Remote opportunity at
DescriptApplied Research Scientist, AI Research
Descript seeks an Applied Research Scientist, AI Research to join its remote team and help build specialized machine learning models for audio and video editing workflows.…
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About This Role
Descript seeks an Applied Research Scientist, AI Research to join its remote team and help build specialized machine learning models for audio and video editing workflows. Rather than developing general-purpose generative tools, the research group focuses on practical solutions that ship directly to millions of creators, spanning capabilities like multimodal understanding, zero-shot voice cloning, and Studio Sound. This role centers on training vision-language systems so that the company's AI editing…
Job Description
Descript seeks an Applied Research Scientist, AI Research to join its remote team and help build specialized machine learning models for audio and video editing workflows. Rather than developing general-purpose generative tools, the research group focuses on practical solutions that ship directly to millions of creators, spanning capabilities like multimodal understanding, zero-shot voice cloning, and Studio Sound. This role centers on training vision-language systems so that the company's AI editing agent can perceive and reason about visual and audio media similarly to a human editor.
The position is ideal for machine learning practitioners who enjoy rapidly testing hypotheses, constructing proprietary datasets, and transitioning prototypes into production features. Candidates have opportunities to publish academic work if desired, though publication is not mandatory. Descript operates as a team of 150 backed by investors such as OpenAI and Andreessen Horowitz, offering a collaborative environment where individual contributors directly influence product trajectory.
Responsibilities
- Develop vision-language systems that allow agentic editing features to process project audio and visual content
- Establish benchmarks and evaluation methods measuring editorial quality alongside latency and cost
- Construct datasets, utilizing synthetic data generation when large-scale real examples are absent
- Train custom models from scratch or fine-tune existing foundation architectures
- Collaborate with engineering teams to transition prototypes into production features
- Identify future research directions destined for product integration rather than purely theoretical papers
Requirements
- Demonstrated ability to design and implement deep learning algorithms via shipped models, open-source work, or publications
- Fluent programming skills with deep expertise in PyTorch
- Track record of generating machine learning concepts and swiftly executing experimental setups
- Strong experimental judgment with the capability to assess and discard ineffective ideas honestly
- Clear verbal and written communication skills
Qualifications
- Ph.D. or Master's degree in deep learning or a related technical discipline, or equivalent experience
- Lead or first-author status on an accepted paper at a top venue such as CVPR, ICCV, ECCV, NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, or similar
- Prior history of playing a key role in launching a production feature centered on deep learning
- Direct experience or familiarity with multimodal understanding, vision-language models, or generative modeling for video, audio, and images
- Experience with post-training, fine-tuning, and reinforcement learning on large foundation models
- Background in building evaluation frameworks for generative or agentic outputs with non-traditional metrics
Core Skills
Benefits
- Generous healthcare package
- 401(k) matching program
- Catered lunches
- Flexible vacation time
Frequently Asked Questions
Answers are based only on the employer’s listing; where it doesn’t say, neither do we.
What is the employment type for this position?
This is a full-time position.
Where is the job located and is it remote?
This role is remote, with Descript headquartered in San Francisco, California.
What is the salary range for this role?
The base salary range is $197,000 to $262,500, with additional equity and benefits provided.
Are academic publications required for this role?
Publishing academic work is supported by the company, but it is not a requirement of the position.
Sample Interview Questions
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