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Be visionary
Teledyne Technologies Incorporated provides enabling technologies for industrial growth markets that require advanced technology and high reliability. These markets include aerospace and defense, factory automation, air and water quality environmental monitoring, electronics design and development, oceanographic research, deepwater oil and gas exploration and production, medical imaging and pharmaceutical research.
We are looking for individuals who thrive on making an impact and want the excitement of being on a team that wins.
Job Description
At Teledyne Marine, we’re shaping the future of ocean exploration and environmental monitoring. Our cutting-edge sensors, instruments and vehicles help solve global challenges—from infrastructure development to energy sourcing and marine safety. If you’re passionate about innovation and want to make a real-world impact, we invite you to join our team of scientists, engineers and operators.
The Transducer Engineer assumes a technical leadership role for all aspects of the technical development, manufacturability and reliability of state-of-the-art piezoelectric hydroacoustic transducers. Conducts research and development activities and applies research theories, principles and models when conducting experiments and research activities. Summarizes research results and communicates findings to internal and external bodies. Assesses the scope of research projects and ensures projects are on time and within budget. Develops technical documentation for all projects. Acts independently to determine methods and procedures on new or special assignments. Works on complex issues where analysis of situations or data requires an in-depth evaluation of variable factors. Relies on extensive experience and judgment to plan and accomplish goals. A wide degree of creativity and latitude is expected to determine methods, techniques and evaluation criteria for obtaining results. May supervise the activities of others.
Essential Duties and Responsibilities include the following. Other duties may be assigned.
- Defines, develops, and delivers novel solutions to a broad range of problems that include advanced modeling techniques such as:
+ Transducer Design / Modeling / Analysis + Coordination of transducer prototype manufacturing including some hands-on assembly /modification + Transducer integration and system level validation and testing to specifications + Acoustic, mechanical, and electrical design + Material selection and testing + Design of experiments (DOE) + Design for manufacturing (DFM)
- Collaborates with other colleagues to identify critical challenges and provide innovative solutions.
- Completes research documentation and technical procedures for assigned projects.
- Provides inputs for documentation of new or existing programs.
- Briefs others on deliverables, status and progress.
- Documents and demonstrates solutions by developing documentation, flowcharts, layouts, diagrams, and charts.
- Provides information by collecting, analyzing, and summarizing development and production issues.
- Fosters team interaction and ensures smooth execution of programs involving multiple members and partners.
- Proposes concepts for improvements to existing projects.
- Evaluates and identifies new technologies for implementation; improves operations by conducting systems analysis; recommends changes in policies and procedures.
- Daily availability to include evenings and weekends when necessary to reach goals and deadlines.
Supervisory Responsibilities
This job has no supervisory responsibilities but provides technical leadership to lower- level engineers, including carrying out lead responsibilities in accordance with applicable regulations and laws and the organization’s policies and procedures. This includes, but is not limited to, training employees, planning, assigning, directing work and resolving technically related work problems.
Qualifications To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.
Education and/or Experience
Bachelor's degree (B.S.) from four-year college or university in a related field and 15-20 years of directly related experience and/or training; or Master’s degree (M.S.) in a related field and 5-10 years of directly related experience and/or training; or equivalent combination of education and experience.
Other Skills and Abilities:
- Experience with piezoelectric transducer design for SONAR applications.
- Proficiency with SolidWorks. Experience with COMSOL and Piezocad preferred.
- Ability to interface efficiently in a cross-functional group in an engineering and production environment.
- Solid verbal and written communication skills.
- Strong organizational and multi-tasking skills.
- Requires occasional work in a marine environment on a small boat or larger vessel.
- US Person status for access to ITAR-Controlled Technical Data
Salary Range:
$141,900.00-$189,200.000 The anticipated salary range listed for this role is only an estimate. Actual compensation for successful candidates is carefully determined based on several factors including, but not limited to, location, education/training, work experience, key skills, and type of position.
Teledyne conducts background checks on qualified applicants who receive a conditional offer of employment in accordance with applicable laws, regulations and ordinances. Background checks may include, but are not limited to, education verification, employment history and verification, criminal convictions, Motor Vehicle Report (MVR & driving history), reference check, credit checks/credit history and drug testing. All qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment in accordance with the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers and the California Fair Chance Act.
Teledyne and all of our employees are committed to conducting business with the highest ethical standards. We require all employees to comply with all applicable laws, regulations, rules and regulatory orders. Our reputation for honesty, integrity and high ethics is as important to us as our reputation for making innovative sensing solutions.
Teledyne is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability or veteran status, age, or any other characteristic or non-merit based factor made unlawful by federal, state, or local laws.
Salary Context
This $141K-$189K range is in the lower quartile for Research Scientist roles in our dataset (median: $199K across 63 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 9,079 AI roles we're tracking, Research Scientist positions make up 2% of the market. At Teledyne FLIR, 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 in Demand for This Role
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 749 positions with disclosed compensation. Senior-level AI roles across all categories have a median of $229,300. This role's midpoint ($165K) sits 25% below the category median. Disclosed range: $141K to $189K.
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 Research Engineer ($252,000). By seniority level: Entry: $111,000; Mid: $193,200; Senior: $229,300; Director: $272,300; VP: $235,830.
Teledyne FLIR AI Hiring
Teledyne FLIR has 1 open AI role right now. They're hiring across Research Scientist. Based in Poway, CA, US. Compensation range: $189K - $189K.
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 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 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 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 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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