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WHY DO WE NEED YOU?
The Saint-Gobain Innovation Hub North America SEFPRO team is seeking a highly motivated and innovative Research Engineer II to support the development of next-generation refractory products, manufacturing processes, and technical services for the glass industry. Reporting to the R&D Group Leader, the Research Engineer II will combine hands-on experimental research, process development, manufacturing support, and customer-facing technical activities across laboratory, pilot, manufacturing, and field environments.
The successful candidate will contribute to SEFPRO's new product development efforts by leading and executing research programs focused on improving product performance, optimizing manufacturing processes, and supporting customer applications. This position requires the ability to independently manage multiple technical projects while collaborating with cross-functional teams, manufacturing facilities, suppliers, and customers.
The essential functions of this position include:
- Drive multiple projects or studies to successful completion, with guidance on project objectives and technical approach provided, while exercising autonomous execution.
- Support Services activities at glass manufacturer sites and R&D projects for the SEFPRO Monofrax (Falconer, NY) and Corhart (Buckhannon, WV) manufacturing facilities.
- Perform applications engineering activities for glass industry customers, including furnace scanning, analysis, and technical support.
- Develop refractory compositions, manufacturing processes, testing methods, and support experimental work through numerical modeling.
- Manage projects assigned by the supervisor that are typically several months or longer in duration.
- Maintain analytical, furnace, imaging, and other laboratory equipment in working condition.
- Perform testing as requested by the supervisor and other members of the group.
- Troubleshoot and repair equipment issues as needed.
- Research and improve analysis, data interpretation, and reporting methods.
- Complete and document projects effectively under minimal supervision from a supervisor or technical leader.
- Analyze, interpret, and present data and results in both oral and written formats.
- Develop project timelines and plans, technical memos, research reports, and presentations for internal customers, project teams, and management.
IS THIS JOB FOR YOU? Education Requirements:
- Bachelor's degree in Materials Science, Mechanical Engineering, Ceramic Engineering, Chemical Engineering, or a related technical discipline.
Experience Required:
- Minimum of 3 years of industrial, research, or development experience with a Bachelor's degree; OR
- Master's degree in a relevant engineering or scientific discipline with thesis-based research experience.
Knowledge & Technical Skills:
- Experience conducting laboratory-based research and experimental investigations.
- Knowledge of materials characterization, process development, or manufacturing technologies.
- Ability to analyze complex technical data and draw meaningful conclusions.
- Experience preparing technical reports, presentations, and project documentation.
- Familiarity with statistical analysis, test method development, and engineering problem-solving techniques.
- Ability to troubleshoot laboratory or manufacturing equipment and processes.
Interpersonal & Soft Skills:
- Strong verbal and written communication skills.
- Excellent organizational and project management abilities.
- Ability to work independently with limited supervision.
- Demonstrated ability to manage multiple priorities and projects simultaneously.
- Strong analytical thinking and attention to detail.
- Effective collaboration and teamwork skills across technical and operational functions.
- Customer-oriented mindset with the ability to develop productive relationships with internal and external stakeholders.
Physical & Work Requirements
- Pushing, pulling, lifting, and transporting up to 50lbs
Legal Statement
Saint-Gobain provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, disability, genetic information, marital status, amnesty, or status as a covered veteran in accordance with applicable federal, state and local laws. Saint-Gobain is an equal opportunity employer of individuals with disabilities and supports the hiring of veterans.
A LITTLE MORE ABOUT US
At Saint-Gobain, our employees have pride in belonging to an organization whose culture is made up of these core values: Trust, Empowerment, & Collaboration. Our company encourages diversity and inclusion in all its forms while our products make the world a more beautiful, safer, and sustainable home.
BENEFITS IN JOINING US
Saint-Gobain is committed to helping you and your family be well in all aspects of your life. Be Well. Be You brings together inclusive programs and meaningful resources to support all aspects of your physical, emotional, financial, and social well-being. Employees have the flexibility to choose the benefits that best fit their individual needs.
- Health and Well-being – Supporting your wellbeing, to thrive in life and work.
- Medical, Prescription Drug, Vision, and Dental Insurance
- Healthcare Saving Account and Flexible Spending Account options
- LiveWell Wellness Program
- Employee Assistance Program (EAP)
- Paid Time Off and Paid Parental Leave Retirement and Protection - Helping to make the future life you want a reality.
- 401(k) with Company Match, Retirement Accumulation Plan (RAP) Cash Balance Pension Plan
- Company-provided Life Insurance, AD&D, Short-Term Disability
- Voluntary employee and dependent life insurance, Long-Term Disability, Critical Illness and
- Accident Insurance
- Additional Benefits – Helping shape the experience and impact you want
- Group Legal
- Identity Theft Protection
- Auto and Home Insurance
- Pet Insurance and Discounts
- Back-up Child and Elder Care
- PerkSpot Employee Discount Program
- Volunteer Day
TO MAKE SURE NOTHING IS FORGOTTEN
Certain locations require pay information be provided in job postings. Saint-Gobain aims to deliver a comprehensive Total Rewards package to support our employees’ wellbeing and help improve daily life for themselves and their families. We believe in the importance of pay transparency in what we offer potential candidates. Provided is the national pay range for this position which is $81,500 to $126,500 per year. However, the base pay offered may vary depending on geographic region, internal equity, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience among other factors.
