Research Scientist, Benchmarks & Evals

Kled AI; California; On-site; USD 250,000 - 350,000; Full time

Job summary

Kled AI is building the largest opt-in human data network for frontier AI. We are seeking a Research Scientist focused on Benchmarks and Evaluations to design public benchmarks for image, video and document models, and to create private test sets from real, opt-in data.

You will run end-to-end experiments, publish leaderboards, and translate results into data deals with founders and lab buyers. Strong background in ML research, statistics, and writing for researchers and buyers is essential.

Qualifications

• 5-7+ years ML research or research engineering experience.
• A benchmark or evaluation you built that others actually used.
• Strong hands-on experience training and fine-tuning image or video models (PyTorch).
• Deep understanding of experimental design and statistics (controls, ablations, human studies).
• Experience running experiments end to end, from GPUs to final report.
• Clear writing for both researchers and buyers.

Responsibilities

• Design and ship public benchmarks for image, video and document models.
• Build private test sets from real, opt-in data that no model has trained on.
• Run data-value experiments: train models with and without Kled data, measure what changes.
• Design human evaluation studies and the automatic metrics that track them.
• Publish leaderboards and reports that researchers at frontier labs trust.
• Find where models fall short and tell our team what data to collect next.
• Work directly with the founders and lab buyers to turn results into data deals.

Skills

ML research

Research engineering

Experiment design

Statistics

Technical writing

Communication with buyers

Tools

PyTorch

Python

Job description

ABOUT KLED

Kled is building the largest opt-in human data network in the world.

We are not a labeling firm. We are not a task marketplace.

We are a consumer application where people upload their real photos, videos, and documents and get paid continuously.

We then filter, standardize, and license that data to frontier AI labs and enterprises that need fresh, rights-aware training data.

Since launching our mobile app in 2026, we have:

• Reached #1 on the App Store (Finance) with 0 paid marketing
• Scaled to 600,000+ active data contributors
• Processed 5M uploads per day
• Raised $15M+ from investors behind SpaceX, Airbnb, Coinbase, xAI, OpenAI, Anthropic, Spotify, Lyft, Uber, and more

Our mission is to let anyone download the app and earn a real living wage from uploading their data.

ABOUT THE ROLE

Research Scientist - Benchmarks & Evals

AI labs buy data when a benchmark shows it works.

You’ll build the benchmarks that show what one of the largest human data networks in the world can do for frontier AI models.

You will:

• Design and ship public benchmarks for image, video and document models
• Build private test sets from real, opt-in data that no model has trained on
• Run data-value experiments: train models with and without Kled data, measure what changes
• Design human evaluation studies and the automatic metrics that track them
• Publish leaderboards and reports that researchers at frontier labs trust
• Find where models fall short and tell our team what data to collect next
• Work directly with the founders and lab buyers to turn results into data deals

WE’RE LOOKING FOR

• 5-7+ years ML research or research engineering experience
• A benchmark or evaluation you built that other people actually used
• Strong hands-on experience training and fine-tuning image or video models (PyTorch)
• Deep understanding of experimental design and statistics (controls, ablations, human studies)
• Experience running experiments end to end, from GPUs to final report
• Clear writing for both researchers and buyers

Bonus:

• Publications at NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR or CVPR (datasets and benchmarks especially)
• Experience on an evaluation or data team at an AI lab
• Experience selling or licensing data to AI labs
• Experience with data valuation or data attribution research

CURRENT STACK

Research

• Python / PyTorch
• Open-weight image and video models
• Cloud GPUs

Data

• Hundreds of millions of opt-in photos, videos and documents
• PostgreSQL (Supabase)
• S3 storage

COMPENSATION

• Base salary: $250,000 - $350,000
• $750,000 – $1,500,000 equity

We move fast and work hard.

If you're excited to build the benchmarks that decide what data trains frontier AI, let’s talk!

GROWTH OPPORTUNITY

You’ll join a team operating at the frontier of applied AI data infrastructure.

In this role, you’ll have the opportunity to:

• Own core systems that power one of the largest human data networks in the world
• Design infrastructure that directly influences what data trains next-generation AI models
• Build at real scale - millions of uploads per day, adversarial environments, global contributors
• Ship alongside a team that has built marketplaces, AI systems, and products used by millions

If you’re excited to move fast, build systems that matter, and help define how human data powers frontier AI, let’s talk.