Member of Technical Staff - Research Engineer, Post-training

Description

Preference Model is a superintelligence data research company. We build RL environments for training capable, better-aligned superintelligences.

Almost every aspect of how a model behaves is shaped by the reward signals it's trained on. The biggest problem with AIs today is that they don't always do what we intend. Sometimes that's because they aren't capable enough, and sometimes it's because they aren't aligned. Both problems come down to the training objectives.

We're trying to address both of these issues in the most direct, highest leverage way available to us, which today means researching how to build RL environments better, not just for the AIs of today but for the AIs as they will be when they outsmart us.

Over the past year, we've built RL environments for several frontier labs, and we're backed by $16M in seed funding led by a16z. Our founding team has previous experience on Anthropic’s data team building data infrastructure, and datasets behind Claude.

About the Role

Models of the future will be able to train themselves on tasks that they are not good at. We are interested in investigating how far we can push the boundaries of self-directed learning. We are looking for machine learning Research Engineers or Research Scientists to push the frontier of post-training on large language models in a role that blends research and engineering, requiring you to implement novel approaches and shape research directions.

Responsibilities

• Train and evaluate models on our proprietary RL environments to validate data quality, surface gaps in task coverage, and close the feedback loop between environment design and model capability.
• Architect and optimize our RL training infrastructure, from training abstractions to distributed experiment management, using frameworks like Verl, OpenRLHF, or similar. Help scale our systems to handle increasingly complex research workflows.
• Design, implement, and test training environments, evaluations, and methodologies for RL agents.
• Profile and optimize training runs end-to-end, from data loading through reward computation, to maximize experiment throughput and shorten the research iteration cycle.
• What We are Looking For
• Industry experience running end-to-end LLM post-training pipelines of models sizes at least 7B in size
• Proficiency in Python and PyTorch or JAX
• Experience with at least one modern RL training framework
• Experience building and operating ML infrastructure at scale
• You may be a good fit if you also:
• Have experience evaluating model outputs and building reward or evaluation signals
• Stay current on post-training research and can translate papers into running code
• Have strong opinions (loosely held) about how to structure RL training code for reproducibility and fast iteration
• Can balance research exploration with engineering rigor
• Have strong systems design and communication skills
• Candidates don't need a PhD or extensive publications. Some of the best researchers have no formal ML training and gained experience building industry products. We believe adaptability combined with exceptional communication and collaboration skills are the most important ingredients for successful startup research.

Benefits

• Competitive cash and equity compensation (>90th percentile)
• Ownership and autonomy in a fast moving startup environment
• Opportunity to work with top machine learning engineers
• Health, vision, dental, benefits
• 401K match
• Lunch provided everyday onsite
• Weekly snack orders
• Visa sponsorship & relocation support available
• We value diverse perspectives and experiences. If you're excited about this role but don't check every box, we still encourage you to apply.