Job Description

Job Title: Chief Scientist – Foundation Models

Salary: $280K - $350K + Equity

Location: 3 days hybrid in San Jose, CA

A high-growth AI startup with strong backing from top-tier investors is hiring a Chief Scientist to lead their foundation model research and development. The company builds cutting-edge generative AI SaaS products, serving millions of users. In this role, you will lead and grow a team focused on training large-scale models for image, video, and multimodal generation. You’ll take over the Pre-training model development currently overseen by the CEO, with full ownership of pre-training strategies and research direction. Ideal candidates will have published at top-tier conferences (e.g., CVPR, ICML, SIGGRAPH), hold a PhD in AI or related fields, and bring deep hands-on experience in pre-training foundational models at scale.

Requirements:

• 4–5+ years of experience building and pre-training foundation models
• Strong background in large-scale model training
• Prior publications at top conferences (e.g., CVPR, SIGGRAPH, ICML, NeurIPS)
• Proven leadership experience; ability to hire and scale a high-impact research team
• Deep technical expertise in image, video, or 3D generation
• PhD in Computer Science, Machine Learning, or a related discipline
• Ability to work closely with leadership in a fast-paced, product-oriented environment

Benefits:

• Highly competitive salary and equity
• Medical, Dental, and Vision Insurance
• Paid Time Off and Parental Leave
• Occasional team offsites and meetups
• High agency and ownership over research direction
• Ground-floor opportunity with a product already in use by millions

If you’re passionate about foundational research and ready to drive the next generation of generative AI models, apply today!

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