# Research, Vision Expertise

**Company:** [Thinking Machines Lab](https://hotfix.jobs/companies/thinking-machines-lab)
**Location:** San Francisco, CA
**Role:** ML Engineering
**Salary:** $350k – $475k/yr
**Skills:** PyTorch, TensorFlow, JAX, Python, Machine Learning, Multimodal Ai, Vision-Language Models, Distributed Training, Large-Scale Datasets, Evaluation Frameworks
**Posted:** 2026-05-04

> Conducts research on visual perception, multimodal learning, and large-scale AI model training. Designs architectures, builds datasets and evaluations, and collaborates on frontier models. Requires ML expertise, Python proficiency, and experimental rigor.

## Job Description

## What You’ll Do

- Own research projects on training and performance analysis of multimodal AI models.
- Curate and build large-scale datasets and evaluation benchmarks to advance vision capabilities.
- Work with our data infrastructure engineers, pretraining researchers and engineers, and product team to create frontier multimodal models and the products that leverage them.
- Publish and present research that moves the entire community forward. Share code, datasets, and insights that accelerate progress across industry and academia.

## Skills and Qualifications

**Minimum qualifications:**

- Ability to design, run, and analyze experiments thoughtfully, with demonstrated research judgment and empirical rigor.
- Understanding of machine learning fundamentals, large-scale training, and distributed compute environments.
- Proficiency in Python and familiarity with at least one deep learning framework (e.g., PyTorch, TensorFlow, or JAX). Comfortable with debugging distributed training and writing code that scales.
- Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Physics, Mathematics, or a related discipline with strong theoretical and empirical grounding.
- Clarity in communication, an ability to explain complex technical concepts in writing.

**Preferred qualifications:**

- Research or engineering contributions in visual reasoning, spatial understanding, or multimodal architecture design.
- Experience developing evaluation frameworks for multimodal tasks.
- Publications or open-source contributions in vision-language modeling, video understanding, or multimodal AI.
- A strong grasp of probability, statistics, and ML fundamentals. You can look at experimental data and distinguish between real effects, noise, and bugs.
- PhD in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Physics, Mathematics, or a related discipline with strong theoretical and empirical grounding; or, equivalent industry research experience.

## Logistics

**Compensation:** Depending on background, skills and experience, the expected annual salary range for this position is $350,000 - $475,000 USD.

**Benefits:** Generous health, dental, and vision benefits, unlimited PTO, paid parental leave, and relocation support as needed.

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