Founding Research Scientist

We’re recruiting on behalf of a frontier space technology company using advanced AI to rethink how space systems are designed, operated, and scaled.

The company is building AI-first autonomy and decision-making systems for space - applying foundation models and LLM-based approaches to problems like mission planning, system monitoring, anomaly detection, and complex simulation. Their work sits at the intersection of machine learning, physics, and real operational constraints
, where models need to reason, adapt, and perform reliably in environments that are remote, high-risk, and data-sparse.

The team is small, deeply technical, and moving quickly - combining strong ML research with serious systems engineering and domain expertise.

• Researching and developing foundation models and LLM-based systems for space-related applications
• Working on reasoning, planning, and decision-making under uncertainty
• Training and evaluating large-scale models using simulation and real telemetry
• Collaborating closely with engineers to move research into deployed systems

• Strong research background in ML, LLMs, or foundation models
• Publications at top-tier conferences or equivalent research impact
• PhD or equivalent research experience from a leading university
• Experience at a top AI lab, aerospace organisation, or research-first company
• Ability to work autonomously in a low-bureaucracy environment
• Direct space experience is helpful but not essential.

• Work on genuinely challenging, real-world problems
• A high-trust, senior technical environment
• Ownership over meaningful parts of the research roadmap
• Access to serious compute and high-quality data
• Competitive compensation and founder level equity equity