Member of Technical Staff, Research (2026 PhD New Grad)
Fireworks AI · San Mateo ·
- Work mode
- Hybrid
- Category
- Software engineering
- Salary
- USD 200,000 – 300,000 / year
Fireworks AI · San Mateo ·
Fireworks AI is hiring a recent or upcoming PhD graduate (completion by Dec 2026) for its Research team in San Mateo to conduct foundational research advancing LLMs and multimodal systems, taking prototypes to production-grade AI infrastructure. Core work spans model architectures, training methods, and optimization using Python/C++ and frameworks like PyTorch, JAX, or TensorFlow.
Fireworks is the platform for specialized intelligence, enabling companies to build, train, and serve AI models tailored to their own data, workflows, and products. Founded by the team behind PyTorch and backed by AMD, Atreides, Benchmark Capital, Index Ventures, Lightspeed, NVIDIA, Sequoia Capital, and TCV, Fireworks powers production AI with hundreds of state-of-the-art open models across text, image, embedding, audio, and multimodal workloads. Today, Fireworks is a Series D company valued at $17.5 billion, bringing together an ambitious, collaborative team that's building the future of enterprise AI.
THE ROLE:
This role is designed for researchers finishing their PhD who want their work to reach production, not just publication. As a Member of Technical Staff on the Research team, you'll push the boundaries of generative AI, advancing LLMs and multimodal systems through foundational research. Your work will enhance model efficiency, accuracy, and scalability, directly shaping our high-performance AI infrastructure.
You'll be paired with a senior researcher as a mentor and given a real research problem from day one. You'll collaborate with top experts in deep learning, distributed systems, and optimization, and you'll see the models you help create deployed by some of the world's leading companies — often within weeks rather than years.
We welcome candidates who have completed within the last 6 months, or expected completion by December 2026.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
Conduct foundational research to advance the capabilities, efficiency, and reliability of LLMs and multimodal systems
Design, implement, and evaluate novel model architectures, training methods, and optimization techniques
Work alongside engineering teams to transition research prototypes into production-grade systems
Analyze empirical results, identify performance bottlenecks, and iterate quickly to improve model quality
Bring ideas and emerging directions from your doctoral research into our internal research agenda
MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS:
PhD completed within the last 6 months, or expected completion by December 2026, in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Computational Physics, Mathematics, Electrical Engineering, or a similar field
Research background in Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Physics, or a related area, demonstrated through your dissertation, publications, or research projects
Experience solving analytical problems using analytic and quantitative approaches
Experience communicating research to audiences with different backgrounds
Proficiency coding in Python, C/C++, or other similar languages
Hands-on experience with ML frameworks such as PyTorch, JAX, or TensorFlow
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS:
First-authored publications at top-tier peer-reviewed conferences or journals (NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, MLSys, or similar)
Industry research internships, or open-source contributions to ML systems, model training, or inference projects
Research or engineering experience demonstrated via grants, fellowships, patents, or coding competitions
Experience with large-scale model training, distributed systems, GPU kernel development, or inference optimization
Experience taking research code beyond the prototype stage
Solve Hard Problems: Tackle challenges at the forefront of AI infrastructure, from low-latency inference to scalable model serving.
Build What’s Next: Work with bleeding-edge technology that impacts how businesses and developers harness AI globally.
Ownership & Impact: Join a fast-growing, passionate team where your work directly shapes the future of AI—no bureaucracy, just results.
Learn from the Best: Collaborate with world-class engineers and AI researchers who thrive on curiosity and innovation.
Fireworks AI is an equal-opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all innovators.