Research Product Manager

Thinking Machines Lab Inc.; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 175,000 - 475,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health, dental, and vision benefits

Unlimited PTO

Paid parental leave

Relocation support

Job summary

Thinking Machines Lab in San Francisco seeks a Research Product Manager to drive complex, high-impact technical products spanning research, infrastructure, and applied programs. You’ll help turn ambitious ideas into reality by coordinating cross-functional efforts and maintaining momentum in fast-moving environments.

Your work connects people, ideas, and systems to keep research initiatives aligned and moving forward, with the goal of scaling company execution across frontier AI domains.

Qualifications

• Degree in computer science, artificial intelligence, mathematics, physics, engineering, or similar.
• Experience in research program management, product management, or similar.

Responsibilities

• Drive and coordinate large-scale research products and programs.
• Translate technical ideas into actionable, well-scoped plans.
• Collaborate across disciplines and ramp up on new domains as needed.
• Create and maintain compute and resource roadmaps.
• Synthesize and communicate progress across technical teams.
• Support the integration of new technologies into production systems.

Skills

Technical communication

Cross-functional collaboration

Stakeholder management

Education

Degree in computer science, artificial intelligence, mathematics, physics, engineering, or similar

Masters or PhD in computer science, artificial intelligence, mathematics, physics, engineering, or similar

Experience at frontier or academic research lab

Job description

_ The mission of Thinking Machines is to build AI that extends human will and judgment. _

About the Role

As a Research Product Manager (RPM) at Thinking Machines Lab, you’ll play a central role in driving complex, high-impact technical products and programs that span research, infrastructure, and applied. You’ll help turn ambitious ideas into reality by driving cross-functional efforts, maintaining momentum across projects, and creating clarity in fast-moving, ambiguous environments.

Your work will connect people, ideas, and systems to ensure that our most important research initiatives stay aligned, well-scoped, and moving forward efficiently. It’s for someone who thrives in deeply technical discussions, understands the rhythm of research, can abstract at high-level and get into the weeds, with the ultimate goal of helping the company execute at scale.

What You’ll Do

• Drive and coordinate large-scale research products and programs , ensuring that complex projects are executed efficiently, transparently, and with scientific excellence.

• Translate technical ideas into actionable, well-scoped plans , defining milestones and keeping teams aligned across model development, data campaigns, infrastructure, and product integration.

• Collaborate across disciplines — from research and ML infrastructure to legal and business development — ramping up quickly on new domains as needed.

• Create and maintain compute and resource roadmaps , identifying bottlenecks, trade-offs, and opportunities to accelerate progress.

• Synthesize and communicate progress across diverse technical teams, ensuring the right people are looped in at the right time and that information flows smoothly across the organization.

• Support the integration of new technologies and research insights into production systems and product roadmaps, bridging the gap between frontier research and real-world applications.

Skills and Qualifications

Minimum qualifications:

• Degree in computer science, artificial intelligence, mathematics, physics, engineering, or similar

• Experience in research program management, product management, or similar

Preferred qualifications — we encourage you to apply if you meet some but not all of these:

• Masters or PhD in computer science, artificial intelligence, mathematics, physics, engineering, or similar

• Past experience at a frontier or academic research lab, contributing to research in artificial intelligence

• Past publications relevant to artificial intelligence or frontier models, with contributions to areas like evals, multimodality, human-ai interaction, post-training, pre-training, data, or other similar domains needed to conduct frontier AI research

• Ability to learn new technical domains

• Strong technical communication, written and verbal

Logistics

• Location: This role is based in San Francisco, California.

• Compensation: Depending on background, skills and experience, the expected annual salary range for this position is $175,000 - $475,000 USD.

• Visa sponsorship: We sponsor visas. While we can’t guarantee success for every candidate or role, if you’re the right fit, we’re committed to working through the visa process together.

• Benefits: Thinking Machines offers generous health, dental, and vision benefits, unlimited PTO, paid parental leave, and relocation support as needed.