Entry-Level – AI/Machine Learning Researcher

General Motors LLC; United States; Hybrid; USD 128,000 - 279,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical

Dental

Vision

Health Savings Account

GM vehicle discounts

Job summary

General Motors Research is seeking an early-career AI/ML researcher to develop practical methods accelerating GM's engineering and product development. A recent PhD with depth in AI areas will contribute to POCs, experiments, and cross-disciplinary collaboration.

Role emphasizes reproducibility, communication, and impact across engineering teams. The position is hybrid, based in Mountain View, CA, with collaboration across senior researchers and engineers.

Qualifications

• Pursuit or completion of a PhD in Computer Science, AI, ML, Applied Math, Statistics, Computational Science, Engineering, Physics, or related field.
• Able to work fulltime, 40 hours per week.
• Demonstrated research depth with dissertation, publications, patents, or equivalent.
• Strong foundations in ML/DL, with knowledge of optimization, statistics, numerical methods.

Responsibilities

• Conduct original research in advanced AI areas (causal AI, neurosymbolic AI, world models, multimodal/generative AI, or engineering agents).
• Translate challenges into well-defined research questions, hypotheses, algorithms, and experiments.
• Design, implement, and evaluate ML models and proof-of-concepts with real or simulated data.
• Build reproducible research code and data-processing workflows.

Skills

ML fundamentals

Python ML frameworks

Experiment design

Communication

Education

PhD in CS/AI/ML/Math/Engineering/Physics

Tools

PyTorch

JAX

TensorFlow

Job description

Job Description

The Role: Conduct original research and develop practical AI/ML methods that accelerate GM’s research, engineering, and product development capabilities. This role is intended for a recent or soon-to-be-completed Ph.D. who brings strong depth in one or more advanced AI areas and the ability to work across disciplines. The researcher will develop proof-of-concepts (POCs), evaluate them on meaningful engineering or scientific problems, communicate findings clearly, and collaborate with senior researchers and engineering partners to move promising ideas toward impact.

The Team

GM R&D is seeking an outstanding early-career researcher to contribute to advanced work in Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Large Language Models. The role is designed for a fresh Ph.D. It emphasizes research depth, originality, experimental rigor, and growth toward independent technical leadership. The successful candidate will work with senior researchers, technical fellows, and engineering collaborators to formulate important problems, develop new methods, build research prototypes, and validate results. The work may span causal reasoning, neurosymbolic AI, world models, multimodal and generative AI, engineering agents, or related areas. The researcher will be expected to connect theory and experimentation with real engineering needs while maintaining high standards for reproducibility, explainability, uncertainty awareness, and responsible AI.

What You’ll Do

• Conduct original research in one or more advanced AI areas such as causal AI, neurosymbolic AI, world models, multimodal or generative AI or engineering agents.
• Translate engineering and scientific challenges into well-defined research questions, hypotheses, algorithms, and experimental plans.
• Design, implement, and evaluate machine learning models and proof-of-concepts using real, simulated, experimental, or engineering data.
• Develop methods that can reason about physical systems, causal relationships, uncertainty, constraints, temporal evolution, or complex interactions among components.
• Establish meaningful baselines and evaluation protocols; analyze failure modes, robustness, generalization, interpretability, and uncertainty rather than relying only on headline accuracy.
• Build reproducible research code, data-processing workflows, and experiment pipelines using modern deep learning practices.
• Collaborate with GM R&D researchers and engineering partners to understand domain constraints, validate research results, and identify pathways from POCs to practical use.
• Communicate technical findings through research reports, presentations, publications, invention disclosures, demonstrations, and clear documentation.
• Contribute to technical discussions and research roadmaps by identifying promising approaches, important risks, and high-value experiments.
• Participate in a collaborative research culture that values intellectual curiosity, constructive peer review, responsible innovation, and continuous learning.

More About Who You Are

• A curious and intellectually rigorous researcher who enjoys working on difficult, open-ended problems.
• Deeply grounded in at least one technical area, while eager to learn and collaborate across adjacent AI, computational science, and engineering disciplines.
• Motivated by research that can create measurable value in real-world engineering workflows, not only benchmark performance.
• Comfortable moving between mathematical formulation, algorithm development, software implementation, and empirical validation.
• Able to explain complex ideas, assumptions, limitations, and results to both technical and general audiences.
• Independent in driving research tasks to completion while actively seeking feedback and working effectively with senior mentors and cross-functional teams.
• Committed to careful experimentation, reproducibility, safety, explainability, and responsible use of AI.

Required Qualifications

• Pursuit or Completion of a PhD in one of the following areas: Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Applied Mathematics, Statistics, Computational Science, Engineering, Physics, or a related field.
• Able to work fulltime, 40 hours per week.
• Demonstrated research depth in at least one relevant area, supported by a dissertation, publications, patents, open-source work, research software, or comparable technical contributions.
• Strong foundations in machine learning and deep learning, with working knowledge of optimization, probability/statistics, numerical methods, or scientific computing as appropriate to the research area.
• Experience developing and evaluating models in Python and frameworks such as PyTorch, JAX, TensorFlow, or comparable tools.
• Ability to formulate experiments, select appropriate metrics and baselines, analyze results, and communicate technical conclusions with appropriate caveats.
• Strong verbal and written communication skills and the ability to collaborate effectively with researchers, engineers, and technical stakeholders.
• Ability to work on-site or in a hybrid research environment in accordance with GM work practices and project needs.

Preferred Qualifications

• Research experience in causal inference, counterfactual reasoning, neurosymbolic methods and world models for engineering applications.
• Experience with multimodal AI, large language models, agentic systems, retrieval and reasoning, or AI-assisted engineering and software development.
• Evidence of research impact through high-quality publications, patents, invention disclosures, open-source contributions, awards, or successful technology demonstrations.
• Research or internship experience in automotive, mobility, aerospace, industrial, energy, defense, national laboratory, or university-industry collaboration settings.

Immigration Sponsorship

GM does not provide immigration-related sponsorship for this role. Do not apply for this role if you will need GM immigration sponsorship now or in the future. This includes direct company sponsorship, entry of GM as the immigration employer of record on a government form, and any work authorization requiring a written submission or other immigration support from the company (e.g., H1-B, OPT, STEM OPT, CPT, TN, J-1, etc). The position is subject to export control restrictions and requires the successful candidate to be a U.S. Person (U.S. citizen, U.S. permanent resident, asylee or refugee).

Work Arrangement

Hybrid: This role is categorized as hybrid. This means the successful candidate is expected to report to Mountain View, CA three times per week, at minimum [or other frequency dictated by the business].

Compensation

The compensation information is a good faith estimate only. It is based on what a successful applicant might be paid in accordance with applicable state laws. The actual base salary a successful candidate will be offered within this range will vary based on factors relevant to the position, as well as geography of the selected candidate. The salary range for this role is $128,000-$279,000. The actual base salary a successful candidate will be offered within this range will vary based on factors relevant to the position.

Bonus Potential

An incentive pay program offers payouts based on company performance, job level, and individual performance.

Benefits

• Medical
• Dental
• Vision
• Health Savings Account
• Flexible Spending Accounts
• retirement savings plan
• life insurance
• paid vacation and holidays
• tuition assistance programs
• employee assistance program
• GM vehicle discounts
• among others

About GM

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