Principal Research Scientist

PhysicsX

ABOUT US PhysicsX is a deep-tech company with roots in numerical physics and Formula One, dedicated to accelerating hardware innovation at the speed of software. We are building an AI-driven simulation software stack for engineering and manufacturing across advanced industries. By enabling high-fidelity, multi-physics simulation through AI inference across the entire engineering lifecycle, PhysicsX unlocks new levels of optimization and automation in design, manufacturing, and operations — empowering engineers to push the boundaries of possibility. Our customers include leading innovators in Aerospace & Defense, Materials, Energy, Semiconductors, and Automotive. NOTE: WE ARE CURRENTLY RECRUITING FOR MULTIPLE POSITIONS, HOWEVER PLEASE ONLY APPLY FOR THE ROLE THAT BEST ALIGNS WITH YOUR SKILLSET AND CAREER GOALS. THE ROLE The Principal ML Infrastructure Engineer will extend and operate the infrastructure that powers our research model training, fine-tuning, and serving pipelines. You will be embedded within our Research function, partnering directly with ML engineers and research scientists to ensure they can train Large Physics Models efficiently and reliably at scale. TEAM CONTEXT In this role, you will be vertically embedded in Research, working daily with: * Research Scientists who determine the model architectures and methods * ML Engineers who implement and develop the models * Simulation Data Engineers who are accountable for upstream data pipelines You will have end-to-end responsibilities over the research infrastructure, with the autonomy to make architectural decisions and the responsibility to keep data flowing reliably. Horizontally, you will be part of an infrastructure engineering group responsible for infrastructure across the company. WHAT YOU WILL DO TRAINING INFRASTRUCTURE * Design and operate distributed training infrastructure for neural operator architectures (Transolver, Point Cloud Transformer, etc.) on our large NVIDIA DGX B200 platform. * Optimize training pipelines for throughput, fault tolerance, and cost efficiency, including checkpointing strategies, gradient accumulation, and multi-node synchronization. * Build and maintain experiment tracking and observability systems that give researchers clear visibility into training runs, hyperparameter sweeps, and model performance. DATA I/O AND PERFORMANCE * Solve data loading bottlenecks for large-scale mesh datasets. * Optimize data pipelines for efficient I/O from cloud storage, including prefetching, caching, and format optimization. * Work with heterogeneous data sources of varying formats and resolutions. MODEL SERVING AND DEPLOYMENT * Build serving infrastructure for pre-trained LPMs, supporting both zero-shot inference and uncertainty quantification (Monte Carlo Dropout). * Design and implement model packaging pipelines for customer deployment. Models must run reliably in customer environments with fine-tuning capabilities. * Ensure reproducibility: any model checkpoint should be deployable with consistent behaviour. PLATFORM AND TOOLING * Improve developer experience for the Research team with fast iteration cycles, reliable CI/CD, clear debugging tools. * Collaborate with the broader Infrastructure team on shared patterns and standards. WHAT YOU BRING TO THE TABLE * Ability to scope and effectively deliver projects, prioritising activity as needed. * Problem-solving skills and the ability to analyse issues, identify causes, and recommend solutions quickly. * Excellent collaboration and communication skills, especially in a research setting. You can translate "the model isn't converging" into infrastructure hypotheses and solutions, and can bridge technical abstractions with implementations. * 5+ years of experience building and operating ML infrastructure at scale: * Deep expertise in distributed training: you've debugged NCCL hangs, optimized collective communication, and know when to use FSDP vs. DDP vs. pipeline parallelism * Strong systems fundamentals: Linux, networking (including domain specific NVLink and InfiniBand), storage I/O, profiling and performance optimization * Production experience with Kubernetes and SLURM for job orchestration on GPU clusters * Proficiency in Python and ML frameworks (PyTorch strongly preferred) * Experience with cloud GPU infrastructure; ideally CoreWeave or similar GPU/HPC-focused clouds IDEALLY * Experience with geometric deep learning or neural operators, ****architectures that operate on meshes, point clouds, or graphs * Background in HPC for simulation engineering, familiarity with how CFD/FEA workflows generate and consume data * Experience building model serving infrastructure with latency and throughput requirements * Familiarity with experiment tracking tools (Weights & Biases, MLflow) and observability stacks (Prometheus, Grafana) * Experience packaging models for deployment into customer environments (containers, model registries, versioning)   What we offer Build what actually matters Help shape an AI-native engineering company at a formative stage, tackling problems that genuinely matter for industry and society. This is work with real-world impact - and something you can be proud to stand behind. Learn alongside exceptional people Work with a high-caliber, collaborative team of engineers, scientists, and operators who care deeply about doing great work, and about helping each other get better. We come from diverse backgrounds, but we share a commitment to operating at the highest level and addressing some of the most complex challenges out there. If you’re ambitious, thoughtful, and driven by impact, you’ll feel at home. Influence over hierarchy We operate with a flat structure: good ideas win - wherever they come from. Questioning assumptions and challenging the status quo isn’t just welcomed, it’s expected. Sustainable pace, long-term ambition Building meaningful technology is a marathon, not a sprint. We believe in balancing focused, ambitious work with a life beyond it. Our hybrid model blends time together in our Shoreditch office with work-from-home days, giving you the flexibility to work sustainably while staying connected in person. And it doesn’t stop there … 🚀 Equity options - share meaningfully in the company you’re helping to build. 🏦 10% employer pension contribution - because investing in future matters. 🍽️ Free office lunches - to keep you energised and focused. 👶 Enhanced parental leave - 3 months full pay paternity and 6 months full pay maternity leave, to provide extra flexibility during the moments that matter most. 🍼 YellowNest nursery scheme - to help working parents manage childcare costs. ☀️ 25 days of Annual Leave (+ Public Holidays) - because taking time to rest matters. 🏥 Private medical insurance - 100% employee cover, giving you complete peace of mind. 💪 Wellhub Subscription - gain access to thousands of gyms, classes and wellness apps, supporting both physical and mental wellbeing. 👀 Eye tests - because good work depends on good health. 📈 Personal development - dedicated support for learning, development, and leveling up over time. 💛 Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) - confidential wellbeing support, available whenever you need it. 🚲 Bike2Work scheme and 🚆 Season ticket loan - to make getting to work easier and greener. 🚗 Octopus EV salary sacrifice - for a simpler, more sustainable way to drive electric. 🔎 Watch this space, we’re continuing to build this as we grow…   We value diversity and are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of sex, race, religion, ethnicity, nationality, disability, age, sexual orientation or gender identity. We strongly encourage individuals from groups traditionally underrepresented in tech to apply. To help make a change, we sponsor bright women from disadvantaged backgrounds through their university degrees in science and mathematics.    We collect diversity and inclusion data solely for the purpose of monitoring the effectiveness of our equal opportunities policies and ensuring compliance with UK employment and equality legislation. This information is confidential, used only in aggregate form, and will not influence the outcome of your application.

