Senior Applied Research Scientist

Tensorlake Inc.; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Comprehensive Healthcare

Dental Benefits

401(k) plans

Job summary

A leading AI innovation firm in San Francisco seeks an experienced scientist to innovate foundational AI models and systems. You'll lead the design of advanced models for document understanding, integrating cutting-edge vision-language models to enhance real-world applications. The ideal candidate has over 5 years of experience in AI/ML research, with a proven ability to transition prototypes into robust, production-ready solutions. This role offers comprehensive healthcare and 401(k) plans in a fast-paced startup culture.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience in AI/ML research and applied systems; strong record of delivering results.
• Hands-on experience with vision-language models, RAG frameworks, context-aware retrieval, agentic AI.
• Experience optimizing and fine-tuning large models, knowledge of quantization/LoRA.

Responsibilities

• Lead design and experimentation on state-of-the-art models for document understanding.
• Build and ship production-ready AI components like table extraction and structure parsing.
• Work with engineering to deploy models at scale.

Skills

AI/ML research

vision-language models

RAG frameworks

context-aware retrieval

embedding-based systems

deep learning frameworks

Python

Job description

About Tensorlake Inc

Tensorlake is a serverless platform for agentic applications and Document Ingestion. It provides foundational infrastructure such as serverless compute, code sandboxes, durable execution and unstructured data ingestion APIs to developers in enterprises. We aim to push the frontier of AI that understands real, complex documents and detailed workflows — not just text extraction, but contextual reasoning and scalable application systems .

This role is for an experienced scientist who thrives both in innovating foundational models and building usable, robust AI systems for real users .

What You’ll Do

• Lead design and experimentation on state-of-the-art models for document understanding, multimodal reasoning, and deep content extraction.
• Research, evaluate, and integrate the latest vision-language models (VLMs), retrieval frameworks, RAG systems, and grounding techniques to drive product impact.
• Develop new benchmarks, datasets, and evaluation methodologies tailored to real-world document AI tasks.

Applied AI & Product Impact

• Build and ship production-ready AI components (e.g., table extraction, structure parsing, semantic indexing, multimodal QA, agentic workflows).
• Work with engineering and product partners to deploy models at scale — from prototype to integrated platform features.
• Collaborate closely with customers and partners to prioritize and validate use cases, including LLM orchestration, context engineering, and agent integration .

Qualifications

Technical Expertise

• 5+ years experience in AI/ML research and applied systems; strong record of delivering results.
• Hands-on experience with vision-language models , RAG frameworks, context-aware retrieval, agentic AI, and embedding-based systems.
• Track record of “research → product” delivery: turning prototypes into robust pipelines, APIs, or services .
• Experience optimizing and fine-tuning large models, knowledge of quantization/LoRA/efficient training.
• Proficiency with deep learning frameworks (PyTorch preferred), Python, and scalable ML tooling.

Optional (but Highly Valued)

• Experience with open-source frameworks and community contributions
• Background in agents, RAG architectures, retrieval systems, and context engineering .
• Experience designing benchmarks, quality metrics, or curated datasets for complex tasks.

What Sets You Apart

• You balance deep technical curiosity with product focus and can speak fluently to both ML research and engineering issues.
• You’ve shipped models and systems that are used by developers or customers in real scenarios (not just research demos).
• You are comfortable working in a fast-moving startup environment where priorities evolve and innovation is part of the culture.
• - Ability to save in 401(k) plans
• - Comprehensive Healthcare and Dental Benefits

Why Tensorlake?

We’re building something foundational for how companies integrate AI into knowledge workflows, RAG pipelines, document agents, and real-world enterprise applications . If you’re excited about shaping AI products that matter, and you enjoy bridging research with engineering execution, this is the role to join. LinkedIn