{"id":840147,"url":"https://alion.io/job/onepot-research-scientist-machine-learning","title":"Research Scientist, Machine Learning","company":{"id":679989,"name":"onepot","domain":"onepot.ai","url":"https://alion.io/company/onepot","size_band":"201-500","is_staffing_agency":false,"is_intermediary":false,"ats_vendor":"Ashby","truth_index":null},"role":"AI/ML","role_family":"AI/ML","seniority":null,"employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["South San Francisco, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":{"min":200000,"max":250000,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":250000},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":null,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":true,"technologies":[{"name":"Computer Vision","optional":false},{"name":"LLM","optional":false},{"name":"Machine Learning","optional":false},{"name":"Post-training","optional":false},{"name":"PyTorch","optional":false},{"name":"Quantization","optional":false}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-08-07T22:08:19Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-08-07","last_verified_at":"2026-09-24T00:31:01Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":47,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":47},"description":"onepot is automating chemistry. Our goal is to enable a self-improvement loop for chemistry by combining AI and advanced robotics. In this loop, AI systems design experiments, robotic systems execute them, and the resulting data improves the next generation of models.\nThis goal can only be achieved by bringing together people from different backgrounds: ML engineers, chemists, computer scientists, and hardware engineers. We are building a small, unusually ambitious team and are looking for a machine learning researcher to join us to help train the next generation of chemistry models.\nWe train models for a wide range of tasks, including reaction planning and outcome, input material costs, and mass spectra prediction. Most of these models are state-of-the-art; many are trained on proprietary datasets that are larger, and higher quality, than what exists in the literature.\nOur models are primarily deployed internally for real workflows. As such, we maintain a tight feedback loop between usage, data, and model training.\nThe role\nIn this position, you will train the next generation of chemistry models, and enable synthesis of previously inaccessible molecules.\nYour work will span the full modeling stack. You will work with lab staff on data acquisition, train models of many different shapes and sizes, and deploy models directly into experimental workflows. You will build and help maintain infrastructure and abstractions for training a diverse set of models; this includes data pipelines and various system tasks such as parallelism strategies and quantization.\nUltimately, your role will be to train models with superhuman chemistry intuition and experimental capabilities.\nEducation\nNo formal education is required. Ideal candidates will have some background in a deeply quantitative field, ideally with experience training ML models.\n\nExperience\nStrong fundamentals in machine learning with a deep understanding of modern empirical/experimental ML\n\nExperience developing novel model training techniques or dealing with novel tasks or datasets\n\nEvidence that you can move quickly, make good decisions with incomplete information, and solve difficult problems without waiting for detailed instructions\n\nExperience in a startup, research group, competition team, or other environment where you had significant ownership and limited resources is particularly relevant\n\nSkills\nFamiliarity with PyTorch or other machine learning frameworks\n\nKnowledge of basic machine learning theory\n\nEnthusiasm about working across the entire machine learning stack (data, training, inference, deployment)\n\nComfort working across disciplines and learning unfamiliar technical areas as necessary\n\nStrong written and verbal communication skills\n\nCuriosity and excitement about chemistry\n\nA strong bias toward building, testing, and learning from real systems\n\nParticularly relevant experience\nExperience in any of the following areas would be useful, but we do not expect one person to have all of it:\nTraining LLM models (particularly mid- and post-training)\n\nComputer vision and embedded systems/robotics\n\nMachine learning systems (kernels, distributed training, etc.)\n\nFamiliarity with chemistry models (retrosynthesis, mass spec modeling, etc.) or cheminformatics\n\nActive learning or other techniques suited for low-data regimes\n\nScaling experiments and determining scaling laws\n\nWho will thrive here\nYou may be a strong fit if you:\nWant to see your models used rather than benchmarked - here the loop closes in the lab, not on a leaderboard\n\nAre energized rather than discouraged by novel tasks with no established baseline or dataset\n\nReach across the whole stack, from data acquisition through training to what runs in production\n\nMove with urgency while keeping enough rigor to know whether a result is real\n\nWant substantial responsibility early, including over what gets built and why\n\nAre willing to work outside a narrow job description to make the overall system succeed\n\nAdditional requirements\nAbility to work extended hours and weekends as necessary\n\nonepot works fully in person in our South San Francisco lab\n\nAbility to work safely in an active chemistry laboratory and around scientific equipment. This position does not involve lab work, but some projects may require an understanding of lab workflows.\n\nBenefits\nLunches and dinners (if staying late) in office\n\nCommute stipend\n\nTop-of-the-line insurance\n\nGenerous equity grants\n\nonepot is an equal-opportunity employer.","description_format":"text","description_chars":4489,"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":["Artificial Intelligence"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-09-12T21:29:18Z"}],"liveness":{"score":26,"band":"fade","label":"Fading","p_open":1,"p_active":0.478,"p_room":0.55,"age_days":47,"expected_fill_days":33,"reasons":["conf:5","win:tail"],"computed_at":"2026-09-24T05:45:00Z"},"pay":{"stated_usd_annual":250000,"is_top_pay":true},"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/onepot-research-scientist-machine-learning","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/onepot-research-scientist-machine-learning.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-09-24T06:50:25Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers"}}