Research Scientist I/II (AI)

TL;DR

Research Scientist I/II (AI): Designing and building intelligent agent-driven systems for AI-accelerated process engineering across industrial applications with an accent on developing methods for AI agents to reason about, design, simulate, optimize, and operate complex physical and chemical processes. Focus on creating agentic infrastructures for planning and executing multi-step process engineering workflows, improving robustness, interpretability, and reproducibility, and applying them to real-world industrial problems.

Location: Onsite in Cambridge, MA, USA

Salary: $176,000 – $304,000 USD per year

Company

hirify.global is the world’s first scientific superintelligence platform and autonomous lab for life, chemistry, and materials science, pioneering a new age of boundless discovery by applying AI to every aspect of the scientific method.

What you will do

• Architect and implement agentic frameworks that support end-to-end process engineering workflows, including process setup, simulation, optimization, and analysis.
• Develop AI agents capable of autonomously planning, executing, and iterating on process engineering tasks using existing tools.
• Explore agentic approaches for advanced tasks such as process intensification, control co-design, real-time optimization, and closed-loop learning from operational data.
• Improve robustness, interpretability, and reproducibility of agent-driven process engineering workflows; build internal tooling for debugging, observability, validation, and auditability.
• Work with interdisciplinary teams to apply agentic process engineering to a broad range of industrial applications.

Requirements

• PhD or equivalent experience in Chemical Engineering, Industrial Engineering, Systems Engineering, or a closely related field.
• Research experience in method development for process engineering, a strong publication record, or established industry experience.
• Hands-on experience with process simulation and optimization tools (commercial or open-source), including steady-state and dynamic modeling.
• Proficiency in Python and scientific/engineering computing ecosystems.
• Experience integrating external engineering tools or simulators into automated workflows via APIs, scripting interfaces, or custom wrappers.
• Familiarity with distributed systems, HPC environments, cloud platforms, or scalable compute infrastructure.

Nice to have

• Experience developing or integrating agentic frameworks, autonomous planners, or multi-step tool-using AI systems for engineering or scientific domains.
• Experience building computational pipelines, automation systems, or tool-use frameworks for complex engineering or scientific workflows.
• Experience with digital twins, real-time optimization, or model-predictive control frameworks.
• Background in techno-economic analysis (TEA), life-cycle assessment (LCA), or sustainability-driven process design.
• Contributions to open-source engineering software, ML infrastructure, workflow engines, or agent frameworks.

Culture & Benefits

• Generous early equity and bonus potential.
• Commitment to equal employment opportunity and diversity.
• Opportunity to work on a scientific superintelligence platform.