Staff AI Scientist, Foundation Models

Tempus AI; New York (NY); On-site; USD 220,000 - 260,000; Full time

Job summary

Tempus AI in New York, NY seeks a Staff AI Scientist, Foundation Models to advance large-scale foundation models for precision medicine. You will lead design, training, and deployment of models across clinical and molecular data, bridging ML with life sciences and real-world impact.

The role emphasizes research leadership, cross-functional collaboration, and translating discoveries into regulatory-ready AI solutions for partners and internal programs.

Qualifications

• Ph.D. in CS or related quantitative field.
• 3+ years in end-to-end ML model development.
• Expertise in large-scale deep learning and foundation models.
• Experience with pretraining, representation learning, multimodal modeling, or post-training.
• Publications in ML/NLP/Computer Vision preferred.

Responsibilities

• Lead design and training of large-scale foundation models.
• Develop downstream clinical and life-sciences applications.
• Publish research and engage with the AI community.
• Align models with regulatory and product requirements.

Skills

Python

Deep learning

Multimodal learning

NLP

Education

Ph.D. in Computer Science or related field

Tools

PyTorch

Model deployment

Job description

Passionate about precision medicine and advancing the healthcare industry?

Recent advancements in underlying technology have finally made it possible for AI to impact clinical care in a meaningful way. Tempus' proprietary platform connects an entire ecosystem of real-world evidence to deliver real-time, actionable insights to physicians, providing critical information about the right treatments for the right patients, at the right time.

At Tempus, we are pursuing a mission to redefine precision medicine through data-driven insights. The Foundation Model group is a multidisciplinary team of AI scientists and engineers developing foundation models across diverse clinical and molecular modalities, including longitudinal patient data, pathology, genomics, and other biomedical data. Our goal is to build generalizable AI representations and models that can power applications across clinical care, biomedical research, and the drug development lifecycle.

As a Staff AI Scientist, Foundation Models, you will be a senior individual contributor focused on advancing large-scale foundation models for precision medicine. You will work at the intersection of machine learning, clinical science, and life sciences, developing novel models using one of the world's largest clinical and molecular datasets and translating them into impactful applications across clinical research, drug development, and partner programs.

Key Responsibilities

• Technical Leadership: Serve as a senior individual contributor within the foundation model team, providing strong hands-on technical contributions while helping shape model architecture, research direction, and execution. Work closely with scientists and engineers to take ambitious AI technologies from research through validation and deployment.
• Foundation Model Research: Design, train, and advance state-of-the-art foundation models across large-scale multimodal clinical and molecular data, including longitudinal patient records, pathology, genomics, and related biomedical modalities. Drive innovation in areas such as pretraining, representation learning, self-supervised learning, multimodal learning, model scaling, and post-training.
• Foundation Model Applications: Develop and adapt foundation-model-derived models for downstream clinical and life sciences applications, including prognosis, treatment outcome prediction, patient stratification, biomarker discovery, clinical trial applications, and partner-specific AI solutions.
• Scientific Leadership: Contribute original ideas that advance Tempus’s foundation model research agenda, publish impactful research, and engage with the broader AI research community.
• Regulatory and Product Alignment: Work with cross-functional teams to ensure models and AI products meet appropriate quality, validation and regulatory standards for healthcare and life sciences applications.

Qualifications

We value diverse perspectives and recognize that outstanding talent does not always follow a linear path. If you are passionate about this work and believe you have what it takes to thrive here,

• Education: Ph.D. in Computer Science, or a related quantitative field.
• Professional Experience: 3+ years of industry experience driving end-to-end development of machine learning models, from research and experimentation to validation and production deployment.
• Domain Expertise: Demonstrated expertise in large-scale deep learning and foundation model development is required, including experience in areas such as pretraining, representation learning, self-supervised learning, multimodal modeling, or post-training. Experience with computer vision, NLP, pathology, longitudinal EHR, genomics, or other biomedical modalities is preferred. Prior work in medical or healthcare AI is highly valued but not required.
• Research Excellence: A strong track record of original, high-impact research demonstrated through peer-reviewed publications in leading machine learning, computer vision, NLP, or related AI venues is required. Publications in medical or healthcare AI and prior experience developing foundation models are strongly preferred.
• Engineering Excellence: Proficiency in Python and the modern deep learning stack (e.g. Pytorch). Strong product-level coding skills for model development are essential, along with a solid understanding of industry-standard software engineering and development practices.

New York Pay Range - $220,000 - $260,000 USD

The expected salary range may vary for other locations. Actual salary may vary based on qualifications and experience. Tempus offers a full range of benefits, which may include incentive compensation, restricted stock units, medical and other benefits depending on the position.

We are an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.