In addition to base salary, this position is eligible for an annual bonus. The targeted bonus amount is 10% of base salary based on company and individual performance measures. The Total Target Cash range (base pay and annual bonus) for this position, is $86,650 to $139,150. Bonus payments are part of variable compensation and by nature can vary based on company and individual performance and is not a guarantee.
Job Reference: USA15671
Salary Context
This $81K-$139K range is in the lower quartile for Research Engineer roles in our dataset (median: $165K across 57 roles with salary data).
View full Research Engineer salary data →Role Details
About This Role
Research Engineers bridge the gap between research and production. They implement papers, build experiment infrastructure, optimize training pipelines, and make research prototypes production-ready. They're the engineers who make research work at scale.
The role sits at a unique intersection. You need to understand the math well enough to implement novel architectures correctly, and you need the engineering chops to make them run efficiently on distributed systems. When a research scientist has a breakthrough idea, you're the person who turns it from a notebook prototype into a training pipeline that runs on 256 GPUs.
Across the 9,079 AI roles we're tracking, Research Engineer positions make up 2% of the market. At Saint-Gobain, this role fits into their broader AI and engineering organization.
Research Engineer roles are growing as AI labs recognize that research velocity depends on engineering quality. The role is less competitive than Research Scientist (no PhD required), but the bar for engineering skill is very high. These roles are concentrated at major labs and well-funded startups.
What the Work Looks Like
A typical week involves: implementing a new attention mechanism from a recent paper, profiling and optimizing a training pipeline that's bottlenecked on data loading, building evaluation infrastructure for a new benchmark, debugging distributed training issues across a GPU cluster, and pair-programming with a research scientist on their latest experiment. The work is deeply technical.
Research Engineer roles are growing as AI labs recognize that research velocity depends on engineering quality. The role is less competitive than Research Scientist (no PhD required), but the bar for engineering skill is very high. These roles are concentrated at major labs and well-funded startups.
Skills in Demand for This Role
Strong software engineering fundamentals plus ML knowledge. Python, C++, and CUDA experience are common requirements. You'll need to read papers and turn ideas into working code. Distributed systems experience (especially distributed training) is highly valued. Performance optimization skills separate great candidates from good ones.
Experience with large-scale training infrastructure (FSDP, DeepSpeed, Megatron), GPU programming (CUDA, Triton), and the internals of ML frameworks (PyTorch internals, custom autograd functions) is what makes candidates stand out. The best research engineers can debug issues that span the full stack from GPU memory management to numerical precision to algorithmic correctness.
Strong postings mention the team's recent research, the infrastructure scale, and the specific technical challenges. They often list the research areas you'd support. Look for roles that emphasize both implementation quality and research understanding.
Compensation Benchmarks
Research Engineer roles pay a median of $252,000 based on 457 positions with disclosed compensation. Mid-level AI roles across all categories have a median of $193,200. This role's midpoint ($110K) sits 56% below the category median. Disclosed range: $81K to $139K.
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 AI Engineering Manager ($251,622). By seniority level: Entry: $111,000; Mid: $193,200; Senior: $229,300; Director: $272,300; VP: $235,830.
Saint-Gobain AI Hiring
Saint-Gobain has 2 open AI roles right now. They're hiring across Research Engineer, AI Product Manager. Positions span Northborough, MA, US, Remote, US. Compensation range: $139K - $139K.
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 Engineer roles include Software Engineer, ML Engineer, Research Intern.
From here, career progression typically leads toward Senior Research Engineer, Research Scientist, ML Architect.
This is one of the best entry points into AI research without a PhD. Build a strong engineering portfolio with ML projects, contribute to open-source ML frameworks, and demonstrate that you can implement complex ideas correctly and efficiently. The transition to Research Scientist is possible with published first-author work, which some research engineer roles support.
What to Expect in Interviews
Technical screens test both engineering skill and research understanding. Expect coding rounds with performance-critical implementations (GPU optimization, efficient data loading). Be prepared to discuss papers relevant to the team's research area and explain how you'd implement key ideas. System design questions focus on training infrastructure: distributed training, experiment tracking, and compute resource management.
When evaluating opportunities: Strong postings mention the team's recent research, the infrastructure scale, and the specific technical challenges. They often list the research areas you'd support. Look for roles that emphasize both implementation quality and research understanding.
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 Engineer roles are growing as AI labs recognize that research velocity depends on engineering quality. The role is less competitive than Research Scientist (no PhD required), but the bar for engineering skill is very high. These roles are concentrated at major labs and well-funded startups.
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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