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About This Role
Entity:
Technology
Job Family Group:
Subsurface Group
Job Description:
Imaging Research Scientist (Lead)
We are looking for a Research Scientist (Imaging) who is passionate about solving complex subsurface problems for bp’s hydrocarbon business by utilizing scientific machine learning, AI and fundamental principles of Physics, Math and Geophysics.
Join us if you are innovative, creative and love problem solving. You will be working with top industry experts in the field of Seismic Imaging, Reservoir Analysis & Reservoir Engineering and Computational Sciences.
This role is within Imaging R&D team which is part of Upstream R&D (URD). URD’s mission is to support bp’s Upstream business. We do so by inventing new ideas, building new products, providing technical expertise, and supporting business units by helping them solve their near, mid, and long-term challenges. URD houses a range of skills such as: Geology, Geophysics, Petrophysics & Reservoir Engineering. Imaging R&D team works very closely with engineers and scientists working in the Center of High-Performance Computing (CHPC) and Digital delivery teams.
This role is for someone who can function as a domain expert and has good first principals understanding of Geophysics as we build next generation of ML-based imaging solutions. As a scientist within the Imaging R&D team you will be expected to engage with a broad set of disciplines – ML/AI, Geophysics, Petrophysics, Reservoir Engineering, Geology, Statistics & High-Performance Computing. Imaging R&D team is set up to solve cutting edge challenges that involve solving big inverse problems, building modeling and simulation capabilities, developing stochastic algorithms, and estimating uncertainties & communicating complex information to our business units. We are looking for someone who excels at these numerical tasks and can utilize ML/AI methods appropriately. Someone who can process complex information, be creative and has ideas on visualizing and communicating those. This position offers excellent opportunities to work with a lot of data (“BIG” data in both static and streaming senses), a lot of computers and challenging business problems in a myriad of subsurface subject areas.
Key responsibilities will include:
- Quickly getting up to speed with the existing technology & framework
- Finding opportunities that can have groundbreaking business impact
- Writing a lot of code & building technical solutions to bring your ideas to life
- Staying inquisitive and being creative
- Collaborating with scientists from different subject areas
- Lead squads and projects (as and when needed)
Requirements:
- Advanced degree (MS or PhD) in Scientific subject areas such as Physics, Mathematics, Computational Sciences, Statistics, Geophysics
- Demonstrated experience out of grad school (7 + years)
- Practical hands-on experience in developing code – Python, C, C++, CUDA
- Experience with inverse problems, optimization theory and Statistics
- Experience with ML/AI and data analytics
Why join us
- At bp, we support our people to learn and grow in a diverse and exciting environment. We believe that our team is strengthened by diversity. We are committed to fostering an inclusive environment in which everyone is respected and treated fairly.
- There are many aspects of our employees’ lives that are important, so we offer benefits to enable your work to fit with your life. These benefits can include flexible working options, a generous paid parental leave policy, and excellent retirement benefits, among others!
- We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and to receive other benefits and privileges of employment. Please contact us to request accommodation.
Travel Requirement
Some travel may be required with this role, this is negotiable
Relocation Assistance:
Relocation may be negotiable for this role
Remote Type:
This position is a hybrid of office/remote working
Skills:
Analytical Thinking, Computing, Data Analysis, Data Management, High-Performance Computing (HPC), Numerical Analysis, Numerical Simulations, Research and development, Statistical Machine Learning, Statistical Physics, Geophysics, Imaging algorithms
Legal Disclaimer:
We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, gender, gender expression, sexual orientation, age, marital status, socioeconomic status, neurodiversity/neurocognitive functioning, veteran status or disability status. Individuals with disabilities may request a reasonable accommodation related to bp’s recruiting process (e.g., accessing the job application, completing required assessments, participating in telephone screenings or interviews, etc.). If you would like to request an accommodation related to the recruitment process, please contact us to request accommodations.
If you are selected for a position and depending upon your role, your employment may be contingent upon adherence to local policy. This may include pre-placement drug screening, medical review of physical fitness for the role, and background checks.
