Senior Applied Research Scientist - Foundation Models
About the role
Senior Applied Research Scientist to build the next generation of foundation models for computer vision, focusing on multimodal vision-language models, pre-training/fine-tuning, model compression, and deployment in ambient security applications.
Responsibilities
- Develop & Optimize VLMs: Design and optimize transformer-based vision-language models to understand images, videos, and text, and optimize for real-time inference.
- Pre-training & Fine-tuning: Own the full training pipeline—from pre-training on image-text data to fine-tuning for Ambient.ai’s physical security domain and use cases.
- Model Compression & Optimization: Apply techniques like distillation, quantization, and pruning to reduce model size and latency, enabling efficient edge deployment.
- Leverage Open-Source & Innovate: Use and extend state-of-the-art open-source models. Prototype new architectures and training methods to advance Ambient.ai’s multimodal AI research.
- Cross-Team Collaboration: Work with engineering and product teams to integrate models into the platform. Iterate based on real-world feedback and deployment data to improve performance.
- Research and Experimentation: Stay current with vision, NLP, and multimodal AI research. Design experiments to test new algorithms and continually enhance our core AI systems.
Qualifications
- Ph.D. or Master’s in CS, EE, or related field, with a strong foundation in AI/ML (Ph.D. preferred or Master’s with strong experience)
- Proficient in Python/C++ and deep learning frameworks like PyTorch or TensorFlow. Comfortable with large-scale training pipelines
- Hands-on experience with CNNs, Transformers, and Vision Transformers (ViT). Strong understanding of vision-language models and how to fine-tune or adapt them
- Proven skills in model training and optimization, including fine-tuning on large datasets and applying distillation, quantization, or similar techniques. Experience with foundation or multimodal models is a plus.
- Strong problem-solving ability: quick prototyping, diagnosing failure cases, and iterating on solutions
- Startup experience preferred: Comfortable with ambiguity, fast iteration, and owning projects end-to-end
Skills
Benefits
- Comprehensive health + welfare package (Medical, Dental, Vision, Life, EAP, Legal Services, 401k plan)
- Flexible time off to rest and recharge, including Winter Break
- Stock options for full-time employees
- Cutting-edge equipment and branded gear
- Opportunities to connect with co-workers
About Ambient.ai
AI company transforming enterprise physical security to prevent…
Ambient.ai is a computer vision intelligence company transforming enterprise security operations to prevent security incidents before they happen. The Ambient.ai platform applies AI and computer vision intelligence to existing sensor and camera infrastructure to deliver continuous physical security monitoring and automate the immediate dispatch of human resources. Ambient.ai is the first platform that goes beyond basic motion detection and image recognition to achieve near-human perception with automated situational context. With physical security incidents on the rise and physical security organizations left under-resourced, Ambient.ai’s computer intelligence platform comes at a time of critical need, which is why the company has raised over $50 million from venture capital investors led by a16z. Today, large enterprises, schools and organizations – including many of the largest US tech companies and other Fortune 500 companies – use Ambient.ai to secure property, people, and assets from the most harrowing physical security threats. The company was founded in 2017 by experts in artificial intelligence from Stanford who previously built iconic products at Apple, Google, Microsoft and Dropbox. We are backed by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), SV Angel, Y Combinator, and visionary angels like Jyoti Bansal, Mark Leslie and Elad Gil.
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