Research Scientist

San Francisco, CA

We are a small team with a shared belief in the future of Intelligence. At Verterra, you won't just be working on Intelligence — you'll be helping define its future.

About the role

We are looking for a few research scientists to join our team. You will be responsible for developing and implementing new models and algorithms for our AI models.

What you'll work on

• Invent and train next-generation multimodal generative models (trillions-parameter scale) that power our Synthetic Reality Engine and world-model stack.
• Prototype, evaluate and productionize novel architectures—diffusion, transformer variants, memory networks—and deploy them in Emma within days.
• Design self-supervised objectives, curriculum strategies and automated data-labeling pipelines to unlock emergent reasoning and tool-use capabilities.
• Push state-of-the-art benchmarks on long-context reasoning, 3-D scene understanding and real-time simulation fidelity.
• Collaborate with Kernel, Systems and Product teams to co-design custom operators and training loops that maximize GPU throughput.
• Publish select breakthroughs at NeurIPS/ICLR and open-source enabling tools where strategically valuable.

What we're looking for

• PhD, MSc or equivalent research record in CS, EE, Physics or related field with a focus on deep learning, generative models or computational neuroscience.
• 5+ years hands-on experience training large-scale models on multi-node GPU clusters; fluent with PyTorch or JAX and comfortable diving into CUDA/HIP when needed.
• Proven first-author papers or shipped production systems that advanced the SOTA or reached millions of users.
• Deep grounding in representation learning, optimization algorithms and probabilistic modeling; strong math intuition and scientific rigor.
• Proficient in Python and modern C++; experience building custom ops, graph compilers or MLIR/LLVM passes is a plus.
• Thrives in an ambiguous, fast-moving startup environment; collaborates fluidly across research, engineering and product.

Compensation, benefits, and perks

• Annual salary: $285K - $555K
• 401(k) plan with 6% salary matching
• Generous health, dental and vision insurance for you and your dependents
• Unlimited paid time off
• Visa sponsorship and relocation stipend to bring you to SF, if possible
• A small, fast-paced, highly focused team