Research Scientist
About Hedra
Hedra is a research and infrastructure lab advancing post-training and inference for multimodal and physical AI. Our ambition is to bring recursive self-improvement to models that learn from and interact with the real world.
We combine reinforcement learning research with GPU compute and optimized inference to help teams post-train, serve and continuously improve models they own.
We're backed by Index Ventures, a16z and Abstract Ventures. Our team works fully in person in San Francisco.
We're looking for people with startup experience who take ownership of their work and care deeply about the problems our customers need to solve. You'll help build the technology, products and business that turn this research into a lasting company.
What You'll Do:
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
Qualifications:
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
Benefits:
Competitive compensation and equity
401k (no match)
Healthcare (Silver PPO Medical, Vision, Dental)
Lunch and snacks at the office
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.