AI Research Scientist - Multi-Modal Retrieval Systems and Vision Language Models

Snowflake; Washington, Bellevue (District of Columbia, WA); On-site; USD 195,000 - 288,000; Full time

Job summary

An innovative firm is seeking a Research Scientist to join its AI research team. This role focuses on pioneering research in multi-modal retrieval systems and foundation vision language models. You will conduct cutting-edge research, develop models, and collaborate with cross-functional teams to integrate innovations into production-ready solutions. With a strong emphasis on data curation, model training, and evaluation, this position offers the opportunity to publish findings in top-tier conferences. Join a fast-growing company that values creativity and innovation, and make a significant impact in the AI domain.

Benefits

medical insurance

dental insurance

vision insurance

401(k) retirement plan

paid time off

parental leave

employee assistance program

flexible spending account

health savings account

paid holidays

Qualifications

• PhD or equivalent in a technical field required.
• Expertise in multi-modal retrieval systems and foundation models.

Responsibilities

• Conduct research on multi-modal retrieval systems.
• Design and develop multi-modal foundation models.

Skills

multi-modal retrieval systems

foundation vision language models

data curation

pre-training

fine-tuning

alignment

evaluation

Python

Education

PhD in Computer Science

equivalent experience in AI

Tools

PyTorch

TensorFlow

JAX

Job description

Build the future of the AI Data Cloud. Join the Snowflake team.

Snowflake delivers a unified platform for secure development and deployment of LLMs and ML models. Snowflake AI and ML capabilities allow you to create generative AI applications with fully managed and enterprise-grade LLMs while providing full governance.

We are seeking a highly skilled Research Scientist to join our AI research team. The ideal candidate will have deep expertise in multi-modal retrieval systems and extensive experience in developing foundation vision language models. This role involves pioneering research in data curation, model training, fine-tuning, alignment, and evaluation..

Key Responsibilities

• Conduct cutting-edge research on multi-modal retrieval systems, including text, image, video, and structured data interactions.

• Design and develop multi-modal foundation models, focusing on data curation, pre-training, fine-tuning, alignment, and evaluation.

• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to integrate research innovations into production-ready solutions.

• Publish research findings in top-tier conferences and journals (NeurIPS, ICML, CVPR, ACL, etc.).

• Stay ahead of the latest advancements in machine learning, retrieval systems, and multi-modal AI.

Minimum Qualifications

• PhD or equivalent experience in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, or a related technical field.

• Strong expertise in multi-modal retrieval systems and foundation vision language models.

• Research experience in at least one major area of model development:

  • Data curation (handling large-scale multi-modal datasets)

  • Pre-training (scalable and efficient foundation models)

  • Fine-tuning (adapting models for downstream tasks)

  • Alignment (RLHF, contrastive learning, prompt tuning)

  • Evaluation (benchmarking and performance optimization)

• Hands-on experience with large-scale training pipelines and distributed training frameworks.

• Proficiency in deep learning frameworks such as PyTorch, TensorFlow, JAX.

• Strong coding skills in Python and familiarity with scalable computing environments (e.g., GPUs, TPUs, distributed systems).

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with contrastive learning, self-supervised learning, or cross-modal embeddings.

• Familiarity with retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) techniques.

• Familiarity with vision language models and their versatile applications.

• Strong publication record in relevant AI/ML conferences and journals.

• Experience collaborating with engineering teams to deploy research in production.

Every Snowflake employee is expected to follow the company's confidentiality and security standards for handling sensitive data. Snowflake employees must abide by the company's data security plan as an essential part of their duties. It is every employee's duty to keep customer information secure and confidential.

Snowflake is growing fast, and we're scaling our team to help enable and accelerate our growth. We are looking for people who share our values, challenge ordinary thinking, and push the pace of innovation while building a future for themselves and Snowflake.

How do you want to make your impact?

For jobs located in the United States, please visit the job posting on the Snowflake Careers Site for salary and benefits information: careers.snowflake.com

The following represents the expected range of compensation for this role:

• The estimated base salary range for this role is $195,000 - $287,500.
• Additionally, this role is eligible to participate in Snowflake's bonus and equity plan.

The successful candidate's starting salary will be determined based on permissible, non-discriminatory factors such as skills, experience, and geographic location. This role is also eligible for a competitive benefits package that includes: medical, dental, vision, life, and disability insurance; 401(k) retirement plan; flexible spending & health savings account; at least 12 paid holidays; paid time off; parental leave; employee assistance program; and other company benefits.