← All roles

Forward Deployed Researcher - Data as a Service

Snorkel AI· 316 - Research
Apply on company site
Hybrid (New York City, NY; San Francisco, CA; United States (Remote))$160k - $400kfull-timePosted 8mo ago

About the role

Forward Deployed Researchers partner with frontier AI labs to design data and environments that improve model performance. This is a customer-facing, high-impact role combining technical research credibility with direct engagement with customer research teams to scope data needs, design RL environments, develop evaluation frameworks, and translate customer objectives into actionable technical plans.

Responsibilities

  • Own a technical domain end to end: the technical bar for what we build in it, and what we build next
  • Partner with frontier AI research labs to design datasets and environments that improve model performance
  • Lead technical conversations with customer researchers to understand model capabilities, failure modes, data requirements, and success criteria
  • Probe model behavior through systematic evaluation to uncover weaknesses and identify high-impact data interventions
  • Benchmark frontier models against our datasets to demonstrate value to customers, building or adapting evaluation harnesses as needed, and turn the results into pass-rate analysis, failure-mode breakdowns, and purchase recommendations
  • Design evaluation frameworks, calibration processes, and quality rubrics that establish measurable project success metrics
  • Develop technical specifications for data projects that balance research rigor with operational feasibility
  • Hold the demand shape for your domain: which labs want what, at what volume, against what bar, and where the asks are converging
  • Develop a point of view on where your domain is heading, and partner with Research on what should exist before a customer asks for it
  • Serve as thought partner to customer research teams throughout the sales cycle, building trust and credibility
  • Stay current on frontier AI research, RL environment design, post-training techniques, and evaluation methodologies

Qualifications

  • Strong expertise in frontier AI concepts including LLMs, training data pipelines, evaluation methodologies, post-training techniques (RLHF, DPO, RLAIF), and domain areas such as coding agents, reasoning, multimodal models, or RL environments
  • Experience in applied ML research, data science, or research-intensive technical roles
  • Customer-facing or collaborative research experience, or demonstrated aptitude for client engagement
  • Proficiency in Python, familiarity with ML frameworks and LLM APIs, and comfort running evaluations in containerized environments
  • Excellent communication skills, ability to deliver technical presentations and explain complex concepts to diverse audiences
  • Familiarity with data curation workflows, synthetic data generation, LLM-as-a-Judge, or evaluation framework design
  • Willingness to make and state a defensible assumption when a request arrives underspecified
  • Ability to work in a fast-moving environment, comfortable with ambiguity and rapid iteration
  • B.S. in Computer Science, Machine Learning, or related field with 4+ years of experience in AI/ML research or technical roles; advanced degree preferred

Skills

Required:Frontier AI conceptsPythonCommunicationCustomer-facing / collaboration
Nice to have:RL environment design

Benefits

  • The role may be eligible for health and dental coverage and equity grants.
Last updated Oct 21, 2026. Interested? Apply on the company site.

About Snorkel AI

Shaping how AI learns through better data

Snorkel AI delivers the highest quality specialized datasets for frontier LLMs and enterprise models.

AI data development servicesAboutApplied AI solutionsCareersCompanyContact usCustomer storiesData development services
Company profileWebsite

More open roles at Snorkel AI