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Roles at frontier labs · Research

Research Scientist

175 recorded postings · Partial update · October 8, 2026

Recorded postings, not a live vacancy count. Partial update: some sources retain earlier observations; each listing has its own check date.

Research scientists set research directions and run the experiments that test them, from new training methods to evaluations of what a model can do. It is the title where labs most often mention a PhD and a publication record.

What the postings ask for
  1. Evals and benchmarks 62%
  2. How language models work 62%
  3. Publications 50%
  4. Python 50%
  5. Post-training and fine-tuning 49%
  6. Agents and tool use 46%

taught here course coming not taught

The numbers

Recorded postings at 20 labs
175
Median base pay middle half $300k to $440k, 72 U.S. bands
$413k
No degree requirement stated 18% require a PhD outright
34%
Years asked, median of the 71 that state a minimum
3
Explore opportunities

The recorded snapshot

Postings from 20 labs

In the labs' own words

In the labs' own words

“You love being on the cutting edge of RL and language model research.”
OpenAI · Research Engineer/Research Scientist, RL/Reasoning ↗
“Have experience building or fine-tuning agentic systems (tool use, multi-step planning, agent orchestration frameworks)”
Mistral AI · AI Scientist - Agentic Engineering ↗
“Experience with LLMs, post-training, reinforcement learning, or agentic systems .”
Thinking Machines Lab · Research, Post-Training Evals ↗

Your way in

Three doors to this role

  1. Door 1

    Finishing a degree

    Prof Rod Avatar

    50% mention publications

    The way in is a program: 32 recorded in the snapshot

  2. Door 2

    A software engineer

    Prof Rod Avatar

    34% have no degree requirement stated

    What to add

  3. Door 3

    A PhD

    Prof Rod Avatar

    21% ask for distributed training

    Engineering at scale

Asked often

The short answers

How much does a research scientist at a frontier lab make?

The median U.S. base salary across 72 recorded research scientist postings that publish a band is $413k; the middle half runs from $300k to $440k. Equity and bonus are not included.

Do you need a PhD to be a research scientist?

34% of the 175 recorded postings do not state a degree requirement, 63% mention a PhD or master's, and 18% require a PhD outright.

What skills do research scientist postings ask for?

Most often: evals and benchmarks (62%), how language models work (62%), publications (50%), python (50%), post-training and fine-tuning (49%).

Which labs posted research scientist roles in this recorded board?

Recorded board: Meta (Superintelligence Labs and FAIR) (39), Google DeepMind (27), OpenAI (25), Mistral AI (14), Thinking Machines Lab (14), Periodic Labs (10), and 14 more.

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The board

Recorded postings, newest first

The newest 40 of 175. Each title opens the lab's own posting. By family: research scientists and engineers

  1. LLM Scientist, AI for Science ↗

    Mistral AI · Research scientists and engineers · No degree stated

  2. Research Scientist ↗

    Cursor (Anysphere) · Research scientists and engineers · No degree stated

  3. Machine Learning Scientist ↗

    Relace · Research scientists and engineers · Master's, PhD or equivalent

  4. Research Scientist, Asta ↗

    Allen Institute for AI (Ai2) · Research scientists and engineers · PhD required · $167k to $261k base

  5. Research Scientist, Climate Modeling ↗

    Allen Institute for AI (Ai2) · Research scientists and engineers · PhD required · $167k to $261k base

  6. Research Scientist, Robotics ↗

    Allen Institute for AI (Ai2) · Research scientists and engineers · PhD required · $167k to $261k base

  7. Senior Research Scientist, Open Ecosystem ↗

    Allen Institute for AI (Ai2) · Research scientists and engineers · PhD required · $170k to $270k base

  8. [Expression of Interest] Research Engineer / Scientist, Alignment - London ↗

    Anthropic · Research scientists and engineers · No degree stated

  9. Research Engineer / Research Scientist, RL Frontiers ↗

    Anthropic · Research scientists and engineers · No degree stated · $500k to $850k base

  10. Research Engineer / Research Scientist, Tokens ↗

    Anthropic · Research scientists and engineers · No degree stated · $350k to $500k base

  11. Research Engineer / Scientist, Alignment ↗

    Anthropic · Research scientists and engineers · No degree stated · $350k to $500k base

