Founding AI Lead for Behavioral Simulation

Populix; Singapore; On-site; SGD 180,000 - 260,000; Full time

Job summary

Populix is expanding its Singapore practice and seeks a founder-level ML/LLM lead. You will own end-to-end human-simulation builds, prototype innovative models, and work directly with enterprise clients to translate needs into deployable solutions.

Ideal candidates have a PhD or equivalent depth in ML/NLP, hands-on experience with deep learning and LLMs, and a strong entrepreneurial mindset to eventually build and lead a local team in Singapore.

Qualifications

• A builder first. You can go from idea to working prototype fast, and you're comfortable operating with MVP-level scrappiness in a startup environment.
• Deep LLM/ML expertise. PhD (or equivalent research depth) in ML, NLP, CS, or related field, with hands-on deep learning, LLMs, and RL experience.
• Research instincts. You understand the inner workings of LLMs to reason about failures, not just tuning.
• Client-facing comfort. You enjoy sitting with clients, understanding messy real-world needs, delivering useful solutions.
• Strong communication. Able to explain technical trade-offs to non-technical stakeholders and clients.
• Founder's mindset. Comfortable starting solo and scaling later with a team.

Responsibilities

• Own the technical build of human simulation solutions end-to-end: from data ingestion to validated predictive models.
• Rapidly prototype and iterate on modeling approaches, prompting/fine-tuning strategies, and evaluation methods.
• Work directly with enterprise clients to scope use cases, translate research into deployment, and stay hands-on.
• Push forward the underlying research: fidelity, bias and failure modes, evaluation methodology, extrapolation limits.
• Partner with the core AI/Model team to keep client work aligned with the platform.
• After validation, hire, build, and lead the Singapore team to scale this work.

Skills

Deep ML

LLMs

NLP

Reinforcement learning

Startup mindset

Education

PhD or equivalent (ML/NLP/CS/Cognitive Science)

Job description

Populix is expanding its Singapore practice and seeks a founder-level ML/LLM lead. You will own end-to-end human-simulation builds, prototype innovative models, and work directly with enterprise clients to translate needs into deployable solutions.

Ideal candidates have a PhD or equivalent depth in ML/NLP, hands-on experience with deep learning and LLMs, and a strong entrepreneurial mindset to eventually build and lead a local team in Singapore.