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About This Role
About Predictive Horizons AI
We are here to shape the future of machine diagnostics.
At Predictive Horizons AI, we are unleashing the power of Generative AI to revolutionize how the world optimizes the health and reliability of complex systems. We are building the intelligence layer that allows machines to "speak" to us, predicting failures before they occur and diagnosing issues with unprecedented accuracy.
Our Mission: To ensure the safety, security, and longevity of every critical system humans rely on by solving problems before they ever happen.
Where we are now: We are a fast\-moving, venture\-backed startup with funding from top\-tier firms in the Bay Area and Canada. While our current focus is transforming the automotive industry by creating a safer, smarter road experience, our platform is built for scale. We are rapidly expanding our diagnostic engine to encompass a wide range of industrial equipment and high\-stakes machinery where failure is not an option.
Why Join Us?
- Direct Access to Industry Giants: This isn't theoretical work. You will work directly with real\-world customers, including major automotive OEMs, to solve their most pressing diagnostic challenges.
- Mission\-Critical Work: We don’t optimize for ad clicks or social engagement. Our work protects lives, ensuring that every occupant in a vehicle or person relying on critical technology is safe because a failure was prevented.
- Bleeding Edge Engineering: You will sit at the unique intersection of Generative AI and real\-world hardware. You'll solve deep technical challenges in a sector that is only just beginning its digital revolution.
- Radical Openness: We value intellectual honesty and transparency. We operate with a flat structure where the best idea wins, and every engineer has a seat at the table when discussing product and strategy.
- 100% Remote \& Async\-Friendly: We value deep work. Work from anywhere in the world; we prioritize results over "hours at the desk."
Key Responsibilities
- Conduct research and implement solutions in areas such as model architecture, algorithms, data processing, and optimizer development
- Independently lead small research projects while collaborating with team members on larger initiatives
- Design, run, and analyze scientific experiments to advance our understanding of large language models
- Optimize and scale our training infrastructure to improve efficiency and reliability
- Develop and improve dev tooling to enhance team productivity
- Contribute to the entire stack, from low\-level optimizations to high\-level model design
Qualifications
- Advanced degree (MS or PhD) in Computer Science, Machine Learning, or a related field
- Strong software engineering skills with a proven track record of building complex systems
- Expertise in Python and experience with deep learning frameworks (PyTorch preferred)
- Familiarity with large\-scale machine learning, particularly in the context of language models
- Familiarity with reinforcement learning techniques
- Ability to balance research goals with practical engineering constraints
- Strong problem\-solving skills and a results\-oriented mindset
- Excellent communication skills and ability to work in a collaborative environment
- Care about the societal impacts of your work
Preferred Experience
- Work on high\-performance, large\-scale ML systems
- Familiarity with GPUs, Kubernetes, and OS internals
- Experience with language modeling using transformer architectures
- Background in large\-scale ETL processes
Benefits \& Perks
- Premium Contract Rates: We pay for top\-tier senior talent.
- Global Remote Freedom: We are a remote\-first company. We welcome talents from around the globe, provided you are located in a jurisdiction compliant with US and Canadian international trade and labor regulations.
- High Autonomy: Direct access to leadership and a seat at the strategy table.
- Modern Tech Stack: No legacy code, work with the latest in AI and Cloud orchestration.
Pay: $140,000\.00 \- $180,000\.00 per year
Work Location: Remote
Salary Context
This $140K-$180K range is below the median for Research Scientist roles in our dataset (median: $183K across 109 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 3,823 AI roles we're tracking, Research Scientist positions make up 3% of the market. At Predictive Horizons, 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 280 positions with disclosed compensation. Mid-level AI roles across all categories have a median of $165,000. This role's midpoint ($160K) sits 28% below the category median. Disclosed range: $140K to $180K.
Across all AI roles, the market median is $200,100. Top-quartile compensation starts at $253,500. The 90th percentile reaches $307,500. For comparison, the highest-paying categories include AI Engineering Manager ($275,000) and AI Safety ($274,200). By seniority level: Entry: $97,880; Mid: $165,000; Senior: $227,400; Director: $247,800; VP: $250,000.
Predictive Horizons AI Hiring
Predictive Horizons has 1 open AI role right now. They're hiring across Research Scientist. Based in Remote, US. Compensation range: $180K - $180K.
Remote Work Context
Remote AI roles pay a median of $170,000 across 1,926 positions. About 15% of all AI roles offer remote work.
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 3,823 open positions tracked in our dataset. By seniority: 112 entry-level, 1,798 mid-level, 1,516 senior, and 397 leadership roles (Director, VP, C-Level). Remote roles make up 15% of the market (590 positions). The remaining 3,217 roles require on-site or hybrid attendance.
The market median for AI roles is $200,100. Top-quartile compensation starts at $253,500. The 90th percentile reaches $307,500. Highest-paying categories: AI Engineering Manager ($275,000 median, 41 roles); AI Safety ($274,200 median, 55 roles); Research Engineer ($260,000 median, 434 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 3,823 open positions across 15 role categories. The largest categories by volume: AI/ML Engineer (2,629), Data Scientist (322), AI Software Engineer (279). 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 (112) are outnumbered by mid-level (1,798) and senior (1,516) 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 397 positions, representing the bottleneck between technical execution and organizational strategy.
Remote work availability sits at 15% of all AI roles (590 positions), with 3,217 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 $200,100. Top-quartile roles start at $253,500, and the 90th percentile reaches $307,500. 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 Engineering Manager roles lead at $275,000 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 (1,979 postings), Aws (1,190 postings), Azure (899 postings), Rag (839 postings), Gcp (726 postings), Pytorch (595 postings), Prompt Engineering (595 postings), Claude (540 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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