Machine Learning Scientist (L4/L5) - Multi-modal Algorithms for Games

Netflix • Los Angeles, CA

2d

About The Position

At Netflix, our mission is to entertain the world. Together, we are writing the next episode - pushing the boundaries of storytelling, global fandom and making the unimaginable a reality. We are a dream team obsessed with the uncomfortable excitement of discovering what happens when you merge creativity, intuition and cutting-edge technology. Come be a part of what’s next.
The Team
The Studio Media Algorithms team is at the forefront of algorithmic innovation to enhance and support the creation of Netflix’s entertainment content, including games. In this role, you will be embedded within this team while collaborating very closely with a specialized Games Studio R&D team. This incubation-style team is chartered to lead our investments in building new kinds of games leveraging emerging technologies to support our creators and reach player audiences in new ways.
The Role
We are seeking a Machine Learning Scientist to lead the research and development of Large Language Models (LLMs), Vision-Language Models (VLMs), and multi-modal foundations and solutions for games. This role is defined by a mandate for inference efficiency; you will not only build and fine-tune state-of-the-art models but also lead the algorithmic innovation required to make them viable in terms of cost, latency, and quality across a variety of cloud and edge devices.
You will work in close partnership with our Machine Learning Engineers to bridge the gap between "research-grade" models and high-performance deployment, with your focus being on algorithmic optimization—ensuring that our language, visual, and audio models are architecturally optimized for real-time interaction and efficiency.

Requirements

• Multi-modal Architecture Expertise: Strong foundation in deep learning architectures, with deep expertise in Transformers and Diffusion architectures powering LLMs, VLMs, and generative visuals, including their specific performance bottlenecks.
• Optimization Specialist: Proven track record in algorithmic model optimization (e.g., distillation, quantization-aware training, or pruning) to reduce FLOPs and memory footprint.
• Data-Centric Mindset: Skilled in data cleaning, curation, and the creation of synthetic data for complex evaluation and training pipelines.
• Pragmatic Builder: Ability to prioritize impact by deciding when to use commercial APIs/OSS weights versus when to invest in proprietary R&D to solve efficiency or quality problems.
• Programming: Expert proficiency in Python and deep learning frameworks (such as PyTorch); ability to collaborate with engineering on low-level performance constraints.

Nice To Haves

• Prior experience optimizing models for heterogeneous hardware (Mobile, Cloud GPU, and custom edge devices).
• Expertise in audio-visual multimodal models and video generation.

Responsibilities

• Model Adaptation & Alignment: Design and own the fine-tuning and alignment of LLMs and VLMs in PyTorch, leveraging modern preference learning and reinforcement learning to enhance reasoning, tool-use, and agentic workflows for interactive game systems.
• Algorithmic Model Optimization: Lead efforts in model compression—specifically knowledge distillation, structural pruning, and architectural refinement—to create efficient variants of large models that meet strict latency, cost, and quality constraints.
• Generative Visuals & Diffusion: Develop and optimize Diffusion-based models for Image, Video, and 3D generation, including distillation and efficiency techniques for viable game-time performance.
• Pragmatic Model Integration: Strategically evaluate and integrate SOTA open-source and commercial models while building internal "layers," adapters, and enhancements to fill gaps in creative control.
• Multi-modal Interaction: Optimize and integrate audio (ASR/TTS), language, and vision models to enable low-latency, cross-modal reasoning and interaction.

Benefits

• Netflix provides comprehensive benefits including Health Plans, Mental Health support, a 401(k) Retirement Plan with employer match, Stock Option Program, Disability Programs, Health Savings and Flexible Spending Accounts, Family-forming benefits, and Life and Serious Injury Benefits.
• We also offer paid leave of absence programs.
• Full-time hourly employees accrue 35 days annually for paid time off to be used for vacation, holidays, and sick paid time off.
• Full-time salaried employees are immediately entitled to flexible time off.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level
• Education Level: No Education Listed