VP, Research

Odyssey; Greater London; On-site; GBP 180,000 - 320,000; Full time

Job summary

Odyssey, a leading AI lab, is hiring a VP of Research to lead the Frontier ML group. You will shape the research agenda across world simulation, multimodality, robotics, and multi-agent systems, and drive publication strategy and external reputation.

You will report to the Co‑Founder/CTO and work with senior leaders while staying hands-on to push frontier results and set the research direction for Odyssey.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of research experience with a strong publication record at top ML venues (NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, CVPR).
• Track record of leading and growing research teams, mentoring researchers at all levels.
• Deep technical expertise in world models, multimodal learning, robotics, or related fields.

Responsibilities

• Lead and grow the Frontier ML research group, hiring and mentoring researchers at all levels.
• Own and drive Odyssey's research agenda across world simulation, multimodality, robotics, and multi-agent systems.
• Define and communicate a research vision to attract top talent and establish Odyssey as a leading voice in world models.
• Set the research roadmap and publication strategy, representing Odyssey externally to the community.
• Collaborate with other VP-level leaders to advance Odyssey’s holistic strategy.
• Stay hands-on to run experiments and contribute directly to frontier results.

Skills

Publications

Team leadership

World models

Multimodal learning

Robotics

Reinforcement learning

Startup experience

Office in London

Education

PhD in ML

Job description

Who we are

Odyssey is an AI lab pioneering general world models: causal, multimodal systems that learn to predict and interact with the world over long horizons. This foundational technology promises to revolutionize robotics, science, healthcare, education, gaming, defense, and beyond.

Odyssey’s founders previously pioneered the most complex application of physical AI: self-driving cars. They’ve now brought together a world-class research team from DeepMind, Tesla, Waymo, Meta, Apple, and Wayve, who have made significant contributions to language models (DeepMind Gemini), video models (DeepMind Veo), world models (Wayve GAIA), and autonomous systems (Tesla FSD).

Odyssey has raised significant venture capital from GV, Amazon, AMD, EQT, NVIDIA, Natural Capital, In-Q-Tel, Elad Gil, Jeff Dean, Guillermo Rauch, Garry Tan, Kyle Vogt, and researchers from OpenAI, DeepMind, MSL, Recursive, and Thinking Machines.

About the role

Odyssey is hiring a VP of Research to lead and grow our Frontier ML group, the researchers working at the cutting edge of world model capability, responsible for the first proof points of new algorithms and for pushing the frontier of what world models can do. This is a role for someone who wants to both set the research agenda and stay hands‑on enough to shape it directly, not manage from a distance.

You’ll own Odyssey's research agenda across world simulation, multimodality, robotics, and multi‑agent systems, define and execute the vision that positions Odyssey as the leading voice in world models, and take responsibility for the research roadmap, publication strategy, and external research reputation of the company. You’ll report directly to Jeff Hawke, our Co‑Founder and CTO, and work alongside James Grieve (VP, Applied ML), Fabian Güra (Distinguished Engineer), and a VP of Engineering we’re hiring alongside you.

What you’ll own

• Leading and growing the Frontier ML research group, hiring, mentoring, and developing researchers at every level.

• Owning and driving Odyssey's research agenda across world simulation, multimodality, robotics, and multi‑agent systems.

• Defining and communicating a research vision ambitious enough to position Odyssey as the leading voice in world models, one that attracts top talent to the field and to us specifically.

• Setting the research roadmap and publication strategy, and representing Odyssey's research externally to the broader community.

• Collaboration across disciplines with other VP‑level leaders, driving forward Odyssey’s holistic top‑level strategy.

• Staying close enough to the work to directly run experimentation yourself, not just manage others doing it.

Who you are

• 10+ years of research experience with a strong publication record at top ML venues (NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, CVPR, and similar).

• Deep technical expertise in at least one of generative video models, world models, multimodal learning, reinforcement learning, or robotics.

• A track record of leading and growing research teams, including mentoring researchers at all levels, not just senior hires.

• Demonstrated ability to set a research vision that shapes a field and pulls talent toward it.

• A track record of generating frontier results yourself, not only managing the people who generate them.

• Comfortable in a fast‑paced, high‑ambiguity environment; startup experience preferred.

• Equally comfortable partnering with ML Platform, Applied ML, and compute and infrastructure teams as with your own researchers.

• Willing to be in the office 3+ days a week, ideally full-time, based in London or, alternatively, Palo Alto.

• Genuinely motivated by Odyssey's mission to discover the GPT‑3 moment for world models, not just intellectually curious about it.