# Principal Research Scientist – Scaling

**Company:** [Databricks](https://hotfix.jobs/companies/databricks)
**Location:** San Francisco, CA
**Role:** AI Research
**Salary:** $280k – $350k/yr
**Skills:** PyTorch, Python, LLMs, Distributed Training, Model Optimization, Low-Precision Training, Rl, Neural Networks, Foundation Models, Scalable Architectures
**Posted:** 2026-04-23

> Leads research team advancing LLM scaling, post-training, RL, and inference efficiency. Drives innovations in optimization, distributed systems, and production integration using Python/PyTorch, with deep expertise in large-scale ML.

## Job Description

## Responsibilities

- Lead and grow a multidisciplinary research team focused on foundational and applied AI problems, with emphasis on LLM scaling, efficiency, and systems performance.
- Define the scaling research roadmap aligned with strategic objectives, prioritizing foundation model efficiency and large-scale training/inference.
- Drive algorithmic innovations for large-scale neural network training/inference, including novel optimizers, low-precision techniques, and model adaptation methods.
- Optimize end-to-end ML systems for distributed training/RL, memory/compute efficiency via collaboration with systems/platform teams.
- Partner with product/engineering to translate research into customer-impacting capabilities.
- Foster scientific excellence, reproducible experimentation, and knowledge sharing.
- Represent research externally via publications, talks, and collaborations.
- Mentor and develop research scientists/engineers.

## What You Will Do

- Define/lead research programs on foundation model efficiency (optimizer design, low-precision training/inference, scalable architectures, efficient adaptation).
- Oversee large-scale experiments, benchmarking, and trade-off evaluation (quality, latency, throughput, cost).
- Work hands-on with Python/PyTorch for research implementation, prototyping, and production integration.
- Collaborate on distributed training, parallelism, memory management, hardware utilization.
- Establish metrics/evaluation protocols for scaling research (training efficiency, inference cost, energy usage).
- Champion responsible deployment ensuring model reliability/safety.

## Requirements

- Proven leadership of research teams developing novel foundation model efficiency techniques with industry impact.
- Deep expertise in generative AI, LLMs, distributed ML systems, model optimization, or responsible AI, emphasizing scaling/efficiency.
- Hands-on leadership with strong Python/PyTorch programming skills.
- Ability to translate research into scalable product capabilities.
- Excellent communication, leadership, stakeholder management skills.

## Nice to Have

- Experience at systems/ML intersection (distributed training frameworks, compiler/kernel optimization, memory/compute-efficient design).
- Strong network in large-scale ML with conference service/collaborations.
- Record of research impact (top ML/systems publications, open-source contributions, deployed systems).

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