Young Investigator, FlexOlmo

The Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence•Berkeley, CA

4d•$159,650 - $159,650•Remote

About The Position

Ai2 is seeking a Postdoctoral Young Investigator to join the FlexOlmo team, which develops large language models designed for flexible data use. The research focuses on Mixture-of-Experts architectures, long-context language models, and retrieval, as well as improved training, inference-time conditioning, data use, and methods for evaluating and understanding these systems. The role is based in Berkeley, California, with remote work welcomed from Berkeley. The position lasts 1–3 years, has a flexible start date, and is intended for candidates within one year of completing a PhD or who already hold a PhD. The Young Investigator will define and lead a high-impact research project, train and release leading models, collaborate with Ai2 researchers, develop open-source software, and publish scientific papers. The role is structured as approximately 50% independent contribution to leading and collaborating on an Ai2 project and 50% mentoring junior researchers, including PhD students, interns, and predoctoral students or interns. A dedicated Ai2 mentor who is also a UC Berkeley faculty member will provide support. The program may also offer mentorship in academic activities such as grant writing and teaching. Collaboration with external researchers and engagement with UC Berkeley and the BAIR lab are encouraged. Ai2 supports open science and the publication of research. Visa sponsorship is available.

Requirements

Be within one year of completing a PhD or already hold a PhD in Computer Science or a similar field.
Have research experience in machine learning, natural language processing, language and vision, or a related area.
Have outstanding individual-contributor skills, especially with deep-learning frameworks such as PyTorch.
Have an outstanding publication record at AI-related venues such as NeurIPS, ICLR, ICML, COLM, ACL, or EMNLP; publication quality is evaluated for rigor and impact, not quantity.
Have extensive research experience in areas such as large language models, training dynamics, scaling laws, and data curation.
Be located in Berkeley, California, or be willing to relocate there.

Nice To Haves

Experience with Mixture-of-Experts, long-context language models, and retrieval.
Interest in mentoring junior researchers and in academic activities such as grant writing and teaching.

Responsibilities

Define and lead a high-impact research project.
Train and release leading models.
Lead and collaborate on an Ai2 project as an independent contributor.
Mentor junior researchers, including PhD students, interns, and predoctoral students or interns.
Build open-source software for the research community.
Author scientific papers for publication in high-profile conferences or journals.
Collaborate with Ai2 team members and, where appropriate, researchers at external institutions.
Develop research in language-model architectures, training methods, flexible data use, and related areas.

Benefits

Medical, dental, and vision coverage for team members and their families.
Basic life insurance, basic accidental death and dismemberment insurance, short-term disability, and long-term disability.
Employee assistance program.
Voluntary life insurance and voluntary accidental death and dismemberment coverage.
Health savings account, healthcare reimbursement arrangement, and healthcare and dependent-care flexible spending account plans.
Company 401(k) plan.
$125 per month for commuting or internet expenses.
$200 per month for fitness and wellbeing expenses.
Up to ten sick days per year.
Up to seven personal days per year.
Up to 20 vacation days per year.
Twelve paid holidays per year.
Annual bonuses.
Generous paid vacation, sick leave, and family leave.
Opportunities for ongoing education and learning.
Visa sponsorship available.