{"id":14097,"url":"https://alion.io/job/bland-machine-learning-researcher-multimodal-llms","title":"Machine Learning Researcher, Multimodal LLMs","company":{"id":15360,"name":"Bland","domain":"bland.ai","url":"https://alion.io/company/bland","size_band":"51-200","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Ashby","truth_index":{"grade":"B","score":74,"open_postings":16,"ghost_share":0.438,"stale_share":0,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":54,"computed_at":"2026-10-19T05:45:15Z"}},"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":160000,"max":280000,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":280000},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":null,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"ElevenLabs","optional":false},{"name":"Fine-tuning","optional":false},{"name":"LLM","optional":false},{"name":"Machine Learning","optional":false},{"name":"Multimodal AI","optional":false},{"name":"Twilio","optional":false}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-04-21T00:44:36Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-04-21","last_verified_at":"2026-10-19T11:19:31Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":181,"trust":{"level":"ghost","repost_count":0,"flags":["stale","company_stale"],"days_open":181},"description":"Machine Learning Researcher, Multimodal LLMs\nLocation: San Francisco, CA or Remote\nAbout Bland\nAt Bland.com, our mission is to empower enterprises to build AI phone agents at scale. Voice is quickly becoming the primary interface between businesses and their customers, and we are building the models and infrastructure that make those interactions feel natural, reliable, and genuinely human.\nWe’ve raised $100M from leading investors including Emergence Capital, Scale Venture Partners, Y Combinator, and founders of Twilio, Affirm, and ElevenLabs.\nThe Role\nWe are looking for someone to contribute to the development of our next-generation multimodal LLM stack, combining speech, text, tools, and real-time reasoning into a single unified system. You’ll be responsible for building industry-leading conversational AI models that power Bland's agent, and taking them all the way from idea to production.\nAt Bland, we're not just thinking about text modeling. You will define how our agents listen, think, and act in real time, integrating streaming audio, tool execution, and dynamic context into a single coherent system. You will take ideas from research through production systems serving millions of calls per day.\nWhat Makes You a Great Fit\nStrong LLM / Multimodal Background\nExperience with LLMs, multimodal models, or speech-language systems\n\nDeep understanding of prompting, fine-tuning, and alignment techniques\n\nFamiliarity with neural audio codecs and modern multimodal LLM techniques\n\nFast Experimental Loop\nYou can go from idea → dataset → experiment → conclusion in days\n\nYou know how to design experiments that actually answer the question\n\nProduct Intuition\nStrong sense for what makes an interaction feel natural vs robotic\n\nAbility to translate abstract modeling ideas into user-facing improvements\n\nBuilder Mentality\nYou take ownership from research through deployment\n\nYou thrive in ambiguous, fast-moving environments\n\nYou care about impact, not just elegance\n\nHow You Show Up\nYou think in systems, not just models\n\nYou obsess over latency, correctness, and real-world behavior\n\nYou are comfortable discarding ideas quickly when data disagrees\n\nYou push toward simple abstractions for complex problems\n\nBonus Points\nExperience with real-time voice systems or conversational AI\n\nBackground in tool-using agents or agent frameworks\n\nExperience with multimodal datasets (audio + text + actions)\n\nContributions to LLM or speech-related research or open source\n\nCompensation & Benefits\nCompetitive salary: $160,000 - $280,000\n\nMeaningful equity\n\nFull healthcare, dental, vision\n\nOffice in Levi's Plaza, SF\n\nHigh autonomy, high impact\n\nAdditional Information\nBland is an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to proving equal employment opportunities to all qualified applicants and employees and do not discriminate based on any legally protected characteristic. \nBland participates in the E-Verify employment verification program. All new hires are required to complete the Form I-9, and employment will be verified though E-Verify as part of the onboarding process.","description_format":"text","description_chars":3092,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":null,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":null,"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":["Equity"],"hiring_locations":[],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Conversational AI","Speech & Audio AI","AI Agents"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-04-21T00:44:36Z"}],"visa":[],"liveness":{"score":8,"band":"cold","label":"Long shot","p_open":1,"p_active":0.3,"p_room":0.28,"age_days":181,"expected_fill_days":54,"reasons":["conf:2","ghost","win:tail","crowd:"],"computed_at":"2026-10-19T05:45:15Z"},"pay":{"stated_usd_annual":280000,"is_top_pay":true},"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/bland-machine-learning-researcher-multimodal-llms","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/bland-machine-learning-researcher-multimodal-llms.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-19T13:48:30Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":9964,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-10-20T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":15360},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=15360"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fbland-machine-learning-researcher-multimodal-llms"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":1,"usd":0.1},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Fbland-machine-learning-researcher-multimodal-llms"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Fbland-machine-learning-researcher-multimodal-llms"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/bland-machine-learning-researcher-multimodal-llms\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fbland-machine-learning-researcher-multimodal-llms"}]}