Agentic AI Scientist for Scientific Discovery (Hybrid)

Seeds Renewables; Lemont (IL); Hybrid; USD 94,000 - 147,000; Full time

Job summary

Argonne National Laboratory is seeking a Staff Scientist – Agents for Science to advance agentic AI systems that can reason, plan, and act across scientific data, simulations, instruments, and workflows. The role sits in a multidisciplinary AI group and offers contributions to DOE’s Genesis mission in computation and discovery.

The position emphasizes development of novel AI agents, integration with scientific software, and evaluation of usefulness and safety in scientific contexts.

Qualifications

• RD2: Bachelor’s degree and 5+ years of experience, or Master’s degree and 3+ years of experience, or PhD and 0+ years of experience
• PhD preferred
• Experience with reinforcement learning, planning, or sequential decision-making
• Strong programming skills in Python, C, C++
• Experience with PyTorch, JAX, or related tools
• Experience designing, implementing, and evaluating complex AI systems
• Good communication skills, both verbal and written
• Ability to model Argonne’s core values of impact, safety, respect, integrity, and teamwork

Responsibilities

• Designing and developing agentic AI systems for scientific discovery, including reasoning, planning, information retrieval, tool invocation, and multi-step tasks
• Developing agents that can interact with simulation workflows, data pipelines, scientific software, instruments, knowledge bases, and computational tools
• Building methods for tool use, workflow orchestration, memory, planning, adaptation, and decision-making in scientific environments
• Evaluating agent performance in terms of scientific usefulness, reliability, robustness, efficiency, and safety
• Conduct research and development aligned with Argonne’s strategic mission in computation, AI, and scientific discovery
• Contribute to a team culture valuing scientific excellence, collaboration, innovation, and inclusive growth

Skills

Python

C/C++

reinforcement learning

communication

Education

Bachelor’s degree (CS/ML/comp sci)

Master’s degree

PhD (preferred)

Tools

PyTorch

JAX

Job description

Argonne National Laboratory is seeking a Staff Scientist – Agents for Science to advance agentic AI systems that can reason, plan, and act across scientific data, simulations, instruments, and workflows. The role sits in a multidisciplinary AI group and offers contributions to DOE’s Genesis mission in computation and discovery.

The position emphasizes development of novel AI agents, integration with scientific software, and evaluation of usefulness and safety in scientific contexts.