Research Scientist in Large-Scale Data Science and Learning

Oak Ridge National Laboratory•Oak Ridge, TN

4d•Onsite

About The Position

The Analytics and AI methods at Scale (AAIMS) group in the National Center for Computational Science (NCCS) is hiring a Senior Research Scientist to push the frontier of AI for science, focusing on areas such as scientific reasoning, federated & collaborative learning, and reinforcement learning (RL) for self-improving models on leadership-class supercomputers. The role involves designing, training, and evaluating AI systems that plan, reason, and take actions to accelerate discovery across various scientific domains including materials, chemistry, climate, fusion, and biology. This position is at the intersection of AI at scale and High-Performance Computing (HPC), utilizing resources like the Frontier exascale supercomputer to prototype new ideas, conduct large-scale experiments, and translate methods into scientific impact. The NCCS is an inclusive and dynamic environment that welcomes initiative and creativity.

Requirements

PhD in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or a field closely related to the job duties.
A minimum of 6 years of relevant research experience outside of Ph.D.
Demonstrated research in cross-cutting fields of HPC and/or AI.

Nice To Haves

Demonstrated leadership in conceiving, planning, and delivering large-scale HPC-AI projects with measurable scientific or technological impact.
Experience securing competitive funding (e.g., DOE, NSF, DARPA, industry consortia) and leading multi-institution proposals.
Recognition by the broader community – invited talks, keynote addresses, professional society awards, or major benchmarks.
Impactful open-source contributions to HPC or AI frameworks (e.g., Megatron-LM, DeepSpeed, Ray, Distributed RL).
Interdisciplinary collaboration experience – working with domain scientists (climate, material, fusion, biology) to translate methods into real discoveries.
Strategic vision – ability to identify long-term research directions at the intersection of AI, HPC and domain sciences.

Responsibilities

Develop and coordinate division activities in HPC-AI with cross-cutting initiatives in the laboratory by establishing forward-looking centers of excellence.
Lead and collaborate with internal and external researchers on a variety of extreme-scale AI/ML research and projects.
Lead in authoring peer-reviewed papers, technical papers, reports, and proposals.
Advance personal and staff contributions in leading professional, academic, and research organizations.
Provide mentorship to postdocs, students, and junior staff, fostering long-term career development.
Effectively communicate vision, strategy, and progress to DOE sponsors, industrial partners, and international collaborators.