Head of AI Research / Engineering

Eon Systems PBC; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 250,000; Full time

Job summary

An innovative firm is seeking a senior leader to guide AI research and engineering efforts in machine learning-driven brain emulation. This role involves executing strategies for neurodata scaling, managing substantial R&D budgets, and fostering a collaborative team environment. The ideal candidate will have extensive experience in training large models and a strong publication record, thriving in a startup atmosphere. If you're passionate about pushing the boundaries of neuroscience and technology, this opportunity is your chance to make a significant impact in a rapidly evolving field.

Qualifications

• 5-10+ years of industry experience in software development required.
• Experience with multimodal datasets and distributed computing frameworks.

Responsibilities

• Lead AI research and engineering team to achieve breakthroughs.
• Manage R&D budget expected to be ~$30M in first 18 months.

Skills

Training large multi-billion parameter models

Software development

Distributed computing frameworks

Neuroscientific datasets

Leadership in engineering departments

Clear written communication

Problem-solving

Job description

Eon collects large-scale neuroscientific data sets to train machine learning based brain emulations. We believe it is possible to scale this technology in a safe, secure and trustworthy manner in the next decade and empower humanity in unprecedented ways.

Role

This is a senior / executive role responsible for leading and enabling our AI research and/or engineering team to achieve scientific breakthroughs in machine learning driven brain emulation, using exabytes of neurodata.

Responsibilities

• Executing and shaping strategy:

  • Early: neurodata scaling laws, transformer based non-invasive human brain foundation model and small organisms emulations.

  • Medium: GPT-4 sized training runs for Mice and Non-Human Primate emulation.

  • 5y+: Human brain emulation prototypes on exascale compute.

• Budgeting: Responsible for R&D budget.

  • Expected budget of ~$30M in first 18 months, eventually hundreds of millions of dollars. (A similar amount will be invested in data acquisition efforts.)

• Team leadership and development:

  • Team will start off with 3-5 individuals and probably will quickly grow to 15, eventually 50-150 people in 2-3 years.

  • Build development infrastructure from scratch to train frontier models.

• Department specific Regulatory Compliance and Risk Management.

• Stakeholder & partnership engagement:

  • Close collaboration with our data acquisition team.

  • Data centers and cloud providers.

  • Research institutions like Mila, Allen Institute or Janelia.

  • Publication of technical reports/papers.

• Fundraising.

Skills

• Technical:

  • Experience with training large multi-billion parameter models on multimodal datasets.

  • 5-10+ years of industry experience in software development and exceptional ability.

  • Demonstrated experience with distributed computing frameworks and large-scale cloud services.

  • Ideally experience with different types of neuroscientific datasets.

• Leadership:

  • Oversaw engineering departments, ideally in a start-up context.

• Publication track record.

• We expect everybody, independent of their role, to be:

  • Practicing proactive, concise, and clear written communication.

  • Exceptionally output driven and a well-calibrated, fast, autonomous, and diligent problem-solver.

  • Excited about startup atmosphere - high initiative, agile, and a can-do attitude in a fast changing environment.

Salary

Competitive salaries, including equity, apply.