.
- Integrate ideas and emerging directions from doctoral research into the internal research agenda.
Requirements
- PhD completed within the last 6 months or expected completion by December 2026 in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Computational Physics, Mathematics, Electrical Engineering, or a similar field.
- Research background in Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Physics, or a related area, demonstrated through dissertation, publications, or research projects.
- Experience solving analytical problems using analytic and quantitative approaches.
- Experience communicating research to diverse audiences.
- Proficiency coding in Python, C/C++, or similar languages.
- Hands-on experience with ML frameworks such as PyTorch, JAX, or TensorFlow.
- First-authored publications at top-tier peer-reviewed conferences or journals (NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, MLSys, or similar) (preferred).
- Industry research internships, or open-source contributions to ML systems, model training, or inference projects (preferred).
- Research or engineering experience demonstrated via grants, fellowships, patents, or coding competitions (preferred).
- Experience with large-scale model training, distributed systems, GPU kernel development, or inference optimization (preferred).
- Experience taking research code beyond the prototype stage (preferred).
Benefits
- Solve Hard Problems: Tackle challenges at the forefront of AI infrastructure, from low-latency inference to scalable model serving.
- Build What’s Next: Work with bleeding-edge technology that impacts how businesses and developers harness AI globally.
- Ownership & Impact: Join a fast-growing, passionate team where your work directly shapes the future of AI—no bureaucracy, just results.
- Learn from the Best: Collaborate with world-class engineers and AI researchers who thrive on curiosity and innovation.