Head of AI Research

Your missionDefine how AI can understand, reason about, and discover materials
Dunia is building AI for one of the hardest unsolved problems in science: turning materials discovery from an academic, trial-and-error process into a programmable, scalable discipline.

As Head of AI Research, you will define and lead Dunia’s AI-for-Materials agenda at the intersection of machine learning, physics, chemistry, and automated experimentation. This role is about more than applying existing ML techniques to scientific data. It is about inventing the representations, learning paradigms, and evaluation frameworks that allow AI to reason about matter across scales.

You will spearhead the development of Dunia's Materials World Model, shaping how AI interacts with experiments and simulations, and how scientific insight is translated into systems that reliably produce new materials with real-world impact.

Your tasks will include:

• Define Dunia’s research thesis for AI-native materials discovery
• Identify where existing ML paradigms fail when applied to physical matter, and what must be built instead
• Decide which research bets have the potential to shift the field, not just improve benchmarks

• Hire, mentor, and challenge senior ML researchers and scientists
• Create an environment that values deep thinking, honest evaluation, and intellectual courage
• Set a high bar for scientific taste, clarity, and originality

• Work closely with Programs, Hardware & Automation, and Software Architecture to embed research into end-to-end discovery loops
• Ensure models are grounded in physical reality and experimental feedback, not just data abstractions
• Balance long-horizon research with near-term delivery without reducing ambition

• Influence how AI for Materials is discussed, evaluated, and pursued across academia and industry
• Build collaborations that extend Dunia’s reach while protecting focus and IP
• Represent a clear, opinionated point of view on where the field should go next

• PhD in ML; background in physics, chemistry, or a related field desired
• 7+year's experience in AI research, including leadership of senior ICs
• Deep experience in representation learning, scientific ML, or foundation models
• Strong intuition for physical systems and their constraints
• Proven ability tooperateat the boundary between theory, systems, and real-world feedback
• High scientific taste and comfort making irreversible prioritization decisions under uncertainty
• Clear communicator who can align researchers, engineers, and leadership around ambitious goals
• English fluency,additional languages preferred