Senior GenAI Research Scientist - Scaling

At Databricks, we are obsessed with enabling data teams to solve the world’s toughest problems, from security threat detection to cancer drug development. We do this by building and running the world’s best data and AI platform, so our customers can focus on the high‑value challenges that are central to their own missions.

As a Research Scientist on the Scaling team, you will be responsible for keeping up with the latest developments in deep learning and advancing the scientific frontier by creating new techniques that go beyond the state of the art. You will work together on a collaborative team of researchers and engineers with diverse backgrounds and technical training. Most importantly, you will love our customers: our goal is to make our customers successful in applying state‑of‑the‑art LLMs and AI systems, and we encode our scientific expertise into our products to make that possible.

• Define and lead independent research agendas on foundation model efficiency in model training and reinforcement learning, conducting experiments to empirically validate hypotheses and benchmark against state‑of‑the‑art approaches.
• Drive algorithmic innovations for large‑scale neural network training or inference (e.g., novel optimizers, low‑precision techniques, model adaptation methods).
• Optimize ML systems for distributed training, memory efficiency, and compute efficiency through hands‑on implementation.

• MS/PhD in Computer Science or related field with strong foundations in machine learning and systems.
• Proven ability to write high‑quality, efficient code in Python and PyTorch for research implementation and experimentation.
• Strong preference for candidates with first‑author publications at top ML/systems conferences (ICLR, ICML, NeurIPS, MLSys) focused on optimization or efficiency.

Pay range: $166,000 – $225,000 USD
(This estimate includes base salary and may also include eligibility for annual performance bonus, equity, and additional benefits).

Databricks is the data and AI company. More than 10,000 organizations worldwide—including Comcast, Condé Nast, Grammarly, and over 50% of the Fortune 500—rely on the Databricks Data Intelligence Platform to unify and democratize data, analytics, and AI. Databricks is headquartered in San Francisco with offices around the globe and was founded by the original creators of Lakehouse, Apache Spark, Delta Lake and MLflow.

We strive to provide comprehensive benefits and perks that meet the needs of all employees. For specific details on the benefits offered in your region, please visit

We are committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive culture where everyone can excel. Our hiring practices meet equal employment opportunity standards. Individuals seeking employment are considered without regard to age, color, disability, ethnicity, family or marital status, gender identity or expression, language, national origin, physical and mental ability, political affiliation, race, religion, sexual orientation, socio‑economic status, veteran status, and other protected characteristics.

If access to export‑controlled technology or source code is required for performance of job duties, it is within Employer's discretion whether to apply for a U.S. government license for such positions, and Employer may decline to proceed with an applicant on this basis alone.