{"id":2438975,"url":"https://alion.io/job/vmax-research-fellowship-open-endedness-2","title":"Research Fellowship - Open Endedness","company":{"id":2344182,"name":"Vmax","domain":"vmax.ai","url":"https://alion.io/company/vmax-ai","size_band":null,"is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Ashby","truth_index":{"grade":"B","score":75,"open_postings":7,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":1,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":null,"computed_at":"2026-10-19T05:45:15Z"}},"role":"Science & Research","role_family":"Science & Research","seniority":null,"employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"hybrid","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"inferred","locations":[],"countries":[],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":null,"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":null,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"JAX","optional":false},{"name":"Machine Learning","optional":false},{"name":"Python","optional":false},{"name":"PyTorch","optional":false},{"name":"Reinforcement Learning","optional":false},{"name":"LLM","optional":true},{"name":"Post-training","optional":true}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2025-11-05T20:31:18Z","employer_posted_date":"2025-11-05","last_verified_at":"2026-10-19T07:33:50Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":347,"trust":{"level":"stale","repost_count":0,"flags":["stale"],"days_open":347},"description":"AboutVmax\nVmax is an applied research lab developing AI capable of open-ended learning. We are building systems to exceed humans in all capacities by optimising beyond the local maxima of learning from human expertise.\nAbout the role\nA core focus of ours is agents that can learn to find their own objectives in the world. We are looking for researchers to design and build new ways of using RL where the formulation of rewards and tasks need to be discovered, rather than given.\nThis 3 to 6 month fellowship is for PhD students or equivalent early-career researchers who want to work on LLMs that can learn in open-ended settings. You will own a focused research project, work closely with Vmax technical staff, and contribute to research publications.\nResponsibilities\nDevelop RL methods for agents that can discover useful objectives, tasks and curricula without relying entirely on human-specified rewards.\n\nDesign systems for open-ended learning, including unsupervised/automated environment design, asymmetric self-play, and intrinsic motivation.\n\nBuild training loops where agents learn from interaction, exploration, novelty, competence progress, self-generated challenges, or other nonstandard reward signals.\n\nInvestigate how agents can avoid collapse into trivial, degenerate, or easily exploitable objectives.\n\nOwn and develop a research agenda within Vmax, from identifying promising directions to executing experiments and communicating results.\n\nRole Requirements\nCurrently enrolled in a PhD program in machine learning, computer science, artificial intelligence, computational neuroscience, mathematics, or a related technical field. Exceptional candidates with equivalent research experience may also be considered.\n\nTrack record of research excellence or strong research promise, demonstrated through publications, preprints, open-source work, technical projects, competitions, or publicly available artifacts.\n\nWorking understanding of reinforcement learning.\n\nFamiliarity with unsupervised/automated environment design, asymmetric self-play, and/or intrinsic motivation.\n\nStrong programming ability in Python and experience with at least one major ML framework such as PyTorch or JAX.\n\nClear written and verbal communication of technical ideas.\n\nNice to have\nExperience with LLM post-training methods\n\nExperience with scalable ML experimentation, distributed training, experiment tracking, or reproducible research infrastructure.\n\nDemonstrated taste for identifying non-obvious research directions and converting them into tractable experiments.\n\nRole specific location policy\nThis role is based in our San Francisco office; for exceptional candidates we are willing to consider a hybrid arrangement","description_format":"text","description_chars":2720,"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":[],"hiring_locations":[],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Artificial Intelligence","Machine Learning","Reinforcement Learning"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-10-13T11:34:44Z"}],"visa":[],"liveness":{"score":3,"band":"cold","label":"Long shot","p_open":1,"p_active":0.118,"p_room":0.28,"age_days":347,"expected_fill_days":22,"reasons":["conf:1","win:tail","crowd:"],"computed_at":"2026-10-19T05:45:15Z"},"pay":null,"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/vmax-research-fellowship-open-endedness-2","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/vmax-research-fellowship-open-endedness-2.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-19T10:56:38Z","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":7789,"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":2344182},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=2344182"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fvmax-research-fellowship-open-endedness-2"},{"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%2Fvmax-research-fellowship-open-endedness-2"},{"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%2Fvmax-research-fellowship-open-endedness-2"},{"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/vmax-research-fellowship-open-endedness-2\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fvmax-research-fellowship-open-endedness-2"}]}