Research Scientist, OLMo

Hybrid: Persons in these roles are expected to spend part of their time on-site in our Seattle offices and may occasionally work remotely from their home in the Greater Seattle area. On-site requirements vary based on position and team. If you have questions about Hybrid work arrangements for this role, please ask your recruiter.Compensation Range: $167,030 - $260,570

Who You Are:

You are  a creative, seasoned, hands-on Research Scientist who has experience with deep learning frameworks and a strong foundation in generative AI and natural language processing. You are excited to study and advance language models scientifically and openly. You thrive in collaborative environments, are action-oriented, and excited about contributing to Ai2's impact-driven mission in an innovative, fast-paced research environment. You can translate complex concepts and approaches into concrete research goals and implementation steps, set an approach, follow through, and present results. When it’s time to explain your ideas, you bring clarity to complex technical issues. You use these skills to create real-world benefits for researchers and other practitioners, and you are excited to help advance our effort to create the best-performing open large language model.

Who We Are: 

Open Language Model (OLMo) is one of Ai2’s contributions to the science of language modeling. It is part of a larger Open Ecosystem designed to provide access to data, training code, models, and evaluation code necessary to advance generative AI through open research. Through our efforts we endeavor to empower academics and researchers more broadly to study the science of language models collectively. The goal is to share high quality and open language or multimodal models that will provide an avenue for people in the AI research community to work directly on these  models for the first time. Following the launch of OLMo (Open Language Model) in February 2024, Ai2 is now embarking on furthering research to provide scientific insights and solutions on how to substantially close the gap with the state-of-the-art in adapted models.

Your Next Challenge:

You will be a part of the core team of research scientists and machine learning engineers leading the work on OLMo at Ai2. In this role you will lead research to advance the science and technology of OLMo in ways that enrich the wider research community while also mentoring and collaborating with early-career researchers. You will also work towards long-term ambitious research goals, while identifying intermediate milestones. 

The essential functions include, but are not limited to the following:

• Contribute to Ai2’s open source research environment to study and advance the science of generative AI
• Author and present high-quality scientific papers and presentations for peer-reviewed journals and conferences
• Take a leading role in implementing software systems supporting Ai2’s research
• Collaborate with and learn from team members across Ai2, including scientists and engineers
• Mentor early-career researchers and interns on their projects
• Develop collaborative relationships with relevant academic, industrial, government, and standards organizations

What You’ll Need:

• A PhD with a focus on natural language processing or a closely related area.
• Experience holding a faculty, industry, or government researcher position.
• A specific focus and publication track record in one or more of these areas:  pre-training or post-training language models, ; studying and understanding language models through data analyses and evaluation; generative AI in language or other modalities; experimental methodology; science of deep learning; efficient algorithms for deep learning. 
• Excitement about collaboration and teamwork.
• Experience leading a team in solving analytical problems using quantitative approaches.
• Past contributions to open-source research libraries and an interest in continuing such activities, are a plus.

Physical Demands and Work Environment:

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by a team member to successfully perform the essential functions of this position. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the functions.

• Must be able to remain in a stationary position for long periods of time. 
• The ability to communicate information and ideas so others will understand. Must be able to exchange accurate information in these situations. 
• The ability to observe details at close range.
• Can work under deadlines.

A Little More About Ai2:

Ai2 is a Seattle based non-profit AI research institute founded in 2014 by the late Paul Allen. Our mission is building breakthrough AI to solve the world’s biggest problems. We develop foundational AI research and innovation to deliver real-world impact through large-scale open models, data, robotics, conservation, and beyond.

In addition to Ai2’s core mission, we also aim to contribute to humanity through our treatment of each member of the Ai2 Team. Some highlights are:

• We are a learning organization – because everything Ai2 does is ground-breaking, we are learning every day. Similarly, through weekly Ai2 Academy lectures, a wide variety of world-class AI experts as guest speakers, and our commitment to your personal on-going education, Ai2 is a place where you will have opportunities to continue learning alongside your coworkers. 
• We value diversity - We seek to hire, support, and promote people from all genders, ethnicities, and all levels of experience regardless of age. We particularly encourage applications from women, non-binary individuals, people of color, members of the LGBTQA+ community, and people with disabilities of any kind. 
• We value inclusion - We understand the value that people's individual experiences and perspectives can bring to an organization, and we are building a culture in which all voices are heard, respected and considered.
• We emphasize a healthy work/life balance – we believe our team members are happiest and most productive when their work/life balance is optimized. While we value powerful research results which drive our mission forward, we also value dinner with family, weekend time, and vacation time. We offer generous paid vacation and sick leave as well as family leave.
• We are collaborative and transparent – we consider ourselves a team, all moving with a common purpose. We are quick to cheer our successes, and even quicker to share and jointly problem solve our failures.
• We are in Seattle – and our office is on the water! We have mountains, we have lakes, we have four seasons, we bike to work, we have a vibrant theater scene, and we have so much else. We even have kayaks for you to paddle right outside our front door. We welcome interest from applicants from outside of the United States.
• We are friendly– chances are you will like every one of the 200+ (and growing) people who work here. We do. 

Ai2 is proud to be an Equal Opportunity employer. We do not discriminate based upon race, religion, color, national origin, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, transgender status, sexual stereotypes, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, or other applicable legally protected characteristics. You may view the related Know Your Rights compliance poster and the Pay Transparency Nondiscrimination Provision by clicking on their corresponding links. 

This employer participates in E-Verify and will provide the federal government with your Form I-9 information to confirm that you are authorized to work in the U.S. If E-Verify cannot confirm that you are authorized to work, this employer is required to give you written instructions and an opportunity to contact the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) or Social Security Administration (SSA) so you can begin to resolve the issue before the employer can take any action against you, including terminating your employment. Employers can only use E-Verify once you have accepted a job offer and completed the Form I-9.

We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations to employees and applicants with disabilities to the full extent required by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). If you feel you need a reasonable accommodation pursuant to the ADA, you are encouraged to contact us at [email protected].

Benefits: 

• Team members and their families are covered by medical, dental, vision, basic life insurance, basic accidental death and dismemberment insurance, short-term disability, long-term disability, and an employee assistance program. 
• Team members are able to enroll in our voluntary life insurance program, our voluntary accidental death and dismemberment program, our health savings account plan, our healthcare reimbursement arrangement plan, and our health care and dependent care flexible spending account plans. 
• Team members are able to enroll in our company’s 401k plan. 
• Team members will receive $125 per month to assist with commuting or internet expenses and will also receive $200 per month for fitness and wellbeing expenses.
• Team members will also receive up to ten sick days per year, up to seven personal days per year, up to 20 vacation days per year and twelve paid holidays throughout the calendar year.
• Team members will be able to receive annual bonuses and can participate in the long-term incentive plan.

Note: This job description in no way states or implies that these are the only duties to be performed by the team members(s) of this position. Team members will be required to follow any other job-related instructions and to perform any other job-related duties requested by any person authorized to give instructions or assignments. All duties and responsibilities are essential functions and requirements and are subject to possible modification to reasonably accommodate individuals with disabilities. To perform this job successfully, the team member(s) will possess the skills, aptitudes, and abilities to perform each duty proficiently. Some requirements may exclude individuals who pose a direct threat or significant risk to the health or safety of themselves or others. The requirements listed in this document are the minimum levels of knowledge, skills, or abilities. This document does not create an employment contract, implied or otherwise, other than an at will relationship.