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About This Role
Overview
Intuit is hiring a Senior AI Research Scientist to join the Intuit Foresight team.
In its intrapreneurial function, the Foresight team at Intuit develops and incubates emerging technologies, user experiences, capabilities and products that have the potential to be transformative to businesses and consumers. The mission of the AI Research team is to do cutting edge research in AI topics that directly influence Intuit’s portfolio of fintech offerings and position Intuit as a global leader in AI with the goal of powering prosperity around the world. In this role you will advance the state of the art in AI methods that support decision making under uncertainty, including interpretable and trustworthy reasoning systems.
We are seeking candidates with deep expertise in decision-focused AI, including probabilistic modeling, forecasting, causal inference, simulation-based planning, agentic and multi-agent systems, neuro-symbolic AI, fundamentals of deep learning architectures and model training (pre and post) , reinforcement learning, and LLM based reasoning for real-world business decision workflows.
You will join a high-caliber team of domain experts, data scientists, and machine learning engineers to shape our strategy in this area, and develop advanced capabilities that serve our customers’ needs, both current and future. Responsibilities
Conducting basic and applied research on probabilistic, causal, and simulation-based models, and on methods that enable LLMs to reason over structured business data
Engaging with the academic and broader research community through publications, presentations, and collaborations.
Working towards long-term ambitious research goals that are in alignment with Intuit products, while identifying intermediate milestones
Working with a cross-functional team of designers, product managers, engineers, researchers, legal experts and more, to translate scientific AI methods into decision-support capabilities that power the customer experiences across various Intuit product offerings.
Mentoring junior AI Scientists and interns through goal setting and technical directions that lead to positive outcomes Qualifications
PhD in Computer Science/Electrical Engineering/Statistics/Applied Mathematics or a related field with focus on AI/ML/Data Science
Established track record of publication, ideally demonstrated through first author publications in top tier AI conferences ( e.g. NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, KDD, ACL, AAAI)
5+ years experience in conducting theoretical or applied research with demonstrated capability of defining and driving research projects
Past experience in disseminating new technical ideas to the larger scientific community through open sourcing, publications, and presentations
Experience with developing and debugging in Python with Tensorflow, Pytorch, or similar frameworks
Deep technical expertise in machine learning, with hands-on experience in probabilistic modeling, causal inference, time-series forecasting, reinforcement learning, agentic and multi-agent systems, neuro-symbolic AI, deep learning architectures, or model training.
Excited about the future of Money, Payments, FinTech, and the transformation these technologies will drive
Strong interpersonal and communication skills in order to effectively communicate and/or collaborate with other team members as well as product technologists and other stakeholders
Intuit provides a competitive compensation package with a strong pay for performance rewards approach. This position may be eligible for a cash bonus, equity rewards and benefits, in accordance with our applicable plans and programs (see more about our compensation and benefits at Intuit®: Careers | Benefits). Pay offered is based on factors such as job-related knowledge, skills, experience, and work location. To drive ongoing fair pay for employees, Intuit conducts regular comparisons across categories of ethnicity and gender.
The expected base pay range for this position is:
Mountain View $180,000 - $243,500
Salary Context
This $180K-$243K range is above the median for Research Scientist roles in our dataset (median: $196K across 100 roles with salary data).
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 11,520 AI roles we're tracking, Research Scientist positions make up 2% of the market. At Intuit, 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 $223,400 based on 789 positions with disclosed compensation. Senior-level AI roles across all categories have a median of $230,000. This role's midpoint ($211K) sits 5% below the category median. Disclosed range: $180K to $243K.
Across all AI roles, the market median is $213,480. Top-quartile compensation starts at $264,000. The 90th percentile reaches $318,400. For comparison, the highest-paying categories include AI Safety ($266,050) and AI Engineering Manager ($253,461). By seniority level: Entry: $112,320; Mid: $193,200; Senior: $230,000; Director: $272,250; VP: $235,830.
Intuit AI Hiring
Intuit has 31 open AI roles right now. They're hiring across AI/ML Engineer, Data Scientist, AI Product Manager, Research Scientist. Positions span San Diego, CA, US, Mountain View, CA, US, Springfield, IL. Compensation range: $190K - $427K.
Location Context
Across all AI roles, 6% (708 positions) offer remote work, while 10,737 require on-site attendance. Top AI hiring metros: New York (3,257 roles, $221,000 median); San Francisco (2,766 roles, $260,550 median); Los Angeles (1,580 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 11,520 open positions tracked in our dataset. By seniority: 140 entry-level, 5,630 mid-level, 4,176 senior, and 1,574 leadership roles (Director, VP, C-Level). Remote roles make up 6% of the market (708 positions). The remaining 10,737 roles require on-site or hybrid attendance.
The market median for AI roles is $213,480. Top-quartile compensation starts at $264,000. The 90th percentile reaches $318,400. Highest-paying categories: AI Safety ($266,050 median, 70 roles); AI Engineering Manager ($253,461 median, 58 roles); Research Engineer ($252,000 median, 476 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 11,520 open positions across 16 role categories. The largest categories by volume: AI/ML Engineer (8,769), AI Software Engineer (586), AI Product Manager (511). 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 (140) are outnumbered by mid-level (5,630) and senior (4,176) 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 1,574 positions, representing the bottleneck between technical execution and organizational strategy.
Remote work availability sits at 6% of all AI roles (708 positions), with 10,737 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 $213,480. Top-quartile roles start at $264,000, 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 $266,050 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 (2,267 postings), Aws (1,178 postings), Azure (972 postings), Rag (924 postings), Gcp (715 postings), Pytorch (586 postings), Claude (572 postings), Kubernetes (559 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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