Young Investigator, FlexOlmo

Ai2 is seeking a Postdoctoral Young Investigator to join the Flex Olmo team, working on large language models designed for flexible data use, with a focus on Mixture‑of‑Experts, long‑context language models, and retrieval. Postdoctoral Young Investigators will be based in Berkeley, California.

Compensation: $159,650

• Define and lead a high‑impact research project.
• Train and release leading models.
• Collaborate with and learn from team members across Ai2.
• Build open‑source software for the research community.
• Author scientific papers for publication in high‑profile conferences or journals.

• Duration: 1‑3 years.
• Start date:
  
  Flexible.
• Candidates: within one year of completing their PhD or already have a PhD.
• The Allen AI Young Investigator is a postdoctoral program offering unique benefits, enabling collaboration while mentoring junior researchers.

• Dedicated Ai2 mentor who is also a faculty member at UC Berkeley.
• 50% work on leading and collaborating on an Ai2 project as an independent contributor.
• 50% work on mentoring junior researchers (PhD students/interns, predoctoral students/interns) and opportunities to receive mentorship in academic activities such as grant writing and teaching.

• Flex Olmo is a small, tightly knit team giving unique opportunities to work closely on one high‑impact project.
• We encourage open collaboration projects, including with external institutions, and team members will be based in Berkeley with opportunities to engage actively with UC Berkeley and the BAIR lab.
• Our pay is competitive, and visa sponsorship is available.
• We are committed to open science and support students freely publishing papers, as exemplified by our first release:
  Flex Olmo:
  Open Language Models for Flexible Data Use.

• Within one year of completing a PhD or already have a PhD in Computer Science or a related field with research experience in machine learning, natural language processing, language and vision, or related areas.
• Outstanding individual contributor skills, especially with deep learning frameworks such as PyTorch.
• An outstanding publication record at AI‑related venues such as NeurIPS, ICLR, ICML, COLM, ACL, EMNLP. We evaluate the quality of publications in terms of rigor and impact, not quantity.
• Extensive research experience in areas such as large language models, training dynamics, scaling laws, and data curation. Experience with mixture‑of‑experts, long‑context language models, and retrieval is preferred but not required.
• Located or willing to relocate to Berkeley, CA.

• Must be able to remain in a stationary position for long periods of time.
• Must be able to communicate information and ideas so others will understand.
• Must be able to observe details at close range.
• Must be able to work under deadlines.

Ai2 is a Seattle‑based non‑profit AI research institute founded in 2014 by the late Paul Allen. Our mission is to build breakthrough AI to solve the world’s biggest problems. We develop foundational AI research and innovation to deliver real‑world impact through large‑scale open models, data, robotics, conservation, and beyond.

In addition to our core mission, we also aim to contribute to humanity through our treatment of each member of the Ai2 team. We are a learning organization, value diversity and inclusion, emphasize a healthy work/life balance, and are collaborative and transparent. We are based in Seattle, and our office is on the water.

• Medical, dental, vision, basic life insurance, basic accidental death and dismemberment insurance, short‑term disability, long‑term disability, and an employee assistance program.
• Flexible spending accounts: health savings account plan, health care reimbursement arrangement plan, and dependent care FSA.
• 401(k) plan.
• Monthly commuting or internet stipend of $125 and a $200 monthly wellness stipend.
• Up to ten sick days, up to seven personal days, up to 20 vacation days, and twelve paid holidays per year.
• Annual bonuses.

Ai2 is proud to be an Equal Opportunity employer. We do not discriminate based upon race, religion, color, national origin, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, transgender status, sexual stereotypes, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, or other applicable legally protected characteristics. We comply with E‑Verify, provide reasonable accommodations for disabled applicants, and have a Pay Transparency Nondiscrimination Provision.