Senior Research Scientist, X

About the team :

You'll join a team at X that provides world-class computational support to the many different projects, ideas and experiments at the Moonshot Factory.

You'll work directly with teams across X to share expert machine learning expertise, advice and hands-on implementation from early concept through launch and supporting prototyping, experimentation, technical development and more.

About the role :

This role has a 12 month fixed term, with the opportunity to be placed in a project full time. You will learn about X and our process for creating moonshots, as well as working with projects, at both early and late stages.

During this process, we will jointly identify the right project to join full time.

Our engineers and scientists help projects run better experiments faster. They co-found projects, provide technical leadership, execute experiments and provide advisory support.

As a member of the team, you have a deep passion for problem solving and experimentation. Our engineers often also have a deep domain expertise in fields like physics, computer science, biology, cognitive science.

You’ll be expected to :

• Design and execute experiments that are laser-focused on testable hypotheses and yield real-world impact
• Propose and expertly use the right tools for the job from machine learning, optimization, and statistical tools
• Balance trade-offs between precision of real-world learnings, robustness, simplicity, and scale.
• Master and deploy large-scale Alphabet systems, frameworks for distributed computing, serving, and model training
• Engage cross-functionally with leadership, strategy, product, etc.
• Be a thoughtful engineer on the key decisions on software architecture, technology roadmap, and execution of the project.
• See through projects from conception to finished product, and meet both technical and product needs.
• Mentor team members and vendor members.

Minimum Qualifications :

• Master's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Math, Cognitive Science, Linguistics or related field, or equivalent practical experience
• 8 years of experience in machine learning and data science
• Track record of scientific contributions

Preferred Qualifications :

• PhD in Computer Science, Engineering, Math, Cognitive Science, Linguistics or related field
• Strong publication record with work published in competitive venues (NeurIPS, ICLR, ICML, CogSci)
• High level of expertise in machine learning
• High level of expertise in data science, Bayesian and frequentist statistics, and experimental design
• Domain expertise in language modeling, (self)(un)supervised learning
• Deployment expertise with LLMs, Reinforcement Learning, Sequence Learning and Transformers
• Willing to work in a fast-paced, start-up-like environment; Fast learner who can think through and adapt to new problems quickly
• Strong team player with excellent verbal and written communication skills

The US base salary range for this full-time position is $161,000 - $250,000 + bonus + benefits. Our salary ranges are determined by role, level, and location.

Within the range, individual pay is determined by work location and additional factors, including job-related skills, experience, and relevant education or training.

Your recruiter can share more about the specific salary range for your location during the hiring process.

Please note that the compensation details listed in US role postings reflect the base salary only, and do not include bonus, or benefits.

At X, we don't just accept difference - we celebrate it, we support it, and we thrive on it for the benefit of our employees, our products and our community.

We are proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and is an affirmative action employer. We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity or Veteran status.

We also consider qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with legal requirements.