VP, Research

Odyssey; Palo Alto (CA); On-site; USD 300,000 - 500,000; Full time

Job summary

Odyssey is hiring a VP of Research to lead the Frontier ML group, shaping the world-model frontier and directing the research roadmap with hands‑on involvement.

You will own the research agenda across world simulation, multimodality, robotics, and multi‑agent systems, and work to elevate Odyssey's reputation through publications and collaboration.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of research experience with a strong publication record at top ML venues.
• Proven ability to lead and grow research teams across advanced ML domains.
• Ability to set a research vision and drive impactful frontier results.
• Comfortable operating in fast-paced, ambiguous startup-like settings.
• Strong collaboration with platform, applied ML, and infra teams.

Responsibilities

• Lead and grow the Frontier ML research group, mentoring researchers at all levels.
• Own and drive Odyssey's research agenda across world simulation and multimodal ML.
• Define a compelling research vision to attract top talent.
• Set the research roadmap and publication strategy for external reputation.
• Collaborate with VP-level leaders across disciplines to align strategy.
• Stay hands-on to run experiments directly when needed.

Skills

10+ years research

Top ML publication record

Team leadership

Research roadmap

Interdisciplinary collaboration

Job description

Who we are

Odyssey is an AI lab pioneering general world models: causal, multimodal systems that learn to predict and interact with the world over long horizons. This foundational technology promises to revolutionize robotics, science, healthcare, education, gaming, defense, and beyond.

Odyssey’s founders previously pioneered the most complex application of physical AI: self-driving cars. They’ve now brought together a world-class research team from DeepMind, Tesla, Waymo, Meta, Apple, and Wayve, who have made significant contributions to language models (DeepMind Gemini), video models (DeepMind Veo), world models (Wayve GAIA), and autonomous systems (Tesla FSD).

Odyssey has raised significant venture capital from GV, Amazon, AMD, EQT, NVIDIA, Natural Capital, In-Q-Tel, Elad Gil, Jeff Dean, Guillermo Rauch, Garry Tan, Kyle Vogt, and researchers from OpenAI, DeepMind, MSL, Recursive, and Thinking Machines.

About the role

Odyssey is hiring a VP of Research to lead and grow our Frontier ML group, the researchers working at the cutting edge of world model capability, responsible for the first proof points of new algorithms and for pushing the frontier of what world models can do. This is a role for someone who wants to both set the research agenda and stay hands‑on enough to shape it directly, not manage from a distance.

You’ll own Odyssey's research agenda across world simulation, multimodality, robotics, and multi‑agent systems, define and execute the vision that positions Odyssey as the leading voice in world models, and take responsibility for the research roadmap, publication strategy, and external research reputation of the company. You’ll report directly to Jeff Hawke, our Co‑Founder and CTO, and work alongside James Grieve (VP, Applied ML), Fabian Güra (Distinguished Engineer), and a VP of Engineering we’re hiring alongside you.

What you’ll own

• Leading and growing the Frontier ML research group, hiring, mentoring, and developing researchers at every level.

• Owning and driving Odyssey's research agenda across world simulation, multimodality, robotics, and multi‑agent systems.

• Defining and communicating a research vision ambitious enough to position Odyssey as the leading voice in world models, one that attracts top talent to the field and to us specifically.

• Setting the research roadmap and publication strategy, and representing Odyssey's research externally to the broader community.

• Collaboration across disciplines with other VP‑level leaders, driving forward Odyssey’s holistic top‑level strategy.

• Staying close enough to the work to directly run experimentation yourself, not just manage others doing it.

Who you are

• 10+ years of research experience with a strong publication record at top ML venues (NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, CVPR, and similar).

• Deep technical expertise in at least one of generative video models, world models, multimodal learning, reinforcement learning, or robotics.

• A track record of leading and growing research teams, including mentoring researchers at all levels, not just senior hires.

• Demonstrated ability to set a research vision that shapes a field and pulls talent toward it.

• A track record of generating frontier results yourself, not only managing the people who generate them.

• Comfortable in a fast‑paced, high‑ambiguity environment; startup experience preferred.

• Equally comfortable partnering with ML Platform, Applied ML, and compute and infrastructure teams as with your own researchers.

• Willing to be in the office 3+ days a week, ideally full-time, based in London or, alternatively, Palo Alto.

• Genuinely motivated by Odyssey's mission to discover the GPT‑3 moment for world models, not just intellectually curious about it.