AI Research Scientist, New Grad – Agents & Reinforcement Learning

Snowflake; Washington; On-site; USD 80,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

Snowflake is hiring an AI Research Scientist (New Grad) for our AI Research team. You will work on agentic AI and reinforcement learning, building systems that reason, code, and learn at scale inside the Snowflake Data Cloud.

You will design frameworks, build auto research and coding agents, curate training data pipelines, and publish findings at NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, and ACL. This role offers rapid growth in a high-impact setting and access to large-scale compute.

Qualifications

• PhD in Computer Science, ML, AI, or related field (completing or recently completed) or equivalent research experience.
• Foundational expertise in reinforcement learning algorithms (RLHF, DPO, PPO) or multi-agent systems.
• Experience with LLM post-training, fine-tuning, or reasoning model development.
• Ability to implement agentic architectures with tool-use, planning, and self-correction loops.
• Proficiency in Python and at least one deep learning framework (PyTorch or JAX).
• Strong mathematical and analytical foundation for theory and empirical research.
• At least one first-author or co-authored publication or preprint in AI/ML.

Responsibilities

• Design and develop agentic frameworks powered by recursive self-improvement loops.
• Build and evaluate auto research agents capable of autonomously formulating hypotheses and experiments.
• Develop coding agents that understand, generate, and debug code across complex tasks.
• Conduct RL research with RLHF, DPO, PPO to align agentic behaviors.
• Contribute to multi-agent systems where agents collaborate and self-organize.
• Create training data pipelines—synthetic and human-annotated—for agentic and RL research.
• Publish research findings at top venues such as NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, ACL.

Skills

Reinforcement learning

Python

PyTorch

JAX

Multi-agent systems

Research publications

LLM post-training

Education

PhD in Computer Science or related field

Tools

PyTorch

JAX

Job description

At Snowflake, we are powering the era of the agentic enterprise. To usher in this new era, we seek AI-native thinkers across every function who are energized by the opportunity to reinvent how they work. You don't just use tools; you possess an innate curiosity, treating AI as a high-trust collaborator that is core to how you solve problems and accelerate your impact. We look for low-ego individuals who thrive in dynamic and fast-moving environments and move with an experimental mindset - who rapidly test emerging capabilities to discover simpler, more powerful ways to deliver results. At Snowflake, your role isn't just to execute a function, but to help redefine the future of how work gets done.

Snowflake is about empowering enterprises to achieve their full potential, and people too. With a culture that's all in on impact, innovation, and collaboration, Snowflake is the sweet spot for building big, moving fast, and taking technology and careers to the next level.

We are hiring an AI Research Scientist (New Grad) for our AI Research team. Our team is pushing the frontier of autonomous, self-improving AI systems - building agents that reason, code, and learn at scale inside the Snowflake Data Cloud. This role sits at the intersection of agentic AI and reinforcement learning, where your research will directly shape how enterprises leverage intelligent automation.

AS AN AI RESEARCH SCIENTIST AT SNOWFLAKE, YOU WILL:

• Design and develop agentic frameworks powered by recursive self-improvement loops, enabling AI systems that iteratively refine their own capabilities and strategies
• Build and evaluate auto research agents - systems capable of autonomously formulating hypotheses, executing experiments, and synthesizing findings
• Develop coding agents that understand, generate, and debug code across complex, multi-step programming tasks
• Conduct research in reinforcement learning with a focus on RLHF, DPO, and PPO as mechanisms for aligning and improving agentic behaviors
• Contribute to multi-agent systems where specialized agents collaborate, negotiate, and self-organize to solve enterprise-scale problems
• Develop and curate training data pipelines - both synthetic and human-annotated - to support novel agentic and RL research domains
• Publish research findings at top-tier venues such as NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, and ACL

OUR IDEAL AI RESEARCH SCIENTIST WILL HAVE:

• PhD in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, or a closely related field (completing or recently completed; or equivalent research experience)
• Foundational expertise in reinforcement learning algorithms, including RLHF, DPO, PPO, or multi-agent systems
• Research experience in LLM post-training, fine-tuning, or reasoning model development
• Demonstrated ability to implement and experiment with agentic architectures - including tool-use, planning, and self-correction loops
• Proficiency in Python and at least one deep learning framework (PyTorch or JAX strongly preferred)
• Strong mathematical and analytical foundation - comfortable working at the intersection of theory and empirical research
• At least one first-author or co-authored publication or preprint in a relevant AI/ML area

BONUS POINTS FOR THE FOLLOWING:

• Hands-on experience building or evaluating coding agents or auto research agents
• Familiarity with recursive self-improvement frameworks or automated AI scientist paradigms
• Experience with large-scale distributed training or efficient training paradigms
• Background in mathematical reasoning, structured decision-making, or program synthesis
• Exposure to domain-specific AI applications in healthcare, finance, or enterprise workflows

WHY JOIN OUR AI RESEARCH TEAM AT SNOWFLAKE?

Snowflake's AI Research team operates at the frontier of what autonomous AI systems can do - not as a research lab disconnected from practice, but as a team where your work ships into a platform used by thousands of enterprises. You'll be working alongside researchers and engineers who are building the next generation of agentic infrastructure, with access to large-scale compute, real-world data challenges, and the shortest possible path from research idea to product impact.

For a new grad role, this is a rare opportunity to grow your research career while contributing to systems that actually run in production - shaping how AI agents reason, learn, and improve themselves inside the world's leading data cloud.

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?