Faculty

WHY FACULTY? We established Faculty in 2014 because we thought that AI would be the most important technology of our time. Since then, we’ve worked with over 350 global customers to transform their performance through human-centric AI. You can read about our real-world impact here. We don’t chase hype cycles. We innovate, build and deploy responsible AI which moves the needle - and we know a thing or two about doing it well. We bring an unparalleled depth of technical, product and delivery expertise to our clients who span government, finance, retail, energy, life sciences and defence. Our business, and reputation, is growing fast and we’re always on the lookout for individuals who share our intellectual curiosity and desire to build a positive legacy through technology. AI is an epoch-defining technology, join a company where you’ll be empowered to envision its most powerful applications, and to make them happen. About the team Faculty conducts critical red teaming and builds evaluations for misuse capabilities in sensitive areas, such as CBRN, cybersecurity and international security, for several leading frontier model developers and national safety institutes; notably, our work has been featured in OpenAI's system card for o1. Our commitment also extends to conducting fundamental technical research on mitigation strategies, with our findings published in peer-reviewed conferences and delivered to national security institutes. Complementing this, we design evaluations for model developers across broader safety-relevant fields, including the societal impacts of increasingly capable frontier models, showcasing our expertise across the safety landscape. About the role The Principal Research Scientist for AI Safety will be the driving force behind Faculty's small, high-agency research team, shaping the future of safe AI systems. You will lead the scientific research agenda for AI safety, focusing on large language models and other critical systems. This role involves leading researchers, driving external publications, and ensuring alignment with Faculty’s commercial ambition to build trustworthy AI, giving you the opportunity to make a high-impact contribution in a rapidly evolving, critical field. What you'll be doing: * Leading the AI safety team's ambitious research agenda, setting priorities aligned with long-term company goals. * Conducting and overseeing cutting-edge AI safety research, specifically for large language models and safety-critical AI systems. * Publishing high-impact research findings in leading academic conferences and journals. * Shaping the research agenda by identifying impactful opportunities and balancing scientific and practical priorities. * Helping to build and mentor a growing team of researchers, fostering an innovative and collaborative culture. * Collaborating on delivery of evaluations and red-teaming projects in high-risk domains like CBRN and cybersecurity. * Positioning Faculty as a thought leader in AI safety through research and strategic stakeholder engagement. Who we're looking for: * You have a proven track record of high-impact AI research, demonstrated through top-tier academic publications or equivalent experience. * You possess deep domain knowledge in language models and the evolving field of AI safety. * You exhibit strong research judgment and extensive experience in AI safety, including generating and executing novel research directions. * You have the ability to conduct and oversee complex technical research projects, with advanced programming skills (Python, standard data science stack) to review team work. * You bring excellent verbal and written communication skills, capable of sharing complex ideas with diverse audiences. * You have a deep understanding of the AI safety research landscape and the ability to build connections to secure resources for impactful work. Our Interview Process 1. Talent Team Screen (30 mins) 2. Experience & Theory interview (45 mins) 3. Research presentation and coding interview (75 mins) 4. Leadership and Principles interview (60 mins) 5. Final stage with our CEO (45 mins) OUR RECRUITMENT ETHOS We aim to grow the best team - not the most similar one. We know that diversity of individuals fosters diversity of thought, and that strengthens our principle of seeking truth. And we know from experience that diverse teams deliver better work, relevant to the world in which we live. We’re united by a deep intellectual curiosity and desire to use our abilities for measurable positive impact. We strongly encourage applications from people of all backgrounds, ethnicities, genders, religions and sexual orientations. Some of our standout benefits: * Unlimited Annual Leave Policy * Private healthcare and dental * Enhanced parental leave * Family-Friendly Flexibility & Flexible working * Sanctus Coaching * Hybrid Working If you don’t feel you meet all the requirements, but are excited by the role and know you bring some key strengths, please don't hesitate in applying as you might be right for this role, or other roles. We are open to conversations about part-time hours.

