Research Scientist, Hedra
$200-325k
+ Offers Equity
AI lab empowering creation with AI
Be an early applicant
AI lab empowering creation with AI
21-100 employees
Be an early applicant
$200-325k
+ Offers Equity
21-100 employees
Company mission
To build foundation models into products that power the next generation of human storytelling.
Role
Who you are
- PhD in Machine Learning, Computer Science, Robotics, or a related field, with publications at top ML or robotics venues
- Deep expertise in generative modeling, world models, or vision-language(-action) models
- Strong publication record at NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, CVPR, CoRL, or equivalent venues
- Experience with large-scale model training and modern deep learning infrastructure
- Ability to independently drive research projects from ideation through publication
- Background in embodied AI, robotic manipulation, or sim-to-real transfer is highly desirable
- Experience with RLHF, DPO, or preference optimization for model alignment is a plus
- Strong collaboration and communication skills — comfortable bridging research and applied teams
- We encourage you to apply even if you don't fully meet all the listed requirements; we value potential and diverse perspectives, and your unique skills could be a great asset to our team
What the job involves
- Hedra is building a world-class Physical AI research team to push the boundaries of action-conditioned world models and generative AI for physical systems
- As a Researcher, you will drive original research into the intersection of generative modeling, embodied AI, and real-world physical applications alongside industrial partners
- You will have access to large-scale compute, the freedom to pursue high-impact research directions, and a direct path to publication at top venues
- We are looking for researchers who are excited to go beyond benchmarks and build models that operate in the real world — drawing on Hedra's leadership in generative modeling and the depth of our academic partnerships, including connections to Fei-Fei Li and the Stanford Vision & Learning Lab
- Define and lead research directions in action-conditioned world models, physical AI, and generative modeling for embodied systems
- Design novel architectures, training objectives, and evaluation frameworks for VLMs, VLAs, and world models
- Direct research efforts with the goal of publishing in top journals
- Partner with industrial collaborators to ground research in real-world physical AI use cases
- Mentor research engineers and collaborate cross-functionally to move research into production
- Stay at the frontier of the field — synthesizing relevant literature and identifying opportunities for impactful contributions
- Contribute to Hedra's research culture and external scientific reputation
Our take
The relationship between machine learning and online content has grown closer in recent years, and Hedra is a video content platform that is pushing this symbiosis into new territory. Working as a content engine, Hedra's online creation studio helps users generate dialogue, audio and video from words.
As a digital presence automation tool, Hedra is moving beyond the likes of DallE and generative AI video content into more nuanced territory. For example, its product known as Character is a video foundation model for longer-form video generation focusing on customizable AI-generated video characters.
Between the version one release of Character in June 2024 and the company's fundraise that same August, more than 1.6 million videos had already been generated via the platform. This demonstrates the demand that exists for Hedra's offering. A new fundraise in 2025, which reportedly takes the company’s valuation to $200 million, will support the advancement of the quality and controllability of its models.
Kirsty
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Company
Funding (2 rounds)
May 2025
$32m
SERIES A
Aug 2024
$10m
SEED
Total funding: $42m
Company benefits
- Equity
- 401k (no match)
- Healthcare (Silver PPO Medical, Vision, Dental)
- Gym access (at our office)
Company HQ
SoMa, San Francisco, CA
Leadership
Michael Lingelbach
(Founder & CEO)Previously Regina Casper Graduate Research Fellow at Stanford University, was an Intern at NVIDIA, Postbaccaulaureate researcher at Salk Institute for Biological Studies and a Scholar at the Janelia Research Campus.
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