Interested in this Research Engineer role at SLB?
Apply Now →About This Role
United States, Houston
Engineering and Manufacturing
The Reservoir Simulation/Management Engineer is responsible for assisting in delivery of safe, efficient, and reliable products and services to our customers. The job consults with operations groups as needed to support the area of expertise and identifies opportunities for continuous improvement of product and service delivery and formally communicates findings. The Reservoir Simulation/Management Engineer actively participates in promoting new technology and services offerings and supports the PL in risk management and applying lessons learned to improve job design and execution as related to the area of expertise. They provide real-time support to operations as required.
- Provide technical support in the area of expertise throughout the Sales and Product and Service Delivery process.
- Assist as required with the development of technical job designs for PLs.
- Assist with identifying areas where new and cost effective techniques can be applied.
- Explore opportunities for value-added products and services.
- Consult with Design/Technical Engineer role as required to optimize the technical design.
- Assist in real-time incident response, recovery, and investigation as related to the area of expertise.
- Assist in evaluating technical viability and overall appraisal of tenders as related to the area of expertise.
- Remain current on new technologies.
- Maintain customer visibility through active participation in professional society activities and calls for papers.
- Understand the competition’s technical offering.
- Participate in external technical societies and communities.
- Contribute, write and review technical publications.
- Engage with local universities, Customer institutes and research organizations.
- Has knowledge of operating practices of services pertinent to discipline as well as practical understanding of the software process and contributes constructively to its improvement. Local practices and procedures apply.
- Makes independent studies, analysis, interpretations and conclusions.
- Helps evaluating new services and techniques under field test.
- Offers technical guidance to Geoscientists or Technicians assigned to work on a common project.
- Organizes client seminars, understands and catalogues client needs and implements solutions.
- Represents the Organization at Service Quality meetings, forums and conferences.
- May participate in recruiting.
- Complies with applicable company policies, including Personnel, Quality System and Health, Safety and Environment standards and procedures.
- Successfully complete all required safety training.
Min 5 Years of experience
Bachelor of Science in Petroleum Engineering
MS in Petroleum Engineering
ALL APPLICANTS FOR U.S. ROLES MUST CAREFULLY READ ALL THE SUPPLEMENTAL U.S. SPECIFIC INFORMATION LISTED BELOW.
SLB is committed to a culture where everyone feels like they belong. To learn more about our diversity, equity, and inclusion commitments, please visit our Diversity & Inclusion | SLB (slb.com) page for more information.
When certifying your application, you are also certifying on reading and understanding all of the below supplemental information. For purposes of the application and the below information, Company shall be defined to mean SLB. Please note that the below supplemental information and the employment application are NOT a contract.
- EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY & VETERANS
Company policy is to provide every individual a fair and equal opportunity to seek employment and advancement at the Company without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, national origin, citizenship, genetic information, veteran or military status, disability, creed, ancestry, pregnancy (including pregnancy, childbirth and related medical conditions), marital status or any factors protected by federal, state, or local laws. We are an "Equal Opportunity Employer". For more information please, refer to the latest version of "Know Your Rights" poster and the "Pay Transparency Nondiscrimination Poster" located here: https://www.dol.gov/agencies/ofccp/posters. The Company is a VEVRAA Federal Contractor - priority referral Protected Veterans requested.
- REASONABLE ACCOMMODATIONS
The Company will endeavor to make a reasonable accommodation / modification to the known physical or mental limitations of a qualified applicant with a disability to assist in the hiring process, unless the accommodation would impose an undue hardship on the operation of our business, in accordance with applicable federal, state, and local law. If you believe you require such assistance to complete the application or to participate in the interview process, please contact [email protected] to request assistance. Please note that only those inquiries concerning a request for reasonable accommodation will be responded to.
- AUTHORIZATION FOR EMPLOYMENT
Pursuant to the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, all applicants who are offered and accept employment must produce documents establishing their identity and authorization for employment in the United States. These documents must be produced no later than seventy-two (72) hours after employment commences. In addition, all applicants who are offered and accept employment will be required to verify their employment authorization under oath by signing a USCIS Form I-9. SLB is an E-Verify employer.
