Physics Researcher - AI Systems

Obsidian; New York (NY); On-site; USD 48,216 - 137,760; Part time

Job summary

Obsidian is seeking accomplished physics researchers to join their team as part-time contributors. This W-2 position, in collaboration with Cincinnatus LLC, involves 4 to 16 hours per week. You will have the opportunity to author challenging physics problems to enhance AI systems and reason about various physics domains.

We encourage outstanding senior PhD students and recent graduates with strong publications to apply. The engagement is based on research credentials, with no fixed end date for contributions.

Qualifications

• First-author publications in top journals.
• Participation in competitive fellowships.
• Active research role or strong academic background.

Responsibilities

• Author and review challenging physics problems.
• Evaluate model outputs on various tasks.
• Identify areas where models fail.
• Collaborate with small program team.

Skills

Expertise in theoretical physics

Experience with AI modeling

Strong publication record

Education

PhD or postdoctoral training in Physics or STEM

Job description

We are recruiting a select cohort of accomplished physics researchers to contribute to the next generation of AI systems for scientific reasoning. Our partner labs are building models that need to reason about theoretical physics, condensed matter, quantum information, particle physics and high‑energy theory, astrophysics and cosmology, atomic/molecular/optical (AMO) physics, plasma physics, biophysics, statistical and computational physics, and mathematical physics at the level of a working researcher — not a textbook. To get there, they need contributors whose own research sits at the frontier.

This is a W-2 employment position with Cincinnatus LLC, requiring a part‑time commitment of 4 to 16 hours per week. This position will be placed at a leading AI lab as part of their extended workforce.

What you’ll do

• Author and review challenging physics problems used to train and evaluate frontier AI models
• Evaluate model outputs on tasks ranging from analytical derivation and mechanism prediction to numerical modeling, experimental design, and literature reasoning
• Surface areas where current models fail — especially the kinds of mistakes a working PhD physicist would catch immediately
• Collaborate with a small program team and other senior contributors

The level we’re hiring at

This is not a generalist contributor pool. We’re looking for researchers whose CV would plausibly include items like:

• First‑author or co‑first‑author publications in journals at the level of Physical Review Letters (PRL), Physical Review X (PRX), Reviews of Modern Physics, Nature Physics, Nature, Science, PNAS, Nature Communications, Physical Review A/B/C/D/E, Physics Letters B, Journal of High Energy Physics (JHEP), Astrophysical Journal (ApJ), Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (MNRAS), Quantum, Communications Physics, or top specialty journals
• Doctoral or postdoctoral training at a top‑20 global institution for physics or STEM
• Competitive fellowships such as NSF GRFP, Hertz, DOE Computational Science Graduate Fellowship (CSGF), DOE Early Career, Sloan Research Fellow, Packard Fellow, Simons Investigator / Junior Fellow, Moore Foundation, Hubble Fellow (NASA), Einstein Fellow, Sagan Fellow, Kavli (KITP) Fellow, Marie Curie / MSCA, Fulbright, Rhodes, Marshall, Gates Cambridge, Schmidt Science Fellow, Knight‑Hennessy, SNSF Postdoc, NSF CAREER, APS Fellow, or equivalent
• Issued patents, spin‑out companies, or grants where the contributor was a named PI or co‑PI
• International Physics Olympiad (IPhO) Gold/Silver/Bronze medalist
• Currently or recently in an active research role: PhD candidate, postdoc, instructor, faculty, principal scientist, or industry researcher

Outstanding senior PhD students and recent graduates with strong publication records are explicitly encouraged to apply — years of experience matter less than the depth of the research output.

Engagement

• Part‑time: 4 to 16 hours per week
• W‑2 employment with Cincinnatus LLC; payroll, benefits, and compliance handled by Cincinnatus
• Compensation reflects research seniority and credentials
• No fixed end date; contributors continue as long as the program needs their expertise

Equal Employment Opportunity

Cincinnatus LLC is proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity employer. We do not discriminate based upon race, religion, color, national origin, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, reproductive health decisions, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, genetic information, political views or activity, or any other legally protected characteristic. Cincinnatus LLC is committed to providing reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities and disabled veterans throughout the job application process.