{"id":14961,"url":"https://alion.io/job/hedra-research-scientist","title":"Research Scientist","company":{"id":4619,"name":"Hedra","domain":"hedra.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/hedra","size_band":"1001-5000","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Ashby","truth_index":{"grade":"B","score":75,"open_postings":3,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":1,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":null,"computed_at":"2026-10-17T05:46:00Z"}},"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":200000,"max":325000,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":325000},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":null,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"Embodied AI","optional":false},{"name":"Machine Learning","optional":false},{"name":"Physical AI","optional":false},{"name":"Sim-to-Real","optional":false},{"name":"World Models","optional":false},{"name":"DPO","optional":true},{"name":"PPO","optional":true},{"name":"RLHF","optional":true}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-04-15T00:27:24Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-04-15","last_verified_at":"2026-10-17T13:59:55Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":185,"trust":{"level":"stale","repost_count":0,"flags":["stale"],"days_open":185},"description":"Overview:\nHedra is building a world-class Physical AI research team to push the boundaries of action-conditioned world models and generative AI for physical systems. As a Researcher, you will drive original research into the intersection of generative modeling, embodied AI, and real-world physical applications alongside industrial partners. You will have access to large-scale compute, the freedom to pursue high-impact research directions, and a direct path to publication at top venues. We are looking for researchers who are excited to go beyond benchmarks and build models that operate in the real world - drawing on Hedra's leadership in generative modeling and the depth of our academic partnerships, including connections to Fei-Fei Li and the Stanford Vision & Learning Lab.\nResponsibilities:\nDefine and lead research directions in action-conditioned world models, physical AI, and generative modeling for embodied systems\n\nDesign novel architectures, training objectives, and evaluation frameworks for VLMs, VLAs, and world models\n\nDirect research efforts with the goal of publishing in top journals.\n\nPartner with industrial collaborators to ground research in real-world physical AI use cases\n\nMentor research engineers and collaborate cross-functionally to move research into production\n\nStay at the frontier of the field - synthesizing relevant literature and identifying opportunities for impactful contributions\n\nContribute to Hedra's research culture and external scientific reputation\n\nQualifications:\nPhD in Machine Learning, Computer Science, Robotics, or a related field, with publications at top ML or robotics venues\n\nDeep expertise in generative modeling, world models, or vision-language(-action) models\n\nStrong publication record at NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, CVPR, CoRL, or equivalent venues\n\nExperience with large-scale model training and modern deep learning infrastructure\n\nAbility to independently drive research projects from ideation through publication\n\nBackground in embodied AI, robotic manipulation, or sim-to-real transfer is highly desirable\n\nExperience with RLHF, DPO, or preference optimization for model alignment is a plus\n\nStrong collaboration and communication skills - comfortable bridging research and applied teams\n\nBenefits:\nCompetitive compensation and equity\n\n401k (no match)\n\nHealthcare (Silver PPO Medical, Vision, Dental)\n\nLunch and snacks at the office\n\nWe encourage you to apply even if you don't fully meet all the listed requirements; we value potential and diverse perspectives, and your unique skills could be a great asset to our team.","description_format":"text","description_chars":2591,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":null,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":{"level":"phd","optional":false},"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":["401k plan","Equity"],"hiring_locations":[],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Generative Image","Generative Video","Generative Audio & Music"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-04-15T00:27:24Z"}],"visa":[],"liveness":{"score":3,"band":"cold","label":"Long shot","p_open":1,"p_active":0.09,"p_room":0.28,"age_days":185,"expected_fill_days":20,"reasons":["conf:1","win:tail","crowd:"],"computed_at":"2026-10-17T05:46:00Z"},"pay":{"stated_usd_annual":325000,"is_top_pay":true},"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/hedra-research-scientist","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/hedra-research-scientist.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-17T14:21:26Z","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":19321,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-10-18T00:00:00Z"}},"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":4619},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=4619"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fhedra-research-scientist"},{"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%2Fhedra-research-scientist"},{"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%2Fhedra-research-scientist"},{"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/hedra-research-scientist\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fhedra-research-scientist"}]}