  12. Research Engineer/Research Scientist, Pre-training ↗

    Anthropic · Research scientists and engineers · Master's or PhD required · $350k to $850k base

  13. Research Scientist, Interpretability ↗

    Anthropic · Research scientists and engineers · No degree stated · $350k to $850k base

  14. Staff+ Research Scientist, Multi-Agent ↗

    Anthropic · Research scientists and engineers · No degree stated · $500k to $850k base

  15. Staff+ Researcher, Cybersecurity Products ↗

    Anthropic · Research scientists and engineers · No degree stated · $405k to $485k base

  16. Applied Researcher, Audio ↗

    Cartesia · Research scientists and engineers · No degree stated · $200k to $350k base

  17. Researcher, Evals ↗

    Cartesia · Research scientists and engineers · No degree stated · $220k to $350k base

  18. Researcher, Models ↗

    Cartesia · Research scientists and engineers · No degree stated · $180k to $350k base

  19. Researcher, Models (UK) ↗

    Cartesia · Research scientists and engineers · No degree stated

  20. Researcher, Post Training ↗

    Cartesia · Research scientists and engineers · No degree stated · $180k to $350k base

  21. Senior Research Scientist, Model Evaluation ↗

    Cohere · Research scientists and engineers · No degree stated

  22. Post-training Agentic Research Scientist, DeepMind ↗

    Google DeepMind · Research scientists and engineers · PhD or equivalent experience

  23. Research Collaboration Lead, DeepMind, DeepMind Institute ↗

    Google DeepMind · Research scientists and engineers · Bachelor's or equivalent

  24. Research Developer, Frontier AI Incubation, DeepMind ↗

    Google DeepMind · Research scientists and engineers · Bachelor's or equivalent

  25. Research Scientist, Agents, DeepMind ↗

    Google DeepMind · Research scientists and engineers · PhD or equivalent experience

  26. Research Scientist, AGI Safety and Alignment, DeepMind ↗

    Google DeepMind · Research scientists and engineers · Bachelor's or equivalent

  27. Research Scientist, AI Secure Code, DeepMind ↗

    Google DeepMind · Research scientists and engineers · PhD or equivalent experience

  28. Research Scientist, Gemini Agent Safety, DeepMind ↗

    Google DeepMind · Research scientists and engineers · PhD or equivalent experience

  29. Research Scientist, Gemini Horizon, DeepMind ↗

    Google DeepMind · Research scientists and engineers · PhD or equivalent experience

  30. Research Scientist, Gemini Safety and Behavior, DeepMind ↗

    Google DeepMind · Research scientists and engineers · PhD or equivalent experience

  31. Research Scientist, Gemini Vision, DeepMind ↗

    Google DeepMind · Research scientists and engineers · PhD or equivalent experience

  32. Research Scientist, Human-AI Interaction, DeepMind ↗

    Google DeepMind · Research scientists and engineers · PhD required

  33. Research Scientist, Multilingual, Multicultural and Multimodal LLM, DeepMind ↗

    Google DeepMind · Research scientists and engineers · PhD or equivalent experience

  34. Research Scientist, Multisensor Robotics, DeepMind ↗

    Google DeepMind · Research scientists and engineers · PhD or equivalent experience

  35. Research Scientist, Reasoning and Artificial General Intelligence, DeepMind ↗

    Google DeepMind · Research scientists and engineers · PhD or equivalent experience

  36. Research Scientist, Robotics Pre-Training and Data Quality, DeepMind ↗

    Google DeepMind · Research scientists and engineers · PhD or equivalent experience

  37. Research Scientist, Robotics RL, DeepMind ↗

    Google DeepMind · Research scientists and engineers · PhD or equivalent experience

  38. Research Scientist, Safety Oversight, DeepMind ↗

    Google DeepMind · Research scientists and engineers · PhD or equivalent experience

  39. Research Scientist, Safety Oversight, DeepMind ↗

    Google DeepMind · Research scientists and engineers · PhD or equivalent experience

  40. Research Scientist, Verified Code Generation, DeepMind ↗

    Google DeepMind · Research scientists and engineers · PhD or equivalent experience

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