Roles at frontier labs · Research specialties
Multimodal Researcher and Engineer
45 open · October 2, 2026
Multimodal teams build models that see, hear and speak: vision, audio, speech and video, alone or combined with text.
- Multimodal models 98%
- Evals and benchmarks 64%
- How language models work 53%
- Publications 51%
- Python 47%
- PyTorch 44%
taught here course coming not taught
The numbers
- Open roles now at 12 labs
- 45
- Median base pay middle half $275k to $413k, 18 U.S. bands
- $310k
- State no degree 13% require a PhD outright
- 53%
- Years asked, median of the 16 that state a minimum
- 5
Who is hiring
12 labs are hiring
In the labs' own words
In the labs' own words
“Experience with video-language models and architectures relevant to video generation and post training”
“Familiarity with or strong interest in multimodal AI, including speech technologies, real-time systems, and image generation.”
“Takes ownership: Owns customer post-training projects end-to-end for audio workloads, from requirements through delivery and evaluation.”
Your way in
Three doors to this role
- Door 1
Finishing a degree
51% mention publications
The way in is a program: 44 open now
- Door 2
A software engineer
53% state no degree
What to add
- Door 3
A PhD
20% ask for distributed training
Engineering at scale
Asked often
The short answers
How much does a multimodal researcher and engineer at a frontier lab make?
The median U.S. base salary across 18 open multimodal researcher and engineer postings that publish a band is $310k; the middle half runs from $275k to $413k. Equity and bonus are not included.
Do you need a PhD to be a multimodal researcher and engineer?
53% of the 45 open postings state no degree at all, 38% mention a PhD or master's, and 13% require a PhD outright.
What skills do multimodal researcher and engineer postings ask for?
Most often: multimodal models (98%), evals and benchmarks (64%), how language models work (53%), publications (51%), python (47%).
Which labs are hiring multimodal researcher and engineers?
Right now: Meta (Superintelligence Labs and FAIR) (14), OpenAI (8), Liquid AI (5), Google DeepMind (3), xAI (3), Cartesia (2), and 6 more.
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The board
Open roles, newest first
The newest 40 of 45. Each title opens the lab's own posting. By family: research scientists and engineers · ml systems and infrastructure · machine learning engineers · software engineering at labs
- Applied Researcher, Audio ↗
Cartesia · Research scientists and engineers · No degree stated · $200k to $350k base
- Applied Researcher, Audio Post-Training ↗
Cartesia · Research scientists and engineers · No degree stated · $200k to $350k base
- Audio Inference Engineer, Model Efficiency ↗
Cohere · ML systems and infrastructure · No degree stated
- Senior Member of Technical Staff, Multimodal AI ↗
Cohere · Research scientists and engineers · No degree stated
- Research Engineer, World Models, DeepMind ↗
Google DeepMind · Research scientists and engineers · PhD preferred
- Research Scientist, Gemini Vision, DeepMind ↗
Google DeepMind · Research scientists and engineers · PhD or equivalent experience
- Research Scientist, Multilingual, Multicultural and Multimodal LLM, DeepMind ↗
Google DeepMind · Research scientists and engineers · PhD or equivalent experience
- Principal Research & Engineering, Realtime Voice AI ↗
Inflection AI · Machine learning engineers · Bachelor's or equivalent · $400k to $550k base
- Member of Technical Staff - Applied ML, Japanese Multimodal ↗
Liquid AI · Research scientists and engineers · No degree stated
- Member of Technical Staff - ML Scientist, Japanese Multimodal ↗
Liquid AI · Research scientists and engineers · No degree stated
- Member of Technical Staff - Multi-Modal, Audio ↗
Liquid AI · Research scientists and engineers · No degree stated
