Research Engineer, AI Safety & Alignment

Character.AI; Canada; On-site; CAD 315,000 - 560,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity

Health insurance

401(k) contribution

Paid parental leave

PTO (4 weeks)

Doordash stipend

Wellness stipend

Job summary

Character.AI in Canada seeks a Research Engineer to advance safety and alignment of large language models. You will bridge research and production, implementing evaluation methods and prototyping scalable safety solutions used by millions of users.

PhD (or equivalent) with strong ML focus on transformers and RL, GPU experience, and data pipelines. Collaborate with engineers and product teams, publish findings, and contribute to open science.

Qualifications

• PhD (or equivalent experience) in a relevant field.
• Write clear production-facing and training code.
• Experience with GPUs (training, serving, debugging).
• Experience with data pipelines and data infrastructure.
• Strong understanding of modern ML techniques, transformers, RL, safety considerations.
• Passionate about responsible AI and solving safety challenges.

Responsibilities

• Develop and implement novel evaluation methodologies and metrics for safety and alignment of LLMs.
• Research and develop techniques for model alignment, value learning, and interpretability.
• Conduct adversarial testing to uncover vulnerabilities and failure modes.
• Analyze and mitigate biases, toxicity, and harmful behaviors using RLHF and fine-tuning.
• Collaborate with engineering and product teams to translate safety research into scalable solutions.
• Stay updated with AI safety research and contribute to publications and talks.

Skills

PhD in CS/ML

Production code

GPUs experience

Data pipelines

Transformers

RLHF / Reinforcement learning

Responsible AI

Education

PhD in Computer Science or related field

Tools

Kubernetes

Docker

Job description

About the role and team

Joining us as a Research Engineer, you'll be at the forefront of tackling one of the most critical challenges in AI today: safety and alignment. Your work will be pivotal in understanding and mitigating the risks of advanced AI, conducting foundational research to make our models safer, and solving the core technical problems of AI alignment - ensuring our models behave in accordance with human values and intentions.

The Safety team is dedicated to pioneering and implementing techniques that make our models more robust, honest, and harmless. As a Research Engineer, you will bridge the gap between theoretical research and practical application, writing high-quality code to test hypotheses and integrating successful safety solutions directly into our products. Your research will not only protect millions of users but also contribute to the broader scientific community’s understanding of how to build safe, beneficial AI.

What you'll do

• Develop and implement novel evaluation methodologies and metrics to assess the safety and alignment of large language models.

• Research and develop cutting-edge techniques for model alignment, value learning, and interpretability.

• Conduct adversarial testing to proactively uncover potential vulnerabilities and failure modes in our models.

• Analyze and mitigate biases, toxicity, and other harmful behaviors in large language models through techniques like reinforcement learning from human feedback (RLHF) and fine-tuning.

• Collaborate with engineering and product teams to translate safety research into practical, scalable solutions and best practices.

• Stay abreast of the latest advancements in AI safety research and contribute to the academic community through publications and presentations.

Who you are

• Hold a PhD (or equivalent experience) in a relevant field such as Computer Science, Machine Learning, or a related discipline.

• Write clear and clean production-facing and training code

• Experience working with GPUs (training, serving, debugging)

• Experience with data pipelines and data infrastructure

• Strong understanding of modern machine learning techniques, particularly transformers and reinforcement learning, with a focus on their safety implications.

• Are passionate about the responsible development of AI and dedicated to solving complex safety challenges.

Nice to Have

• Experience with product experimentation and A/B testing

• Experience training large models in a distributed setting

• Familiarity with ML deployment and orchestration (Kubernetes, Docker, cloud)

• Experience with explainable AI (XAI) and interpretability techniques.

• Have research in AI safety, alignment, ethics , or a related area.

• Knowledge of the broader societal and ethical implications of AI, including policy and governance.

• Publications in relevant academic journals or conferences in the field of machine learning

About Character.AI

Character.AI empowers people to connect, learn and tell stories through interactive entertainment. Over 20 million people visit Character.AI every month, using our technology to supercharge their creativity and imagination. Our platform lets users engage with tens of millions of characters, enjoy unlimited conversations, and embark on infinite adventure_s._

In just two years, we achieved unicorn status and were honored as Google Play’s AI App of the Year - a testament to our innovative technology and visionary approach.

Join us and be a part of establishing this new entertainment paradigm while shaping the future of Consumer AI!

At Character, we value diversity and welcome applicants from all backgrounds. As an equal opportunity employer, we firmly uphold a non-discrimination policy based on race, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, veteran status, or disability. Your unique perspectives are vital to our success.

Compensation

$225K - $400K Offers Equity

Top-notch health coverage for you & your family, with majority of the premium covered

We invest in your future with a generous 401(K) contribution

New parents, we've got you covered with incredible paid leave -up to 20 weeks

4 weeks of PTO to explore, unwind & come back recharged

Daily in-office catering plus a monthly Doordash stipend to help keep you fueled no matter where you are

Monthly wellness stipend to support you in your health journey