AI Research Engineer

Tidelift; Singapore; Hybrid; SGD 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading software company in Singapore is seeking a Research Scientist to engage in pioneering projects that apply AI and ML within software engineering. The successful candidate will define research directions, collaborate with cross-functional teams, and publish findings. A PhD in a relevant field is essential, along with a strong research background in AI and ML. The role supports hybrid work arrangements, ensuring a balance between in-office and remote responsibilities.

Benefits

Flexible work environment

Continuous education support

Dynamic work culture

Qualifications

• PhD in computer science, information technology, engineering, or related field.
• Strong research background in AI/ML with publications in top-tier conferences.
• Leadership experience with junior and senior researchers.

Responsibilities

• Define and execute research directions integrating AI/ML with software engineering practices.
• Lead research projects improving code quality and testing.
• Publish findings in academic conferences and journals.

Skills

AI and ML expertise

Strong problem-solving skills

Excellent communication

Leadership experience

Education

PhD or equivalent in relevant field

Tools

Java

Python

C/C++

Job description

Overview

Why should I Apply: At Sonar, we’re a group of brilliant, motivated, and driven professionals working hard to help organizations build responsible, secure, high-quality code quickly and systematically. We build solutions that don’t just solve symptoms of problems – we fix problems at the source – source code, to be specific.

We have a dynamic culture with employees worldwide and hub offices in the USA, Switzerland, the UK, Singapore, and Germany. We believe team members should have the opportunity to come to work every day, work on a product they are proud of, love what they do, and feel energized by their peers. With our roots deep in the open source community, we’re all about the mission: provide solutions that deliver Clean Code.

Who is Sonar? Sonar helps prevent code quality and code security issues from reaching production, amplifies developers\' productivity in concert with AI assistants, and improves the developer experience with streamlined workflows. Sonar analyzes all code, regardless of who writes it — your internal team, genAI, or third parties — resulting in more secure, reliable, and maintainable applications. Rooted in the open source community, Sonar’s solutions support over 30 programming languages, frameworks, and infrastructure technologies. Today, Sonar is used by +7M developers and 400K organizations worldwide, including the DoD, Microsoft, NASA, MasterCard, Siemens, and T-Mobile.

We believe in developing great products that are supported by great internal teams and a strong culture. We are highly committed to and obsessed with the company, users, each other, and our open source community. We have high standards and hold each other accountable for acting with positivity, dedication, thoughtfulness, empathy, and passion daily. We are deliberate with our decisions with high clarity of intention. At the same time, we feel extreme urgency and move forward quickly. And lastly, we are highly effective and operationally efficient. We operate collectively as One Team to accomplish our goals. At Sonar, CODE is more than just an acronym – it's a mindset that defines daily operations.

The Impact You Will Have: Our research program aims to achieve automated software evolution via analysis, verification, and test generation. Applications of repair studied in the program will include security vulnerability repair, patch transplantation across versions of major software systems such as Linux, as well as the use of agentic workflows to automate software evolution. You will work on pioneering projects that advance the application of AI and ML within the realm of software engineering. This role offers the opportunity to conduct cutting-edge research, develop novel algorithms, and contribute to the development of software tools that enhance system performance, reliability, and flexibility.

What You Will Do Daily

• Define and execute research directions that push the state of the art AI4SE techniques
• Lead research projects in integrating AI/ML techniques with software engineering practices to improve code quality, testing, and software maintenance
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams, including AI researchers, software engineers, and product managers, to translate research findings into practical applications
• Work on curation of large datasets, benchmarks across multiple SE problems and challenges
• Stay informed about the latest advancements in AI/ML and software engineering to identify emerging trends and opportunities for innovation
• Publish research findings in leading academic conferences and journals, and present innovative work to the broader research community

The Experience You Will Need

• PhD (or equivalent) in computer science, information technology, engineering, or related field
• Strong research background in AI, ML, and/or SE with a solid publication record in A and A* level conferences/journals. Minimum of 2 publications in top-tier conferences or journals
• Strong problem-solving skills and ability to work independently in a research setting
• Leadership experience working with junior researchers, senior researchers and other collaborators
• Excellent communication skills for conveying complex technical concepts
• Experience in developing tools or frameworks that utilize AI/ML to enhance software development processes
• Experience with general-purpose languages, such as Java, C#, C/C++, Python, Rust
• Experience with techniques for automated code generation, program verification, program synthesis, or software testing using AI/ML
• Strong knowledge in state-of-the-art research in ML for Software engineering, such as experience in Prompt Engineering, Agentic Systems, Chain of Thought applications

Nice to have

• Familiarity with AWS services such as Lambda, EC2, ECS, SNS, SQS, and RDS is an advantage
• Experience using and configuring static analyzers as part of a research project

We Value Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

At Sonar, we believe that our diversity is our strength. We are a global company that values and respects different backgrounds, perspectives, and cultures. We are committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive work environment where everyone feels valued and empowered to contribute their best. We are proud to be an equal opportunity employer and welcome all qualified applicants, regardless of race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, disability, age, or veteran status.

All offers of employment at Sonar are contingent upon the precise results of a comprehensive background check and reference verification conducted before the start date. Applications that are submitted through agencies or third party recruiters will not be considered.

Why you will love it here

• Our culture and mission set us apart. We have a dynamic work culture that values respect and kindness – and embraces the right to fail (and get right back up again!). We believe that the best idea wins and everyone has a voice.
• We believe that great people make a great company. We value people skills as much as technical skills and strive to keep things friendly and laid-back while still being passionate leaders in our domains. Our 550+ SonarSourcers from 33 different nationalities can relate!
• We embrace work-life balance. It is important to maintain a healthy work-life balance. This is why we have a flexible work policy that includes remote and in-office hybrid work (minimum three days a week in the office - Monday/Tuesday/Thursday).
• We have a growth mindset. We love to learn and believe that continuous education is critical to our success. In an ever-changing industry, new skills are a must, and we\'re happy to help our team acquire them.