Applied AI Optimization Scientist

Percepta; New York (NY); On-site; USD 140,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Percepta is hiring a Research Scientist - Optimization to bridge AI research with real-world impact at scale in the United States. You will lead optimization-focused research programs, develop methods for planning, scheduling, routing, and inventory, and build rigorous benchmarks to validate approaches before deploying them with customers.

The role emphasizes test-time search, reinforcement learning for sequential decision-making, and delivering fast, reliable real-time optimization systems with

Qualifications

• PhD in Computer Science, Operations Research, Industrial Engineering, or Applied Mathematics or equivalent experience.
• Depth in operations or mathematical optimization (LP/MIP/MINLP, CP, stochastic/robust optimization).
• Experience in novel machine learning techniques for Operations Research, including test-time search and reinforcement learning for sequential decision-making.
• Are comfortable implementing fast real-time optimization systems, debugging large-scale optimization systems, and/or designing benchmarks with real, defensible ground truth.
• Are motivated by impact in critical industries including healthcare, supply chains, energy, and finance.
• Have a proven track record of execution.
• Are an excellent communicator with both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Enjoy extreme ownership.
• Are passionate about AI's transformative potential.

Responsibilities

• Set and drive ambitious research programs that expand what's achievable in data-driven decision-making, building on the forecasts and user models produced by our research tracks.
• Invent new optimization methods for high-impact problems such as planning, scheduling, routing, pricing, and inventory - combining test-time search and reinforcement learning with classical LP/MIP/CP formulations.
• Build high-fidelity simulators and rigorous, replayable benchmarks that mirror real-world constraints, uncertainty, and multi-objective trade-offs, and that let us validate a decision before it touches a real patient, member, or asset.
• Push optimizers from benchmark wins into production systems that hold up against real operational stakes - not just a demo, but something that runs fast in real-time and re-learns from outcomes every week.
• Bridge research into practice by partnering with our engineers to rapidly prototype solutions and implement successful research ideas across live customer engagements.

Job description

Percepta is hiring a Research Scientist - Optimization to bridge AI research with real-world impact at scale in the United States. You will lead optimization-focused research programs, develop methods for planning, scheduling, routing, and inventory, and build rigorous benchmarks to validate approaches before deploying them with customers.

The role emphasizes test-time search, reinforcement learning for sequential decision-making, and delivering fast, reliable real-time optimization systems with