Forward Deployed Researcher - Data as a Service

About the Role

Snorkel AI is hiring Forward Deployed Researchers who will partner with frontier AI labs on their most challenging data problems. This is a high-impact, customer-facing role that combines deep technical and research credibility with strong presales instincts. You'll partner with customer research teams to design complex data and environments that improve frontier model performance, serving as a thought partner throughout the engagement.

You'll work at the critical intersection of research, technical strategy, and customer partnership. This includes scoping training data needs, designing RL environments and tasks, developing evaluation frameworks, probing model behavior and failure modes, and translating customer research objectives into actionable technical plans.

Main Responsibilities

• Partner with frontier AI research labs to design datasets and environments that improve model performance
• Lead technical conversations with customer researchers to understand model capabilities, failure modes, data requirements, and success criteria
• Probe model behavior through systematic evaluation to uncover weaknesses and identify high-impact data interventions
• Design evaluation frameworks, calibration processes, and quality rubrics that establish measurable project success metrics
• Develop technical specifications for data projects that balance research rigor with operational feasibility
• Serve as thought partner to customer research teams throughout the sales cycle, building trust and credibility
• Stay current on frontier AI research, RL environment design, post-training techniques, and evaluation methodologies

Preferred Qualifications

• Strong expertise in frontier AI concepts including LLMs, training data pipelines, evaluation methodologies, post-training techniques (RLHF, DPO, RLAIF), and domain areas such as coding agents, reasoning, multimodal models, or RL environments
• Experience in applied ML research, data science, or research-intensive technical roles
• Customer-facing or collaborative research experience, or demonstrated aptitude for client engagement
• Proficiency in Python and familiarity with ML frameworks and LLM APIs
• Excellent communication skills, ability to deliver technical presentations and explain complex concepts to diverse audiences
• Familiarity with data curation workflows, synthetic data generation, LLM-as-a-Judge, or evaluation framework design
• Ability to work in a fast-moving environment, comfortable with ambiguity and rapid iteration
• B.S. in Computer Science, Machine Learning, or related field with 4+ years of experience in AI/ML research or technical roles; advanced degree preferred

Compensation

The salary range is $180,000 - $300,000 USD.

Be Your Best at Snorkel

Joining Snorkel AI means becoming part of a company that has market proven solutions, robust funding, and is scaling rapidly, offering a unique combination of stability and the excitement of high growth. As a member of our team, you'll have meaningful opportunities to shape priorities and initiatives, influence key strategic decisions, and directly impact our ongoing success. Whether you're looking to deepen your technical expertise, explore leadership opportunities, or learn new skills across multiple functions, you're fully supported in building your career in an environment designed for growth, learning, and shared success.

Snorkel AI is proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity employer and is committed to building a team that represents a variety of backgrounds, perspectives, and skills. Snorkel AI embraces diversity and provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment. Snorkel AI prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type on the basis of race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local law. All employment is decided on the basis of qualifications, performance, merit, and business need.

We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and to receive other benefits and privileges of employment. Please contact us to request accommodation.