Research Scientist

Hedra; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 200,000 - 325,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive compensation and equity

401k (no match)

Healthcare (Silver PPO Medical, Vision, Dental)

Lunch and snacks at the office

Job summary

A leading AI research company in San Francisco is seeking a Researcher to drive research in generative modeling and embodied AI. The candidate will define research directions, design novel architectures, and mentor research engineers, contributing to impactful publications. A PhD in a relevant field with a strong publication record is required. This role offers competitive compensation and benefits, including healthcare and office snacks.

Qualifications

• PhD with publications at top ML or robotics venues.
• Deep expertise in generative modeling.
• Strong publication record at NeurIPS, ICML, or equivalent.

Responsibilities

• Define and lead research directions in action‑conditioned world models.
• Design novel architectures for VLMs and VLAs.
• Direct research efforts with the goal of publishing.

Skills

Generative modeling

Machine Learning

Robotic manipulation

Collaboration and communication skills

Education

PhD in Machine Learning, Computer Science, Robotics, or related field

Tools

Deep learning infrastructure

Job description

Overview

Hedra is building a world‑class Physical AI research team to push the boundaries of action‑conditioned world models and generative AI for physical systems. As a Researcher, you will drive original research into the intersection of generative modeling, embodied AI, and real‑world physical applications alongside industrial partners. You will have access to large‑scale compute, the freedom to pursue high‑impact research directions, and a direct path to publication at top venues. We are looking for researchers who are excited to go beyond benchmarks and build models that operate in the real world — drawing on Hedra’s leadership in generative modeling and the depth of our academic partnerships, including connections to Fei‑Fei Li and the Stanford Vision & Learning Lab.

Responsibilities

• Define and lead research directions in action‑conditioned world models, physical AI, and generative modeling for embodied systems
• Design novel architectures, training objectives, and evaluation frameworks for VLMs, VLAs, and world models
• Direct research efforts with the goal of publishing in top journals.
• Partner with industrial collaborators to ground research in real‑world physical AI use cases
• Mentor research engineers and collaborate cross‑functionally to move research into production
• Stay at the frontier of the field — synthesizing relevant literature and identifying opportunities for impactful contributions
• Contribute to Hedra’s research culture and external scientific reputation

Qualifications

• PhD in Machine Learning, Computer Science, Robotics, or a related field, with publications at top ML or robotics venues
• Deep expertise in generative modeling, world models, or vision‑language(-action) models
• Strong publication record at NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, CVPR, CoRL, or equivalent venues
• Experience with large‑scale model training and modern deep learning infrastructure
• Ability to independently drive research projects from ideation through publication
• Background in embodied AI, robotic manipulation, or sim‑to‑real transfer is highly desirable
• Experience with RLHF, DPO, or preference optimization for model alignment is a plus
• Strong collaboration and communication skills — comfortable bridging research and applied teams

Benefits

• Competitive compensation and equity
• 401k (no match)
• Healthcare (Silver PPO Medical, Vision, Dental)
• Lunch and snacks at the office

We encourage you to apply even if you don’t fully meet all the listed requirements; we value potential and diverse perspectives, and your unique skills could be a great asset to our team. Compensation Range: $200K – $325K