Staff Research Engineer, Model Efficiency

Cohere; Montreal; On-site; CAD 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Open and inclusive culture

Collaboration on cutting-edge AI research

Weekly lunch stipend, in-office lunches & snacks

Full health and dental benefits

100% Parental Leave top-up for up to 6 months

Personal enrichment benefits

Remote-flexible work options

6 weeks of vacation

Job summary

A leading AI research firm in Montreal is seeking a Staff Research Engineer to enhance model efficiency and optimize inference for large language models. In this full-time role, you will develop techniques to improve performance while maintaining model quality. The ideal candidate will hold a PhD in Machine Learning, with strong software engineering skills and experience in AI research. The position offers a collaborative remote-friendly environment along with numerous benefits.

Qualifications

• PhD required in Machine Learning or related field.
• Must understand LLM architecture.
• Experience with techniques that enhance model efficiency preferred.

Responsibilities

• Develop and deploy techniques to improve model efficiency.
• Work with LLM inference and optimization.
• Prototype solutions for executing models efficiently.

Skills

PhD in Machine Learning or a related field

Understanding LLM architecture

Experience enhancing model efficiency

Strong software engineering skills

Ability to work in a fast-paced start-up

Publications at top-tier conferences

Passion to mentor others

Education

PhD in Machine Learning or a related field

Job description

Staff Research Engineer, Model Efficiency

Join to apply for the Staff Research Engineer, Model Efficiency role at Cohere.

Who are we?

Our mission is to scale intelligence to serve humanity. We’re training and deploying frontier models for developers and enterprises who are building AI systems to power magical experiences like content generation, semantic search, RAG, and agents. We believe that our work is instrumental to the widespread adoption of AI.

Why this role?

Large Language Models (LLMs) continue to push the boundaries of what AI systems can do — but inference is still the bottleneck. The Model Efficiency team is responsible for pushing the limits of LLM inference efficiency across our foundation models. We explore and ship breakthroughs across the model execution stack, including:

• model architecture and MoE routing optimization
• decoding and inference-time algorithm improvements
• software/hardware co-design for GPU acceleration
• performance optimization without compromising model quality

We have offices in Toronto, Montreal, San Francisco, New York, Paris, Seoul and London. We embrace a remote-friendly environment, and as part of this approach, we strategically distribute teams based on interests, expertise, and time zones to promote collaboration and flexibility. You'll find the Model Efficiency team concentrated in the EST and PST time zones, these are our preferred locations.

As a Staff Research Engineer, you will develop, prototype, and deploy techniques that materially improve how fast and efficiently our models run in production.

You may be a good fit for the model efficiency team if you:

• Have a PhD in Machine Learning or a related field
• Understand LLM architecture, and how to optimize LLM inference given resource constraints
• Have significant experience with one or more techniques that enhance model efficiency
• Strong software engineering skills
• An appetite to work in a fast-paced high-ambiguity start-up environment
• Publications at top-tier conferences and venues (ICLR, ACL, NeurIPS)
• Passion to mentor others

If some of the above doesn’t line up perfectly with your experience, we still encourage you to apply!

We value and celebrate diversity and strive to create an inclusive work environment for all. We welcome applicants from all backgrounds and are committed to providing equal opportunities. Should you require any accommodations during the recruitment process, please submit an Accommodations Request Form, and we will work together to meet your needs.

Full-Time Employees At Cohere Enjoy These Perks

• 🤝 An open and inclusive culture and work environment
• 🧑💻 Work closely with a team on the cutting edge of AI research
• 🍽 Weekly lunch stipend, in-office lunches & snacks
• 🦷 Full health and dental benefits, including a separate budget to take care of your mental health
• 🐣 100% Parental Leave top-up for up to 6 months
• 🎨 Personal enrichment benefits towards arts and culture, fitness and well-being, quality time, and workspace improvement
• 🏙 Remote-flexible, offices in Toronto, New York, San Francisco, London and Paris, as well as a co-working stipend
• ✈️ 6 weeks of vacation (30 working days!)