{"id":29224,"url":"https://alion.io/job/odyssey-vp-research","title":"VP, Research","company":{"id":7949,"name":"Odyssey","domain":"odyssey.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/odyssey","size_band":"201-500","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Ashby","truth_index":null},"role":"Leadership","role_family":"Leadership","seniority":"head","employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["London, United Kingdom","Palo Alto, United States"],"countries":["GB","US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":null,"salary_estimate":{"min_usd":140000,"max_usd":257000,"period":"year","method":"role_seniority_country_remote_cell","sample_n":61},"experience_years_min":10,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"AI Agents","optional":false},{"name":"Multimodal AI","optional":false},{"name":"OpenAI","optional":false},{"name":"Reinforcement Learning","optional":false},{"name":"Reinforcement Learning","optional":false},{"name":"World Models","optional":false},{"name":"Physical AI","optional":true}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-07-17T16:13:27Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-07-17","last_verified_at":"2026-10-17T17:25:41Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":92,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":92},"description":"Who we are\nOdyssey is an AI lab pioneering general world models: causal, multimodal systems that learn to predict and interact with the world over long horizons. This foundational technology promises to revolutionize robotics, science, healthcare, education, gaming, defense, and beyond.\nOdyssey’s founders previously pioneered the most complex application of physical AI: self-driving cars. They’ve now brought together a world-class research team from DeepMind, Tesla, Waymo, Meta, Apple, and Wayve, who have made significant contributions to language models (DeepMind Gemini), video models (DeepMind Veo), world models (Wayve GAIA), and autonomous systems (Tesla FSD).\nOdyssey has raised significant venture capital from GV, Amazon, AMD, EQT, NVIDIA, Natural Capital, In-Q-Tel, Elad Gil, Jeff Dean, Guillermo Rauch, Garry Tan, Kyle Vogt, and researchers from OpenAI, DeepMind, MSL, Recursive, and Thinking Machines.\nWhat we're looking for\nOdyssey is hiring a VP of Research to lead and grow our Frontier Research group, the researchers working at the cutting edge of world model capability, responsible for the first proof points of new algorithms and for pushing the frontier of what world models can do. This is a role for someone who wants to both set the research agenda and stay close enough to shape it directly, not manage from a distance.You'll report directly to Jeff Hawke, our Co-Founder and CTO, and work alongside Odyssey’s leaders.\nWhat you'll do\nLeading and growing the Frontier Research group, hiring, mentoring, and developing researchers at every level.\n\nOwning and driving Odyssey's research agenda across world simulation, multimodality, robotics, and multi-agent learning.\n\nDefining and communicating a research vision ambitious enough to position Odyssey as the leading voice in world models, one that attracts top talent to the field and to us specifically.\n\nSetting the research roadmap and publication strategy, and representing Odyssey's research externally to the broader community.\n\nCollaboration across disciplines with other VP-level leaders, driving forward Odyssey’s holistic top-level strategy.\n\nWho you are\n10+ years of research experience with a strong publication record at top ML venues (NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, CVPR, and similar).\n\nDeep technical expertise in at least one of generative video models, world models, multimodal learning, reinforcement learning, or robotics.\n\nA track record of leading and growing research teams, including mentoring researchers at all levels, not just senior hires.\n\nDemonstrated ability to set a research vision that shapes a field and pulls talent toward it.\n\nComfortable in a fast-paced, high-ambiguity environment; startup experience preferred.\n\nEqually comfortable partnering with Foundation Models, ML Platform, and Applied AI as with your own researchers.\n\nWilling to be in the office 3+ days a week, ideally full-time, based in London.\n\nGenuinely motivated by Odyssey's mission to discover the GPT-3 moment for world models, not just intellectually curious about it.\n\nOur staff is expected to be in office at least three times a week. A lot of our progress comes from working through problems together, and we want you in the room for that.","description_format":"text","description_chars":3218,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":10,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":null,"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":[],"hiring_locations":[],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Generative 3D","Foundation Models"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-07-17T16:13:27Z"}],"visa":[],"liveness":{"score":26,"band":"fade","label":"Fading","p_open":1,"p_active":0.728,"p_room":0.36,"age_days":91,"expected_fill_days":58,"reasons":["conf:1","win:tail","crowd:"],"computed_at":"2026-10-17T05:46:00Z"},"pay":null,"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/odyssey-vp-research","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/odyssey-vp-research.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-17T19:37:36Z","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":2996,"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":7949},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=7949"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fodyssey-vp-research"},{"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%2Fodyssey-vp-research"},{"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%2Fodyssey-vp-research"},{"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/odyssey-vp-research\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fodyssey-vp-research"}]}