{"id":2569452,"url":"https://alion.io/job/zyphra-research-engineer-vision-and-vision-language-models","title":"Research Engineer -- Vision and Vision-Language Models","company":{"id":8989,"name":"Zyphra","domain":"zyphra.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/zyphra","size_band":"1-10","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Ashby","truth_index":{"grade":"D","score":48,"open_postings":16,"ghost_share":0.875,"stale_share":0,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":null,"computed_at":"2026-10-20T05:45:00Z"}},"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":null,"salary_estimate":{"min_usd":166000,"max_usd":366000,"period":"year","method":"role_country_seniority_unknown","sample_n":4194},"experience_years_min":null,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"AI Agents","optional":false},{"name":"Computer Use","optional":false},{"name":"Machine Learning","optional":false},{"name":"Multimodal AI","optional":false},{"name":"Post-training","optional":false},{"name":"Reinforcement Learning","optional":false},{"name":"Python","optional":true},{"name":"PyTorch","optional":true},{"name":"Synthetic Data","optional":true}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-10-14T20:28:53Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-10-14","last_verified_at":"2026-10-21T03:58:20Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":6,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":0,"flags":["company_stale"],"days_open":5},"description":"The Role:\nAs a Research Engineer - Vision & Vision-Language Models, you will be a core contributor on Zyphra’s Vision Team, building the next generation of models for image understanding, computer use, and other agentic visual tasks.\nYou will work across the full model development stack, from sourcing and generating data to pretraining, post-training, reinforcement learning, and evaluation. The Vision Team owns its models end-to-end, and you will have the opportunity to contribute wherever you can have the greatest impact.\nWe care strongly about rate of learning, research taste, and ability to execute. Previous experience training vision-language models is valuable, but not required.\nYou’ll Work Across:\nEnd-to-end pretraining and post-training of vision-language models\n\nLarge-scale vision and multimodal training runs\n\nVision and multimodal dataset sourcing, generation, curation, processing, and evaluation\n\nReinforcement learning and other post-training methodologies for vision-language models\n\nComputer use, visual agents, and other multi-turn agentic vision tasks\n\nArchitecture, data, and training methodology ablations and improvements\n\nPerformance optimization of our training and data processing stacks\n\nWhat We're Looking For / Requirements:\nStrong research taste and intuition, with the ability to take ambiguous problems from conception to experimentation and execution\n\nStrong implementation and prototyping ability; you can turn ideas into experiments quickly\n\nA high rate of learning and an ability to rapidly become effective in unfamiliar technical areas\n\nStrong general machine learning intuition and an interest in understanding the full model development stack\n\nThe ability to work well with others in a high-paced research setting\n\nExcellent communication and collaboration skills, and the ability to work effectively across both research and engineering implementation at scale\n\nQualifications / Additional Skills:\nExperience working with vision, vision-language, video, or other multimodal models or datasets is highly valuable\n\nExperience training vision-language models is a plus, but not required\n\nExperience with large-scale model pretraining, post-training, reinforcement learning, or related methodologies\n\nExperience sourcing, generating, or curating vision datasets, including synthetic data generation\n\nFamiliarity with image processing tools, libraries, or pipelines\n\nExperience with computer use agents, visual agents, GUI understanding, or other multi-turn multimodal tasks is a plus\n\nExperience with frontend development, web frameworks, UI/UX implementation, or mobile development is valuable, particularly for computer use and interface-understanding tasks\n\nExperience training models on large-scale, multi-node GPU clusters\n\nStrong grasp of experimental methodology for running rigorous ablations and hypothesis testing\n\nUnderstanding of large-scale, highly parallel data processing pipelines\n\nProficiency with PyTorch and Python\n\nStrong ability to dive into large pre-existing codebases and rapidly get up to speed\n\nPublished machine learning research in well-respected venues is a plus\n\nPostgraduate study in a scientific or technical field such as Computer Science, EE/EECS, Mathematics, Physics, or Machine Learning is a plus, but we care more about demonstrated ability and trajectory than credentials\n\nWhy Work at Zyphra:\nOur research methodology is grounded in methodical, step-by-step approaches to ambitious goals. Both deep research and engineering excellence are equally valued\n\nWe strongly value new and crazy ideas and are very willing to bet big on new ideas\n\nYou will have the opportunity to work across the entire model development lifecycle rather than being constrained to a narrow part of the stack\n\nWe move as quickly as we can; we aim to minimize the bar to impact as much as possible\n\nWe value rate of learning and growth, not just what someone has already done\n\nWe all enjoy what we do and love discussing AI\n\nBenefits and Perks:\nComprehensive medical, dental, vision, and FSA plans\n\nCompetitive compensation and 401(k) plan\n\nRelocation and immigration support on a case-by-case basis\n\nIn-office snacks and meals provided\n\nUnlimited PTO and company holidays\n\nIn-person team in San Francisco with a collaborative, high-energy environment","description_format":"text","description_chars":4308,"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":["Unlimited PTO"],"hiring_locations":[],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":true,"industries":["Foundation Models","AI Research Labs"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-10-14T22:33:35Z"}],"visa":[],"liveness":{"score":58,"band":"ok","label":"Likely open","p_open":1,"p_active":0.582,"p_room":1,"age_days":5,"expected_fill_days":27,"reasons":["conf:2","stale_co","win:early"],"computed_at":"2026-10-20T05:45:00Z"},"pay":null,"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/zyphra-research-engineer-vision-and-vision-language-models","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/zyphra-research-engineer-vision-and-vision-language-models.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-21T04:08:54Z","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":6048,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-10-22T00:00:00Z"}},"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":8989},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=8989"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fzyphra-research-engineer-vision-and-vision-language-models"},{"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%2Fzyphra-research-engineer-vision-and-vision-language-models"},{"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%2Fzyphra-research-engineer-vision-and-vision-language-models"},{"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/zyphra-research-engineer-vision-and-vision-language-models\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fzyphra-research-engineer-vision-and-vision-language-models"}]}