Forward Deployed Researcher - Data as a Service

Snorkel AI; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 300,000; Full time

Job summary

Snorkel AI is hiring Forward Deployed Researchers who will partner with frontier AI labs on their most challenging data problems. This is a high-impact, customer-facing role that blends deep technical and research credibility with the ability to work directly with customer research teams.

You’ll partner with customer research teams to design complex data and environments that improve frontier model performance, serving as a thought partner throughout the engagement.

Qualifications

• Experience in frontier AI research and data engineering.
• Customer-facing or collaborative research experience, or demonstrated aptitude for client engagement.
• Excellent communication skills and ability to present complex concepts to diverse audiences.

Responsibilities

• Own a technical domain end-to-end: the technical bar for what we build in it, and what we build next.
• Partner with frontier AI research labs to design datasets and environments that improve model performance.
• Lead technical conversations with customer researchers to understand model capabilities, failure modes, data requirements, and success criteria.
• Probe model behavior through systematic evaluation to uncover weaknesses and identify high-impact data interventions.
• Benchmark frontier models against our datasets to demonstrate value to customers, building evaluation harnesses and pass-rate analysis.
• Design evaluation frameworks, calibration processes, and quality rubrics that establish measurable project success metrics.
• Develop technical specifications for data projects balancing research rigor with operational feasibility.
• Hold the demand shape for your domain and foresee what labs want, at what volume.
• Develop a point of view on domain direction and collaborate with Research on what should exist before customers ask for it.
• Serve as thought partner to customer research teams throughout the sales cycle, building trust and credibility.
• Stay current on frontier AI research, RL environment design, post-training techniques, and evaluation methodologies.

Skills

Frontier AI

LLMs

Training data pipelines

Evaluation methodologies

Post-training techniques

RLHF

DPO

RLAIF

Coding agents

Reasoning

Multimodal models

RL environments

Education

BS in CS/ML

4+ years experience

Advanced degree preferred

Tools

Python

ML frameworks

LLM APIs

Containerized environments

Job description

About Snorkel

Snorkel AI is the frontier AI data lab, helping teams build the data and environments behind high-performing frontier and agentic AI. We combine technology with research-driven AI data development to create datasets, benchmarks, evals, and custom solutions for real-world AI systems. Founded out of the Stanford AI Lab in 2019, Snorkel works with leading AI labs and enterprises to move from better data to better outcomes.

Snorkel AI is the frontier AI data lab, helping teams build the data and environments behind high-performing frontier and agentic AI. We combine technology with research-driven AI data development to create datasets, benchmarks, evals, and custom solutions for real-world AI systems. Founded out of the Stanford AI Lab in 2019, Snorkel works with leading AI labs and enterprises to move from better data to better outcomes.

Excited to help us redefine how AI is built?

About The Role

Snorkel AI is hiring Forward Deployed Researchers who will partner with frontier AI labs on their most challenging data problems. This is a high-impact, customer-facing role that combines deep technical and research credibility with the ability to work directly with customer research teams. You'll partner with customer research teams to design complex data and environments that improve frontier model performance, serving as a thought partner throughout the engagement.

You’ll work at the critical intersection of research, technical strategy, and customer partnership. This includes scoping training data needs, designing RL environments and tasks, developing evaluation frameworks, probing model behavior and failure modes, and translating customer research objectives into actionable technical plans.

Forward Deployed Researchers own a technical domain. You are the person who knows where frontier models fail in it, what data moves those numbers, and what we should build next.

Main Responsibilities

• Own a technical domain end to end: the technical bar for what we build in it, and what we build next
• Partner with frontier AI research labs to design datasets and environments that improve model performance
• Lead technical conversations with customer researchers to understand model capabilities, failure modes, data requirements, and success criteria
• Probe model behavior through systematic evaluation to uncover weaknesses and identify high-impact data interventions
• Benchmark frontier models against our datasets to demonstrate value to customers, building or adapting evaluation harnesses as needed, and turn the results into pass-rate analysis, failure-mode breakdowns, and purchase recommendations
• Design evaluation frameworks, calibration processes, and quality rubrics that establish measurable project success metrics
• Develop technical specifications for data projects that balance research rigor with operational feasibility
• Hold the demand shape for your domain: which labs want what, at what volume, against what bar, and where the asks are converging
• Develop a point of view on where your domain is heading, and partner with Research on what should exist before a customer asks for it
• Serve as thought partner to customer research teams throughout the sales cycle, building trust and credibility
• Stay current on frontier AI research, RL environment design, post-training techniques, and evaluation methodologies

Preferred Qualifications

• Strong expertise in frontier AI concepts including LLMs, training data pipelines, evaluation methodologies, post-training techniques (RLHF, DPO, RLAIF), and domain areas such as coding agents, reasoning, multimodal models, or RL environments
• Experience in applied ML research, data science, or research-intensive technical roles
• Customer-facing or collaborative research experience, or demonstrated aptitude for client engagement
• Proficiency in Python, familiarity with ML frameworks and LLM APIs, and comfort running evaluations in containerized environments
• Excellent communication skills, ability to deliver technical presentations and explain complex concepts to diverse audiences
• Familiarity with data curation workflows, synthetic data generation, LLM-as-a-Judge, or evaluation framework design
• Willingness to make and state a defensible assumption when a request arrives underspecified, rather than waiting for the customer to close the gap
• Ability to work in a fast-moving environment, comfortable with ambiguity and rapid iteration
• B.S. in Computer Science, Machine Learning, or related field with 4+ years of experience in AI/ML research or technical roles; advanced degree preferred

Compensation

The salary range for this role is ~$180,000-$300,000 USD, depending on location, experience, and qualifications. This role may also be eligible for additional benefits, including health and dental coverage and equity grants.

Actual compensation will be determined based on factors including skills, qualifications, experience, and geographic location.

Salary range(s) for this role

$180,000-$300,000 USD

Be Your Best at Snorkel

Joining Snorkel AI means becoming part of a company that has market proven solutions, robust funding, and is scaling rapidly-offering a unique combination of stability and the excitement of high growth. As a member of our team, you’ll have meaningful opportunities to shape priorities and initiatives, influence key strategic decisions, and directly impact our ongoing success. Whether you’re looking to deepen your technical expertise, explore leadership opportunities, or learn new skills across multiple functions, you’re fully supported in building your career in an environment designed for growth, learning, and shared success.

Snorkel AI is proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity employer and is committed to building a team that represents a variety of backgrounds, perspectives, and skills. Snorkel AI embraces diversity and provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment. Snorkel AI prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type on the basis of race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local law. All employment is decided on the basis of qualifications, performance, merit, and business need.

We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and to receive other benefits and privileges of employment. Please contact us to request accommodation.