Machine Learning Researcher / Engineer (Foundation Models)

Pathway; Palo Alto (CA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 210,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Remote work

Employee Stock Option Plan

Global offices

Job summary

Pathway is seeking 1 or 2 R&D Engineers to work on an extremely ambitious foundational project focused on attention-based models. The role involves distributed model training, experimentation, and driving new benchmarks to advance how AI learns from long sequences.

The team values hands-on experimentation with PyTorch/Jax/TF, strong knowledge of GPU architectures, and a passion for foundational AI research.

Qualifications

• Publications in top ML venues (NeurIPS/ICLR/ICML) or equivalent demonstrable impact on LLM training.
• Significant hands-on experience with large-scale model training and distributed systems.
• Experience in research centers or top institutes is highly desirable.
• Proven track record of contributing to foundational AI research and benchmarks.

Responsibilities

• Conduct distributed model training and evaluation.
• Iterate on architectural improvements based on experimental results.
• Design and run new tasks/benchmarks to test model capabilities.
• Oversee data preparation activities when needed.

Skills

Language Models / RL

Deep Learning Research

English Fluency

Hands-on Experiments

Tools

PyTorch

Jax

TensorFlow

Triton

Job description

About Pathway

At Pathway we are shaking the foundations of artificial intelligence by introducing the world's first post-transformer model that adapts and thinks just like humans.

About Pathway

At Pathway we are shaking the foundations of artificial intelligence by introducing the world's first post-transformer model that adapts and thinks just like humans.

Our breakthrough architecture outperforms Transformer and provides the enterprise with full visibility into how the model works. Combining the foundational model with the fastest data processing engine on the market, Pathway enables enterprises to move beyond incremental optimization and toward truly contextualized, experience-driven intelligence. We are trusted by organizations such as NATO, La Poste, and Formula 1 racing teams.

Pathway is led by co-founder & CEO Zuzanna Stamirowska, a complexity scientist who created a team consisting of AI pioneers, including CTO Jan Chorowski who was the first person to apply Attention to speech and worked with Nobel laureate Geoff Hinton at Google Brain, as well as CSO Adrian Kosowski, a leading computer scientist and quantum physicist who obtained his PhD at the age of 20.

The company is backed by leading investors and advisors, including Lukasz Kaiser, co-author of the Transformer ("the T" in ChatGPT) and a key researcher behind OpenAI's reasoning models. Pathway is headquartered in Palo Alto, California.

The Opportunity

This is an R&D position in attention-based models.

We are currently searching for 1 or 2 R&D Engineers with a strong track record in machine learning models research.

This is an extremely ambitious foundational project. There is a flexible GPU budget associated with this specific project, guaranteed to be in the 7-digit range minimum.

You Will

• perform (distributed) model training
• help improve/adapt model architectures based on experiment results
• design new tasks and experiments
• optionally: oversee activities of team members involved in data preparation.

Requirements

Cover letter

It's always a pleasure to say hi! If you could leave us 2-3 lines, we'd really appreciate that.

You are expected to meet at least one of the following criteria:

• You have published at least one paper at NeurIPS, ICLR, or ICML - where you were the lead author or made significant conceptual & code contributions.
• You have significantly contributed to an LLM training effort which became newsworthy (topped a Huggingface benchmark, best in class model, etc.), preferably using multiple GPU's
• You have spent at least 6 months working in a leading Machine Learning research center (e.g. at: Google Brain / Deepmind, Apple, Meta, Anthropic, Nvidia, MILA)
• You were an ICPC World Finalist, or an IOI, IMO, or IPhO medalist in High School.

You Are

• A deep learning researcher, with a track record in Language Models and/or RL (candidates with a Vision or Robotics ML background are also welcome to apply)
• Interested in improving foundational architectures and creating new benchmarks
• Experienced at hands-on experiments and model training (PyTorch, Jax, or Tensorflow)
• Have a good understanding of GPU architecture, memory design, and communication
• Have a good understanding of graph algorithms
• Have some familiarity with model monitoring, git, build systems, and CI/CD
• Respectful of others
• Fluent in English

Bonus Points

• Knowledge of approaches used in distributed training
• Familiarity with Triton
• Successful track-record in algorithms & data science contests
• Showing a code portfolio

Why You Should Apply

• Join an intellectually stimulating work environment
• Be a pioneer: you get to work with a new type of "Live AI" challenges around long sequences and changing data
• Be part of one of an early-stage AI startup that believes in impactful research and foundational changes

Benefits

• Type of contract: Full-time, permanent
• Preferable joining date: Immediate. The positions are open until filled
• Compensation: six-digit annual salary based on profile and location + Employee Stock Option Plan
• Location: Remote work. Possibility to work or meet with other team members in one of our offices: Palo Alto, CA; Paris, France or Wroclaw, Poland. Candidates based anywhere in the EU, UK, United States, and Canada will be considered