- APPLICATION CERTIFICATION
When applying to a job please read the application carefully before certifying that all of the answers you have given are true, accurate and complete. Ensure that you have read and fully understand the questions asked in the application. Unless noted otherwise, by certifying the application, you are also agreeing to and/or authorizing the following:
+ You understand that any omission and/or misrepresentation of any fact from or on the application or during any interview will result in immediate rejection of the application, or if hired, will be cause for immediate dismissal. + You certify that you have read and understand all the supplemental information listed on the job description page for the job that you are applying for. + You authorize the Company to contact the education institutions that you have attended and for the Company to make any further investigations deemed necessary in connection with your application for employment. + You authorize the Company to inquire about, investigate and obtain copies of any records which relate to you from your former employers and educational institutions. + You release the Company and all affiliated persons and entities, as well as any person or institution that provides the Company with any lawful information about you, from any and all liability whatsoever resulting from any such lawful inquiry, investigation, or communication. + You agree that if hired, you will review and become familiar with all the rules and regulations of the Company. + You understand and agree that nothing in the application or supplement shall constitute an offer, a contract, or a guarantee of employment for a specific period of time. + If hired, you understand that your employment may be terminated with or without cause and with or without notice at any time, at the will of the Company or yourself, for any or no reason. + If hired, you understand that no supervisor or manager has authority to make an agreement to the contrary changing employment at-will. + If hired, you understand that the Company and all plan administrators shall have the maximum discretion permitted by law to administer, interpret, modify, discontinue, enhance, or otherwise change all policies, procedures, benefits or other terms and conditions of employment. + You understand that any application that is filled out will be in effect for 90 days from the date you certified it and, if employment is not offered within the 90-day period, you understand that you must reapply to be considered for future employment. + You understand that your application for employment in no way obligates the Company to employ you.
- STATE INFORMATION
Please read below any applicable State Information. By certifying the application, you are also certifying that you have read and understood any applicable State Information that is listed below.
+ ARIZONA APPLICANTS ONLY: To the extent required by applicable law, the Company maintains a smoke-free workplace. + CALIFORNIA APPLICANTS ONLY: I understand the Company may obtain, without using the services of a third party investigative consumer reporting agency, public records pertaining to my character, general reputation, personal characteristics, or mode of living during its evaluation of my application for employment and, if employed, during my employment. By checking the following box, I waive my right to receive copies of public records obtained by the Company. + MASSACHUSETTS APPLICANTS ONLY: Note that it is unlawful in Massachusetts to require or administer a lie detector test as a condition of employment or continued employment. An employer who violates this law shall be subject to criminal penalties and civil liability. + MARYLAND APPLICANTS ONLY: Under Maryland law, an employer may not require or demand, as a condition of employment, prospective employment, or continued employment, that an individual submit to or take a lie detector test. An employer who violates this law is guilty of a misdemeanor and subject to a fine not exceeding $100. + NEBRASKA APPLICANTS ONLY: By certifying the application you, hereby give consent to any and all prior employers of yours to provide information with regard to your employment with prior employers to SLB. A place to grow and thrive
We believe your best work comes from feeling supported, empowered, and connected – wherever you are in your journey. We’re committed to providing you with the resources and culture to help you belong, advance, and succeed.
Culture and Values
For more than 100 years, we've been at the forefront of energy innovation; solving problems considered impossible while building a safe and inclusive culture.
Discover our values
Professional Development
We support our people where and when they want to grow by making continuous learning a key priority.
Explore our programs
How We Hire
Get an inside look at how we attract, evaluate, and hire exceptional people globally.
Learn about our process
Frequently Asked Questions
Find quick answers to common questions about roles, teams, and the application process.
View all FAQs About Us
We are a global technology company, driving energy innovation for a balanced planet. Together, we create amazing technology that unlocks access to energy for the benefit of all.
Global in outlook, local in practice – and with a united, shared passion for discovering solutions, we hire talented, driven people and support them to succeed, personally and professionally.
SLB is an equal employment opportunity employer. Qualified applicants are considered without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, or other characteristics protected by law.
We will endeavor to make a reasonable accommodation / modification to the known physical or mental limitations of a qualified applicant with a disability to assist in the hiring process, unless the accommodation would impose an undue hardship on the operation of our business, in accordance with applicable federal, state, and local law. If you believe you require such assistance to complete this form or to participate in the interview process, please contact [email protected] to request assistance. Please note that only those inquiries concerning a request for reasonable accommodation will be responded to.
SLB is a VEVRAA Federal Contractor- priority referral Protected Veterans requested.
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 SLB, 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.
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.
SLB AI Hiring
SLB has 3 open AI roles right now. They're hiring across AI/ML Engineer, Research Engineer. Positions span Houston, TX, US, Houston, TX.
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
Get Weekly AI Career Intelligence
Salary data, skills demand, and market signals from 16,000+ AI job postings. Every Monday.