Research Scientist, AI Controls and Monitoring
Designs methods, systems, and experiments for AI controls and monitoring to ensure alignment in high-stakes environments, including real-time tracking, fail-safes, and red-team simulations. Requires 3+ years ML experience, published research in generative AI, and strong prototyping skills.
About the job
Responsibilities
- Develop monitoring techniques and observability methods that track AI behavior in real time to identify and flag deviations, emergent capabilities, or anomalous outputs.
- Research mechanisms for layered control, including fail-safes, oversight protocols, and intervention methods that can halt or redirect AI systems when risks are detected.
- Design red-team simulations to probe weaknesses in oversight and control mechanisms, and build mitigations to close identified gaps.
- Collaborate with policymakers, engineers, and other researchers to establish standards and benchmarks for AI monitoring and escalation.
Requirements
- Commitment to promoting safe, secure, and trustworthy AI deployments.
- Practical experience conducting technical research collaboratively, designing control and monitoring experiments for AI systems, building prototype systems, and turning research ideas into working prototypes.
- Track record of published research in machine learning, particularly in generative AI.
- At least three years of experience addressing sophisticated ML problems in research or product development.
- Strong written and verbal communication skills for cross-functional teams.
Nice to Have
- Experience with runtime monitoring, anomaly detection, or observability for ML systems.
- Familiarity with AI control or alignment research (e.g., scalable oversight, interpretability, debate).
- Experience with post-training and RL techniques such as RLHF, DPO, GRPO, and similar approaches.
Compensation
Base salary range: $197,400 - $246,750 USD (San Francisco, New York, Seattle), plus equity and benefits including health coverage, retirement, learning stipend, PTO, and commuter stipend.
Skills
Machine Learning, Generative AI, RLHF, Dpo, Anomaly Detection, Runtime Monitoring, Scalable Oversight, Interpretability, Red-Teaming, Ai Alignment
Similar jobs
AI Research jobs
OpenAI
San Francisco, CA
Conduct rigorous people research and applied data science to evaluate talent programs, organizational health, and employee experiences. The role requires advanced expertise in research design, experimentation, measurement, causal inference, statistical modeling, and responsible handling of sensitive employee data.
Mercor
San Francisco, CA
Leads the design, measurement, publication, and adoption of APEX benchmarks evaluating frontier models on economically valuable professional work. The role requires rigorous research judgment, strong coding and statistical skills, and excellent communication across technical, commercial, and research audiences.
Tessera Labs
San Jose, CA
Research Scientist defining and executing research on reliable long-horizon agents in enterprise environments. The role focuses on post-training and reinforcement learning, agent memory, evaluation, verification, and structured representations, combining hands-on experimentation with product delivery and publication.
Earnin
Mountain View, CA
Build agent-driven chatbots and generative AI workflows for financial-wellness products, owning features from design through impact measurement. The role requires at least three years of software engineering experience, strong system design, maintainable coding practices, and a bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience.
Scale AI
San Francisco, CAResearch Scientist focused on evaluating frontier language and multimodal models, diagnosing failure modes, and building rigorous benchmarks. The role requires advanced training in AI or a related field, post-training expertise, and published machine learning research.