Principal Scientist / Associate Director, Agentic AI Research (Materials Science)

TL;DR

Principal Scientist / Associate Director, Agentic AI Research (Materials Science): Leading the technical direction for autonomous agentic AI systems to accelerate materials research with an accent on agentic frameworks, RAG, and multi-modal data. Focus on designing end-to-end autonomous research workflows and bridging the gap between foundational AI research and production-ready scientific tools.

Location: Cambridge, MA or San Francisco, CA, USA; open to international candidates (full-time employees outside the U.S. are supported)

Salary: $288,000 - $420,000 USD

Company

hirify.global is building Scientific Superintelligence to autonomously execute the scientific method across medicine, materials, and energy.

What you will do

• Define and execute the agentic AI roadmap for materials science, including agentic frameworks and RAG.
• Lead the design and delivery of end-to-end agentic systems grounded in fundamental scientific understanding.
• Hire, mentor, and grow a cross-functional team of scientists and engineers while ensuring scientific rigor.
• Partner with diverse internal teams to integrate agentic systems into real-world scientific programs.
• Track state-of-the-art research in LLMs, reasoning models, and scientific ML to translate advances into internal direction.

Requirements

• PhD in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Materials Science, Chemistry, Physics, or a related field.
• 5+ years of post-PhD research and applied ML experience.
• Proven track record of shipping agentic systems, ML pipelines, or autonomous research workflows.
• Deep expertise in LLMs, agentic frameworks, tool use, planning, and multi-modal data.
• Working knowledge of materials science, computational chemistry, or condensed-matter physics.
• Proficiency in Python and the modern ML software stack.

Nice to have

• Publications, patents, or open-source contributions in agentic AI or scientific ML.
• Production experience with workflow orchestration and distributed compute on cloud or HPC.
• Community recognition such as invited talks or conference leadership in scientific AI.

Culture & Benefits

• Competitive base compensation with bonus potential and generous early-stage equity.
• Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage for U.S. employees.
• Flexible time off with generous company-wide holidays and paid parental leave.
• Educational assistance program and commuter benefits for office-based staff.
• Tailored comprehensive benefits programs for full-time employees outside the U.S.