Applied Methods
~The MetaResearch & ScienceApplied ML Scientist

Applied ML Scientist

Applied ML Scientists design and optimize machine learning systems that solve concrete business or scientific problems, moving beyond theoretical research to ship models in production environments. They work at the intersection of modeling and systems engineering, combining cutting-edge techniques like fine-tuning, reinforcement learning, and synthetic data generation with practical constraints around latency, cost, and real-world data distribution. These roles typically sit within dedicated applied research or product teams at AI-native companies, collaborating closely with engineers and domain experts to translate customer requirements or product challenges into effective training pipelines and evaluation frameworks.

$ titles --canonical
Applied AI/ML ScientistApplication Scientist
Open Jobs33
Companies Hiring19
$02

Skills

What companies are looking for in this role.

$ skills --core

Designing and implementing deep learning model architectures for specific problem domains

95%

Training, fine-tuning, and optimizing machine learning models at scale

94%

Building and deploying machine learning systems from research to production

93%

Designing evaluation metrics, benchmarks, and test sets for model performance assessment

88%

Analyzing and debugging machine learning system behavior in real-world applications

87%

Identifying emerging research directions and implementing state-of-the-art techniques

86%

Working with large-scale, multi-modal datasets including images, text, sensor data, and structured data

86%

Writing production-grade code with testing, documentation, and version control practices

85%

Performing empirical research to measure and understand real-world impact and behavior of AI systems

83%

Managing and integrating multiple heterogeneous data sources and modalities

80%

Optimizing model inference performance and computational efficiency for deployment constraints

79%

Monitoring and maintaining machine learning systems in production environments

78%

Designing and executing A/B tests and experimentation frameworks to validate model improvements

76%

Applying domain knowledge from specialized fields such as biology, physics, or autonomous systems

75%
$ skills --emerging

Developing generative models including language models, vision models, and diffusion-based approaches

92%

Implementing reinforcement learning techniques for model post-training and optimization

85%

Building agentic systems and multi-agent AI workflows for autonomous task execution

81%

Designing reward functions and training pipelines for language model alignment and behavior shaping

79%

Conducting red-teaming and adversarial evaluation to identify AI safety risks and vulnerabilities

72%
$ skills --soft

Collaborating with cross-functional teams including product managers, engineers, and domain experts

88%

Translating domain-specific requirements and user feedback into machine learning objectives

84%

Communicating complex technical findings and results to both technical and non-technical stakeholders

82%
$03

Technology

The tools and technologies that define this role.

$ tech --language
Pythonvery high
SQLmoderate
$ tech --framework
PyTorchhigh
TensorFlowhigh
JAXmoderate
$ tech --platform
AWSmoderate
Databricksmoderate
Hugging Facemoderate
$ tech --tool
Gitmoderate
LiDARmoderate
Kuberneteslow
$ tech --concept
Deep Neural Networksvery high
Generative AIvery high
Large Language Models (LLMs)very high
Computer Visionhigh
Distributed Traininghigh
Foundation Modelshigh
Model Evaluationhigh
Multi-modal Learninghigh
Natural Language Processing (NLP)high
Reinforcement Learninghigh
Reward Modelinghigh
Transformershigh
Vision Language Models (VLMs)high
3D Object Detectionmoderate
Autonomous Drivingmoderate
Continual Learningmoderate
Diffusion Modelsmoderate
Model Distillationmoderate
Preference Learningmoderate
Prompt Engineeringmoderate
Supervised Fine-tuning (SFT)moderate
Synthetic Data Generationmoderate
$04

Open Jobs

33 open Applied ML Scientist jobs across 19 companies.

Waymo1d
Senior Data Scientist
Mountain View, California, USA; San Francisco, California, USA·Research & Science
Waymo1d
Data Scientist
Mountain View, California, USA; San Francisco, California, USA·Research & Science
Waymo6d
Applied Research Scientist, Multi-Modal Perception (PhD New Grad)
Mountain View, CA USA; San Francisco, CA USA;·Research & Science
Rhoda1w
Applied Research Scientist / Engineer - Deployment
Palo Alto·Research & Science
Waabi2w
Senior / Staff Applied Scientist
Toronto, ON·Research & Science
Ramp2w
Senior Applied Scientist, Credit Risk
New York, NY (HQ)·Research & Science
OpenAI2w
People Data Scientist
San Francisco·Research & Science
PhysicsX4w
Senior Computer Vision Data Scientist
New York, United States·Research & Science
Mistral AI1mo
Applied Scientist / Research Engineer, AI4Engineering - EMEA
Paris·Research & Science
Figma1mo
AI Applied Scientist
San Francisco, CA • New York, NY • United States·Research & Science
Waymo1mo
Senior Applied Research Scientist, Multi-Modal Perception
Mountain View, CA USA; San Francisco, CA USA;·Research & Science
Waymo1mo
Research Scientist, Prediction & Planning
Mountain View, CA USA; New York, NY USA; San Francisco, CA USA;·Research & Science
Waymo1mo
Applied Research Scientist, Perception LLM/VLM (PhD, New Grad)
Mountain View, CA USA; San Francisco, CA USA;·Research & Science
Waymo1mo
Applied Research Scientist, LLM/VLM (PhD New Grad)
Mountain View, CA USA; San Francisco, CA USA;·Research & Science
Waymo2mo
Senior Research Scientist, Foundation Model (LLM/VLM)
Mountain View, CA, USA; San Francisco, CA, USA·Research & Science
Waymo2mo
Senior Research Scientist, Foundation Model for Simulation
Mountain View, CA USA; San Francisco, CA USA·Research & Science
Isomorphic Labs2mo
Research Scientist (Applied LLMs), London
London·Research & Science
Recursion2mo
Senior Computational Biologist – Target ID
New York, New York; Salt Lake City, Utah·Research & Science
Anthropic2mo
Research Economist, Economic Research
San Francisco, CA·Research & Science
Recursion2mo
Associate Principal Computational Biologist, Neuroscience
New York, New York; Salt Lake City, Utah·Research & Science