IMC

IMC is one of the world’s leading trading firms, combining quantitative research, technology and trading expertise to solve complex problems at scale. As Machine Learning becomes increasingly important within our Systematic Equities business, we are investing in frontier research that can shape the next generation of models, infrastructure and research capabilities. With access to world-class datasets, significant compute resources and a highly collaborative environment, IMC offers a unique opportunity to see cutting-edge research translated into real-world impact. We are seeking a Principal Research Scientist to help define and accelerate our long-term machine learning research agenda. Prior finance experience is not required. THE ROLE This role is designed for an established academic researcher or research scientist who wants to remain connected to the frontier of machine learning while applying their expertise in a highly impactful environment. You will work alongside quantitative researchers, engineers and research leadership to identify emerging research directions, evaluate new developments in machine learning, and help translate promising academic advances into practical applications. Rather than owning individual trading strategies, you will act as a scientific leader, mentor and advisor across the research organisation. You will also represent IMC externally through participation in leading conferences and engagement with the broader machine learning community. RESPONSIBILITIES * Shape the long-term machine learning research agenda within Systematic Equities. * Identify and translate advances from frontier ML research into practical opportunities. * Conduct original research and develop proof-of-concept solutions where appropriate. * Advise and mentor quantitative researchers on methodology, experimentation and research direction. * Help guide future investments in research tooling, infrastructure and compute capabilities. * Represent IMC within the global machine learning community through conferences such as NeurIPS, ICML and ICLR. * Contribute to publication efforts where appropriate and consistent with intellectual property considerations. SKILLS & EXPERIENCE * PhD in Machine Learning, Computer Science, Statistics, Mathematics, Physics or a related quantitative discipline. * Outstanding academic credentials and a strong publication record in leading research venues. * Current or recent experience in a faculty-equivalent academic or research leadership role such as Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, Professor, Group Leader, Principal Investigator, Senior Postdoctoral Researcher, or Senior Research Scientist. * Deep expertise in modern machine learning and strong awareness of emerging research trends. * Experience influencing research direction, mentoring researchers, or leading research initiatives. * Strong programming skills and experience with modern machine learning frameworks. * Excellent communication skills and the ability to collaborate across disciplines. WHAT WE OFFER * The opportunity to influence the future of machine learning at one of the world’s leading trading firms. * Access to exceptional datasets, infrastructure and large-scale compute resources. * Continued engagement with the academic community through conferences, collaborations and publication opportunities. * A collaborative environment where research can move rapidly from idea to impact. * Competitive compensation that reflects both scientific excellence and commercial impact. About Us IMC is a global trading firm powered by a cutting-edge research environment and a world-class technology backbone. Since 1989, we’ve been a stabilizing force in financial markets, providing essential liquidity upon which market participants depend. Across our offices in the US, Europe, Asia Pacific, and India, our talented quant researchers, engineers, traders, and business operations professionals are united by our uniquely collaborative, high-performance culture, and our commitment to giving back. From entering dynamic new markets to embracing disruptive technologies, and from developing an innovative research environment to diversifying our trading strategies, we dare to continuously innovate and collaborate to succeed.