Travel Requirement
Up to 10% travel should be expected with this role
Relocation Assistance:
Relocation may be negotiable for this role
Remote Type:
This position is a hybrid of office/remote working
Skills:
Basin resource evaluation, Basin resource evaluation, CO2 utilisation and storage, Data Analysis, Depletion and Storage Development Planning, Depositional framework, Fluid Properties, Geodesy and coordinate integrity, Geohazard Assessment, Geological Reservoir and Storage Unit Modelling, Geophysical surveillance, Integrated Resource Progression, Integrated Well Delivery, Non-seismic geophysical methods, Petroleum Systems Analysis, Petrophysical Seismic Lithology and Fluid Prediction, Petrophysical Seismic Reservoir Characterisation, Research and Development, Reserves Estimation and Storage Volume Assessment, Reservoir quality, Resource, Rock Properties Framework, Seismic Acquisition, Seismic Analysis, Seismic Processing {+ 7 more} .


Legal Disclaimer:
We are an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of protected characteristics like race, religion, color, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, veteran status or disability status. Individuals with an accessibility need may request an adjustment/accommodation related to bp’s recruiting process (e.g., accessing the job application, completing required assessments, participating in telephone screenings or interviews, etc.). If you would like to request an adjustment/accommodation related to the recruitment process, please contact us.
If you are selected for a position and depending upon your role, your employment may be contingent upon adherence to local policy. This may include pre-placement drug screening, medical review of physical fitness for the role, and background checks.
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Disclaimer
This is a high-level summary only of terms and current discretionary benefits applicable to certain roles. Some rewards, benefits and policies are at managers’ discretion and vary depending on where you work within the business. All terms subject to contract and all discretionary benefits subject to policy and eligibility.
Role Details
About This Role
Research Scientists push the boundaries of what AI can do. They design experiments, develop novel architectures, publish papers, and translate research breakthroughs into production capabilities. This is where the fundamental advances happen, from attention mechanisms to diffusion models to reasoning chains.
The work is intellectually demanding and often ambiguous. You might spend months on an approach that doesn't pan out. The best research scientists combine deep mathematical intuition with engineering pragmatism. They know when to go deep on theory and when to run experiments. They read papers voraciously and can spot incremental contributions from genuine breakthroughs.
Across the 9,079 AI roles we're tracking, Research Scientist positions make up 2% of the market. At bp, this role fits into their broader AI and engineering organization.
Research Scientist roles are concentrated at major AI labs (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google DeepMind, Meta FAIR) and well-funded AI startups. The competition is intense. PhD is effectively required for most positions, and publication track record matters. Compensation is among the highest in AI, reflecting both the scarcity of talent and the strategic importance of research breakthroughs.
What the Work Looks Like
A typical week includes: reading and discussing recent papers with your team, designing and running experiments on multi-GPU clusters, analyzing results and iterating on hypotheses, writing up findings for internal review or publication, and collaborating with engineering teams to productionize promising results. The ratio of thinking to coding is higher than in engineering roles.
Research Scientist roles are concentrated at major AI labs (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google DeepMind, Meta FAIR) and well-funded AI startups. The competition is intense. PhD is effectively required for most positions, and publication track record matters. Compensation is among the highest in AI, reflecting both the scarcity of talent and the strategic importance of research breakthroughs.
Skills Required
PhD strongly preferred for most roles. Deep expertise in a specific area (NLP, computer vision, reinforcement learning, multimodal) is expected. PyTorch is the standard. Publication track record matters. Strong mathematical foundations in linear algebra, probability, optimization, and information theory are assumed.
Beyond the fundamentals, companies value experience with large-scale distributed training, novel architecture design, and the ability to bridge theory and practice. Understanding of current frontier topics (reasoning, multimodal, long-context, alignment) is essential. Code quality matters more than many researchers expect. Labs want researchers who can implement their ideas cleanly.
Strong research postings specify the research area, mention the team you'd join, and describe the problems they're working on. They often list recent publications from the team. Vague 'AI research' postings without specifics usually mean the company wants to sound impressive but doesn't have a real research agenda.
Compensation Benchmarks
Research Scientist roles pay a median of $222,200 based on 749 positions with disclosed compensation. Senior-level AI roles across all categories have a median of $229,300.
Across all AI roles, the market median is $213,000. Top-quartile compensation starts at $263,911. The 90th percentile reaches $318,400. For comparison, the highest-paying categories include AI Safety ($256,000) and Research Engineer ($252,000). By seniority level: Entry: $111,000; Mid: $193,200; Senior: $229,300; Director: $272,300; VP: $235,830.
bp AI Hiring
bp has 3 open AI roles right now. They're hiring across Research Scientist, AI Product Manager. Positions span Houston, TX, US, Singapore, Singapore.
