AI Research Scientist; Generative Models Scientific Discovery

Who We Are

Applied Materials is a global leader in materials engineering solutions used to produce virtually every new chip and advanced display in the world. We design, build and service cutting‑edge equipment that helps our customers manufacture display and semiconductor chips – the brains of devices we use every day. As the foundation of the global electronics industry, Applied enables the exciting technologies that literally connect our world – like AI and IoT.

Salary: $ - $

Location:

Santa Clara, CA

Benefits: comprehensive benefits package including health, wellness, and professional growth programs.

• Develop, pretrain, fine‑tune, and align LLMs and generative models tailored for scientific and materials science data, literature, and workflows.
• Innovate post‑training methods, alignment, and evaluation for domain‑specific LLMs, ensuring models are robust, accurate, and trustworthy for scientific use cases.
• Design and implement generative approaches to accelerate materials discovery, hypothesis generation, and hardware design.
• Collaborate with scientists, engineers, and cross‑functional teams to identify impactful applications of generative AI in materials science.
• Build and curate scientific datasets, benchmarks, and evaluation protocols for model validation and continuous improvement.
• Stay current with advances in AI, machine learning, and materials science, and publish original research in top venues.
• Mentor junior team members and contribute to a collaborative, inclusive research culture.

• Strong background in machine learning, deep learning, NLP, and generative AI, with a focus on scientific or technical domains.
• Hands‑on experience with LLM pretraining, supervised fine‑tuning (SFT), post‑training alignment (e.g., RLHF), and rigorous model evaluation.
• Proficiency in Python and frameworks such as PyTorch or Tensor Flow.
• Experience working with structured and unstructured scientific data (e.g., literature, experimental results, simulation outputs) and developing domain‑specific models.
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to collaborate across disciplines and present complex ideas to diverse audiences.

• MS or Ph.D. degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mathematics, Statistics or related field.

Applied Materials is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, national origin, citizenship, ancestry, religion, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, disability, veteran or military status, or any other basis prohibited by law.