Advance robot learning research by developing and deploying state-of-the-art models for robot behavior, collaborating across research and engineering teams, and contributing to internal capabilities and high-impact publications.
Research Lead, Open Benchmarks Grants
📜 Description
- Design datasets for frontier model training and evaluation, informed by model performance and academic partnerships.
- Translate benchmark insights into customer presentations, technical reports, and go-to-market materials.
- Collaborate with data operations, product, engineering, and strategy to inform the company roadmap.
- Apply current LLM evaluation research and best practices to internal workflows.
- Represent research through publications, blog posts, conference talks, and customer engagements.
🛠️ Requirements
- Strong research background in AI/ML evaluation, NLP, or related fields, with a track record of rigorous experimental design — especially around measuring the impact of training and evaluation data on model behavior.
- Exceptional communication skills — able to present complex technical findings clearly to both technical and non-technical audiences
- Comfort operating in a fast-moving, cross-functional environment with ambiguous problem spaces
- Genuine interest in GTM strategy, startup dynamics, and the commercial side of AI data services.
- Ph.D. in machine learning, NLP, or a related field preferred; equivalent industry or research lab experience considered.
Full job description
About Snorkel
Snorkel AI is the frontier AI data lab, helping teams build the data and environments behind high-performing frontier and agentic AI. We combine technology with research-driven AI data development to create datasets, benchmarks, evals, and custom solutions for real-world AI systems. Founded out of the Stanford AI Lab in 2019, Snorkel works with leading AI labs and enterprises to move from better data to better outcomes.
Excited to help us redefine how AI is built? Apply to be the newest Snorkeler!
About Open Benchmarks Grants
Open Benchmarks Grants is Snorkel’s $30M commitment to fund and support researchers and independent builders developing new AI evaluations. We support the teams behind Terminal-Bench, OSWorld 2.0, and Senior SWE-bench, and run a Research Fellows program for PhD students and postdocs. The program funds work in areas including physical AI, scientific discovery, cybersecurity, safety, and alignment, and helps teams test and strengthen their benchmarks before public release.
What you’ll do
- Shape our research bets in open benchmarks & evaluation. Identify gaps in how frontier AI is evaluated. Review proposals with Snorkel’s senior researchers, work with prospective collaborators to strengthen their ideas, and help decide where we allocate our Open Benchmark Grants.
- Advance frontier evaluation research with our research partners. Work alongside grantees, Research Fellows, and Snorkel research leads to define what each benchmark measures, design tasks and experiments, and turn learnings into artifacts that other researchers can build on.
- Drive adoption and scientific exchange with frontier labs. Work directly with lab researchers to understand what they need to measure, help them integrate and interpret the benchmarks we support, and use their findings to inform subsequent research.
What we’re looking for
- A research track record in evaluation. You’ve led or made substantial contributions to benchmarks, evaluation methods, or environments that researchers or model-development teams use.
- Technical judgment about quality & experimental rigor. You can assess whether an evaluation measures what it claims, recognize alternative explanations for a result, and design experiments that resolve the uncertainty. You know which limitations matter enough to change the research direction.
- Hands-on technical depth. You’re comfortable moving between research questions and implementation: building experiments, inspecting tasks and harnesses, debugging verifiers, and analyzing model behavior.
- The ability to lead through research collaboration. You’ve helped other researchers make difficult technical decisions and bring work to completion.
- Clear technical communication. Your papers, research artifacts, specifications, or reviews make complex ideas understandable and claims precise.
Actual compensation will be determined based on factors including skills, qualifications, experience, and geographic location.
Be Your Best at Snorkel
Joining Snorkel AI means becoming part of a company that has market proven solutions, robust funding, and is scaling rapidly—offering a unique combination of stability and the excitement of high growth. As a member of our team, you’ll have meaningful opportunities to shape priorities and initiatives, influence key strategic decisions, and directly impact our ongoing success. Whether you’re looking to deepen your technical expertise, explore leadership opportunities, or learn new skills across multiple functions, you’re fully supported in building your career in an environment designed for growth, learning, and shared success.
Snorkel AI is proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity employer and is committed to building a team that represents a variety of backgrounds, perspectives, and skills. Snorkel AI embraces diversity and provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment. Snorkel AI prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type on the basis of race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local law. All employment is decided on the basis of qualifications, performance, merit, and business need.
We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and to receive other benefits and privileges of employment. Please contact us to request accommodation.
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