{"id":653341,"url":"https://alion.io/job/afterquery-research-scientist-frontier-evaluations","title":"Research Scientist – Frontier Evaluations","company":{"id":668886,"name":"AfterQuery","domain":"afterquery.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/afterquery","size_band":"201-500","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Ashby","truth_index":{"grade":"A","score":88,"open_postings":12,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":0.5,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":null,"computed_at":"2026-11-01T06:10:25Z"}},"role":"AI/ML","role_family":"AI/ML","seniority":null,"employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["San Francisco, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":{"min":210000,"max":450000,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":450000},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":null,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"Anthropic","optional":false},{"name":"Machine Learning","optional":false},{"name":"OpenAI","optional":false}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-09-10T19:38:35Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-09-10","last_verified_at":"2026-11-01T23:34:56Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":52,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":52},"description":"About AfterQuery\nAfterQuery is an applied research lab curating data solutions for foundation model development. We serve every frontier AI lab with the mission of delivering the best data to power the best models. In doing so, we can make expertise that once took a lifetime to build available to anyone who needs it.\nOur customers are the ones building the foundation models themselves and our work sits directly in the loop of how those systems improve. This is a rare opportunity to join a company at a defining moment in AI. Forbes reported that we could be YC's fastest unicorn, reportedly raising at a $3.2 billion valuation. We're based in San Francisco and backed by leading investors including Altos Ventures, BoxGroup, and Y Combinator and angels from Google DeepMind, OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta Superintelligence Labs, and Microsoft AI.\nWhy Apply\nMassive Opportunity: Forbes reported that we could be YC's fastest unicorn, reportedly raising at a $3.2 billion valuation, and we're not slowing down.\nFounding Impact: You will own and architect core infrastructure systems that power our platform from the ground up.\nEquity & Growth: Competitive salary and meaningful equity. As we scale, you’ll have the opportunity to shape the engineering organization and lead major technical initiatives.\nStrong Team: Our founding team has experience from Citadel Securities, Meta, Google, Silver Lake, and Morgan Stanley - work alongside world-class engineers and researchers.\nOverview\nAfterQuery is hiring Research Scientists to design and publish rigorous evaluations for frontier AI systems. The role spans agentic, coding, and safety evaluations, as well as expert-domain evaluations involving applied AI in healthcare, STEM, finance, and related fields. You will own evaluation development end to end and collaborate across disciplines to turn important capability gaps into rigorous public research.\nResponsibilities\nLead the end-to-end design, validation, launch, and continuous improvement of frontier AI benchmarks.\n\nPartner with researchers and domain experts to develop evaluations around meaningful model failures, gaps in existing coverage, and high-priority domains.\n\nAnalyze model capabilities and failure modes using rigorous experimental design and statistical methods.\n\nBuild reproducible evaluation systems, including harnesses, graders, and benchmark infrastructure.\n\nCollaborate with researchers to post-train models and measure the resulting performance gains.\n\nCommunicate results through benchmark reports, technical articles, and research papers.\n\nRequired Qualifications\nStrong record of publishing benchmarks or research papers.\n\nClear technical communication and strong scientific writing skills.\n\nCommitment to experimental rigor, including baselines, ablations, statistical validity, and contamination controls.\n\nAbility to take an ambiguous evaluation question from initial scoping through a reproducible public release.\n\nDepth in agentic, coding, and safety evaluations or applied machine learning in an expert domain.\n\nPreferred Qualifications\nPhD in a related technical field.\n\nResearch publications at leading conferences or peer-reviewed journals.\n\nInterest in multidisciplinary research and the creativity to combine methods and insights from AI, engineering, science, and other expert domains.\n\nCompany Benefits (For Eligible Employees):\nHealth Insurance: Medical, Vision, Dental\n\n401(k) with Employer Match\n\nDaily Meals: Daily UberEats Stipend\n\nMonthly Wellness Stipend\n\nWe are an equal opportunity employer committed to providing a workplace free from discrimination and harassment. Employment decisions are made without regard to legally protected characteristics under applicable federal, state, or local law.\nWe comply with applicable pay transparency requirements and provide compensation ranges based on the position, qualifications, experience, and other relevant factors. Reasonable accommodations are available to qualified individuals with disabilities and for sincerely held religious beliefs, as required by law. This job description is intended to describe the general nature and level of work performed and is not an exhaustive list of all duties, responsibilities, qualifications, or working conditions associated with the position. 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