- Member of Technical Staff - Post Training, Applied (Audio) ↗
Liquid AI · Research scientists and engineers · No degree stated
- Member of Technical Staff - Post Training, Applied (Vision) ↗
Liquid AI · Research scientists and engineers · No degree stated
- Research Scientist - World Model ↗
Luma AI · Research scientists and engineers · PhD or equivalent experience
- AI Research Scientist, Computer Vision ↗
Meta (Superintelligence Labs and FAIR) · Research scientists and engineers · PhD or equivalent experience
- AI Research Scientist, Video Generation and Post Training, FAIR ↗
Meta (Superintelligence Labs and FAIR) · Research scientists and engineers · PhD or equivalent experience
- AI Research Scientist, VLM (vision language models) ↗
Meta (Superintelligence Labs and FAIR) · Research scientists and engineers · PhD required
- Audio Software Engineer, Applied Scientist ↗
Meta (Superintelligence Labs and FAIR) · Research scientists and engineers · PhD or equivalent experience
- Computer Vision Engineer, Reality Labs ↗
Meta (Superintelligence Labs and FAIR) · Software engineering at labs · PhD required
- Computer Vision Engineer, Reality Labs ↗
Meta (Superintelligence Labs and FAIR) · Software engineering at labs · Master's or PhD required
- Research Scientist – World Models, Robotics & Embodied AI ↗
Meta (Superintelligence Labs and FAIR) · Research scientists and engineers · PhD or equivalent experience
- Research Scientist, Computer Vision MGenAI ↗
Meta (Superintelligence Labs and FAIR) · Research scientists and engineers · PhD required
- Research Scientist, Contextual AI and Multimodal Agents ↗
Meta (Superintelligence Labs and FAIR) · Research scientists and engineers · PhD required
- Research Scientist, Multi-Modal Human Understanding ↗
Meta (Superintelligence Labs and FAIR) · Research scientists and engineers · Bachelor's or equivalent
- Research Scientist, Multi-Modal Understanding & Synthesis ↗
Meta (Superintelligence Labs and FAIR) · Research scientists and engineers · PhD required
- Research Scientist, World Modeling ↗
Meta (Superintelligence Labs and FAIR) · Research scientists and engineers · PhD required
- Software Engineer, Audio SWE ↗
Meta (Superintelligence Labs and FAIR) · Software engineering at labs · No degree stated
- Vision Architect, RL Silicon ↗
Meta (Superintelligence Labs and FAIR) · Software engineering at labs · No degree stated
- Android Engineer, ChatGPT ImageGen ↗
OpenAI · Software engineering at labs · No degree stated · $185k to $385k base
- Backend Software Engineer, ChatGPT ImageGen ↗
OpenAI · Software engineering at labs · No degree stated · $185k to $305k base
- Engineering Manager, Multimodal (API) ↗
OpenAI · Software engineering at labs · No degree stated · $401k to $445k base
- Full Stack Software Engineer, ChatGPT ImageGen ↗
OpenAI · Software engineering at labs · No degree stated · $347k to $445k base
- IT Audiovisual Operations Engineer ↗
OpenAI · Software engineering at labs · No degree stated · $187k to $207k base
- Machine Learning Engineer, Multimodal Perception and Authentication ↗
OpenAI · Machine learning engineers · No degree stated · $342k to $399k base
- Researcher, Multimodal Safety ↗
OpenAI · Research scientists and engineers · No degree stated · $380k to $500k base
- Software Engineer, API Multimodal ↗
OpenAI · Software engineering at labs · No degree stated · $266k to $445k base
- Product Design Engineer - Audio ↗
Stability AI · Software engineering at labs · No degree stated
- Senior Product Engineer, Growth & Lifecycle Infrastructure - Music & Audio ↗
Stability AI · Software engineering at labs · No degree stated
- Research, Audio Expertise ↗
Thinking Machines Lab · Research scientists and engineers · PhD or equivalent experience · $350k to $475k base
- Research, Vision Expertise ↗
Thinking Machines Lab · Research scientists and engineers · PhD or equivalent experience · $350k to $475k base
