Interested in this Research Scientist role at Grid Dynamics?
Apply Now →Skills & Technologies
About This Role
We are seeking an experienced ML Engineer to join our team to build and scale automated evaluation and synthetic data generation (SDG) capabilities that support safety assessments across languages and markets. You will play a crucial role in training automated judges, developing validation techniques, building automated performance checks, and creating scalable approaches to analysis and reporting. An ideal candidate possesses strong machine learning engineering skills, experience building evaluation and data generation pipelines, and the ability to iteratively and collaboratively with subject matter experts. You will be part of a team who works closely with language experts and multi\-lingual annotators to validate automated approaches to safety evaluations, across diverse linguistic contexts.
Responsibilities* Automated Judge Development: Train, fine\-tune, and validate automated judge models that can reliably score AI system outputs for safety and policy compliance. Develop calibration and agreement metrics to ensure judges meet human\-parity benchmarks.
- Validation Techniques: Design and implement validation frameworks to assess the accuracy, reliability, and cross\-linguistic consistency of automated evaluation systems. Develop methods to detect drift, bias, and failure modes in automated judges across markets.
- Synthetic Data Generation: Develop and maintain synthetic data generation pipelines to augment evaluation coverage, stress\-test safety boundaries, and support evaluation in low\-resource languages. Ensure synthetic data is diverse, representative, and validated against human\-generated benchmarks.
- Scalable Analysis \& Reporting Automation: Create automated pipelines for analysis and reporting that reduce manual effort, increase reproducibility, and enable rapid cross\-market safety assessments. Build tooling that integrates with existing dashboards and reporting workflows.
Requirements* 3\+ years of experience in an ML engineering or applied ML research role, with hands\-on experience building and deploying ML models and pipelines.
- Strong proficiency in Python and ML frameworks (e.g., PyTorch, TensorFlow, Hugging Face Transformers).
- Experience training, fine\-tuning, and evaluating language models and/or classifiers, including prompt engineering and model calibration.
- Experience building automated data processing, evaluation, or monitoring pipelines.
- Comfortable with experiment design and statistical validation of model performance across segmented samples.
- Able to work independently as well as collaboratively with minimal direction.
- Organized, highly attentive to detail, and manages time well.
- Experience with synthetic data generation techniques, including data augmentation, paraphrasing, and controlled generation methods.
- Experience with multilingual NLP, cross\-lingual transfer learning, or low\-resource language modeling.
- Familiarity with evaluation\-as\-a\-service architectures or automated red teaming frameworks.
- Experience with large\-scale distributed computing (e.g., Spark, Ray, or cloud\-based ML platforms).
- Prior experience in AI safety, responsible AI, content moderation, or trust and safety domains
- Experience with CI/CD integration for ML model validation and deployment.
- Advanced degree (MS/PhD) in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Natural Language Processing, or a related field.
We offer
- Opportunity to work on cutting\-edge projects
- Work with a highly motivated and dedicated team
- Competitive salary
- Flexible schedule
- Benefits package \- medical insurance, vision, dental, etc.
- Corporate social events
- Professional development opportunities
- Well\-equipped office
About us
Grid Dynamics (NASDAQ: GDYN) is a leading provider of technology consulting, platform and product engineering, AI, and advanced analytics services. Fusing technical vision with business acumen, we solve the most pressing technical challenges and enable positive business outcomes for enterprise companies undergoing business transformation. A key differentiator for Grid Dynamics is our 8 years of experience and leadership in enterprise AI, supported by profound expertise and ongoing investment in data, analytics, cloud \& DevOps, application modernization and customer experience. Founded in 2006, Grid Dynamics is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices across the Americas, Europe, and India.
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 3,708 AI roles we're tracking, Research Scientist positions make up 3% of the market. At Grid Dynamics, 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 197 positions with disclosed compensation. Mid-level AI roles across all categories have a median of $200,000.
Across all AI roles, the market median is $217,500. Top-quartile compensation starts at $272,100. The 90th percentile reaches $325,000. For comparison, the highest-paying categories include AI Safety ($300,000) and Research Engineer ($280,000). By seniority level: Entry: $120,000; Mid: $200,000; Senior: $230,000; Director: $272,150; VP: $250,000.
Grid Dynamics AI Hiring
Grid Dynamics has 2 open AI roles right now. They're hiring across Research Scientist, AI/ML Engineer. Based in US.
Location Context
AI roles in Austin pay a median of $214,343 across 87 tracked positions.
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 3,708 open positions tracked in our dataset. By seniority: 102 entry-level, 1,705 mid-level, 1,469 senior, and 432 leadership roles (Director, VP, C-Level). Remote roles make up 14% of the market (508 positions). The remaining 3,180 roles require on-site or hybrid attendance.
The market median for AI roles is $217,500. Top-quartile compensation starts at $272,100. The 90th percentile reaches $325,000. Highest-paying categories: AI Safety ($300,000 median, 21 roles); Research Engineer ($280,000 median, 147 roles); AI Architect ($254,798 median, 67 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 3,708 open positions across 16 role categories. The largest categories by volume: AI/ML Engineer (2,605), Data Scientist (310), AI Software Engineer (259). 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 (102) are outnumbered by mid-level (1,705) and senior (1,469) 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 432 positions, representing the bottleneck between technical execution and organizational strategy.
Remote work availability sits at 14% of all AI roles (508 positions), with 3,180 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 $217,500. Top-quartile roles start at $272,100, and the 90th percentile reaches $325,000. 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 $300,000 median, while Prompt Engineer roles sit at $140,000. 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 (1,890 postings), Aws (1,103 postings), Azure (877 postings), Rag (855 postings), Gcp (631 postings), Prompt Engineering (560 postings), Pytorch (545 postings), Claude (498 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
Get Weekly AI Career Intelligence
Salary data, skills demand, and market signals from 16,000+ AI job postings. Every Monday.