Location Context
Across all AI roles, 6% (531 positions) offer remote work, while 8,478 require on-site attendance. Top AI hiring metros: New York (3,078 roles, $221,000 median); San Francisco (2,646 roles, $261,000 median); Los Angeles (1,486 roles, $210,000 median).
Career Path
Common paths into Research Scientist roles include PhD Student, Research Engineer, Postdoc.
From here, career progression typically leads toward Research Lead, Distinguished Scientist, VP of Research.
The PhD is the entry point for most paths. Choose your advisor and research area carefully since they'll define your first industry position. Publish consistently, contribute to open-source projects in your area, and build relationships at conferences. Industry research offers better compensation and compute resources than academia, but the pressure to show product impact is real.
What to Expect in Interviews
Research interviews are multi-stage: a research talk (present your best paper), technical deep-dives on your methodology, and often a 'research proposal' exercise where you design an experiment to test a hypothesis. Coding rounds test implementation ability alongside theoretical knowledge. Be prepared to implement a paper from scratch and discuss the design choices the authors made. Strong candidates can critique papers constructively and identify gaps in experimental methodology.
When evaluating opportunities: Strong research postings specify the research area, mention the team you'd join, and describe the problems they're working on. They often list recent publications from the team. Vague 'AI research' postings without specifics usually mean the company wants to sound impressive but doesn't have a real research agenda.
AI Hiring Overview
The AI job market has 9,079 open positions tracked in our dataset. By seniority: 106 entry-level, 4,384 mid-level, 3,343 senior, and 1,246 leadership roles (Director, VP, C-Level). Remote roles make up 6% of the market (531 positions). The remaining 8,478 roles require on-site or hybrid attendance.
The market median for AI roles is $213,000. Top-quartile compensation starts at $263,911. The 90th percentile reaches $318,400. Highest-paying categories: AI Safety ($256,000 median, 66 roles); Research Engineer ($252,000 median, 457 roles); AI Engineering Manager ($251,622 median, 55 roles).
Research Scientist roles are concentrated at major AI labs (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google DeepMind, Meta FAIR) and well-funded AI startups. The competition is intense. PhD is effectively required for most positions, and publication track record matters. Compensation is among the highest in AI, reflecting both the scarcity of talent and the strategic importance of research breakthroughs.
The AI Job Market Today
The AI job market spans 9,079 open positions across 16 role categories. The largest categories by volume: AI/ML Engineer (6,862), AI Product Manager (453), AI Software Engineer (451). These three account for the majority of open positions, though smaller categories often have higher per-role compensation because of specialized skill requirements.
The seniority mix tells a story about where AI teams are in their maturity. Entry-level roles (106) are outnumbered by mid-level (4,384) and senior (3,343) positions, reflecting that most companies are past the 'build a team from scratch' phase and need experienced engineers who can ship production systems. Leadership roles (Director, VP, C-Level) total 1,246 positions, representing the bottleneck between technical execution and organizational strategy.
Remote work availability sits at 6% of all AI roles (531 positions), with 8,478 requiring on-site or hybrid attendance. The remote share has stabilized after the post-pandemic correction. Senior and specialized roles (Research Scientist, ML Architect) are more likely to be remote-eligible than entry-level positions, partly because experienced hires have more negotiating power and partly because these roles require less hands-on mentorship.
AI compensation is structured in clear tiers. The market median sits at $213,000. Top-quartile roles start at $263,911, and the 90th percentile reaches $318,400. These figures include base salary with disclosed compensation. Total compensation (including equity, bonuses, and sign-on) runs 20-40% higher at companies that offer those components.
Category matters for compensation. AI Safety roles lead at $256,000 median, while Prompt Engineer roles sit at $141,440. The spread between highest and lowest-paying categories reflects the premium on specialized technical skills versus broader analytical roles.
The most in-demand skills across all AI postings: Python (1,649 postings), Aws (898 postings), Azure (723 postings), Rag (671 postings), Gcp (536 postings), Pytorch (434 postings), Claude (410 postings), Kubernetes (406 postings). Python dominates, appearing in the vast majority of role descriptions regardless of category. Cloud platform experience (AWS, GCP, Azure) is the second most common requirement. The newer entrants to the top skills list (RAG, vector databases, LLM APIs) reflect the shift from traditional ML toward generative AI applications.
Frequently Asked Questions
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