Senior Research Engineer LLM

Genies, Inc. • San Francisco, CA

118d • $180,000 - $230,000

About The Position

Genies is looking for a passionate Senior Research Engineer to join our core AI team at our Bay Area office in San Mateo, CA. This is a critical role where you will take end-to-end ownership of the research and development of our core generative AI systems, driving the roadmap that will define the intelligence and interactivity of millions of AI avatars. You will solve fundamental technical challenges in creating socially-aware, autonomous, and creative AI characters and companions. Working closely with a dedicated team of engineers and researchers, you will bridge the gap between cutting-edge research and real-world product impact.

Requirements

• PhD or Master in Computer Science, AI, Machine Learning, or a related field, or equivalent industry experience with a strong track record of research and engineering innovation.
• 3+ years of hands-on experience in machine learning, with proven expertise in LLM post-training techniques (e.g., RLHF, SFT, RLVR), and significant contributions to real-world AI products.
• Demonstrated experience in developing LLM-based agentic systems, including planning, tool use, and/or reasoning frameworks.
• Exceptional software engineering skills in Python and deep experience with ML frameworks like PyTorch, JAX, or TensorFlow.
• Strong problem-solving skills and the ability to own and pursue an ambitious research agenda autonomously.

Nice To Haves

• A track record of impactful work, demonstrated through publications in top-tier conferences (e.g., ACL, NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, AAAI, EMNLP, NAACL).
• Familiarity with multimodal models, particularly those integrating language with vision, 3D, or speech.
• Experience training large models in a distributed setting (e.g., using PyTorch Distributed, DeepSpeed).
• A passion for or prior experience in gaming, social simulation, or interactive entertainment.
• Self-starter, analytical, creative, highly motivated with an innovative spirit.
• Excellent communication skills.

Responsibilities

• Architect and develop next-generation agentic reasoning frameworks, enabling avatars to formulate plans, utilize tools, and interact dynamically within Genies' social gaming ecosystems.
• Design and implement advanced LLM post-training and alignment algorithms (e.g., RLHF, DPO/IPO) to fine-tune avatar personality, behavior, and conversational quality.
• Pioneer research into socially-grounded intelligence, empowering avatars with memory, context-awareness, and the ability to engage in complex, multi-turn interactions.
• Develop robust data pipelines to process diverse, multimodal user interaction data, identifying key signals for improving model performance and agent capabilities.
• Create novel evaluation methodologies and benchmarks to rigorously measure avatar quality across dimensions like role-playing consistency, safety, and task completion.
• Collaborate with product and engineering teams to translate research breakthroughs into scalable, production-ready systems that directly impact the user experience.
• Stay at the forefront of academic and industry research in LLMs and AI agents, identifying and prototyping new techniques to advance our technology.

Benefits

• Comprehensive health insurance for you and your family (Anthem + Kaiser Options Available), Dental and Vision Insurance.
• Competitive salaries and 401K program for all full time employees.
• Flexible paid time off, sick time, and paid company holidays, in addition to paid parental leave, bereavement leave, and jury duty leave for full-time employees.
• Health & wellness support through programs such as monthly wellness reimbursement.
• Working in a brand new, bright, open-environment and fun office space - there’s even a slide!

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Education Level: Ph.D. or professional degree
• Number of Employees: 101-250 employees