TL;DR
Epoch –a research institute that investigates trends in ML and the economic consequences of AI– is hiring a specialist in computing hardware to lead investigations into HPC computing for AI workloads. The role is full time, remote, and we can hire in many countries. Compensation is between $150,000 and $180,000 USD, not restricted to this currency. If you have questions or would like to share any leads, please write to us at careers@epochai.org.
About the Position
Epoch is hiring a specialist in computing hardware to lead investigations into HPC computing for AI workloads. As a ML Distributed Systems Senior Researcher at Epoch, this person will collaborate with our team on novel research related to the cost of compute, trends in compute usage and performance, and parallelism techniques and utilization. This work will be crucial for improving our understanding of the future of AI and its impacts on society.
Your day-to-day activities will be researching the latest developments in the field, discussing their implications with our team and international experts, and writing reports that inform our research and policy-making all over the world. Over the course of a year, we anticipate you will have produced 3-4 leading reports on the future of training and inference of frontier ML models.
Some examples of reports and papers you might lead as part of the role include:
- An analysis of modern ML parallelism techniques, relating cluster size to achieved efficiency and possible bottlenecks to scaling.
- A breakdown of the costs of development of large ML models today.
- An analysis of the trends in inference compute and techniques to improve inference efficiency.
The successful candidate will report directly to Epoch's director Jaime Sevilla, and work closely with associate director Tamay Besiroglu on models of the future of AI.
About Epoch
Epoch is a research institute that investigates trends in machine learning and the economic consequences of AI. Our work informs research and policy-making at the UK Department of Science, Innovation and Technology, Anthropic, the Centre for the Governance of AI, the Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation, Open Philanthropy, the Center for Security and Emerging Technology, and elsewhere. Epoch’s research has been cited in media publications such as the MIT Technology Review and The Economist, and underpins Our World In Data’s AI visualizations.
You can learn more about our work in this summary dashboard or our blog.
Key Responsibilities
- Producing reports and papers related to the training and deployment of large ML systems.
- Staying abreast of industry trends and emerging technologies in distributed ML systems.
- Helping steer Epoch’s research program with ideas on researching the future of training and inference of frontier ML models.
- Being the go-to expert for staff and stakeholders' queries on distributed ML systems.
- Helping run experiments with ML systems to study various topics of interest to Epoch.
- Possibly, in the future, leading a team of 1-2 other researchers on topics related to distributed systems and ML hardware.
What We Are Looking For
Requirements
- Familiarity with modern machine learning hardware, HPC set-ups and their management.
- Familiarity with modern ML parallelism techniques.
- Clear communication skills on technical topics.
- Intellectual curiosity and open-mindedness.
- Two years of experience either researching or engineering distributed ML training or inference.
- Experience writing analysis reports or scientific papers.
Nice to have
- Industry experience or a PhD on a related topic.
- Familiarity with the technical characteristics of hardware used in AI and machine learning.
- A network of industry and academia experts on ML distributed systems.
- Experience supervising other researchers.
What We Offer
Compensation
- Annual salary between the following ranges for a full-time position, pre tax:
- $150,000 to $180,000 USD
- £118,965 to £142,757
- €139,011.17 to €166,813.40
- The exact salary will be based on the candidate’s prior relevant experience.
- Compensation is not restricted to the currencies listed above. Payments may be made in different currencies and payment intervals depending on the location of applicants and legal requirements.
- Conversions from USD are based on a 1-year-average exchange rate that is updated annually.
Other Benefits
- Flexible work hours and location
- Comprehensive global benefits package (while they vary by country, we make every effort to ensure that our benefits package is equitable and high-quality for all staff)
- Generous paid time off leave, including, but not limited to:
- Unlimited vacation with a minimum of 30 days off per year
- Unlimited (within reason) personal and sick leave
- Parental leave - up to 6 months of parental leave during the first 2 years after a child’s birth or adoption for parents of all genders
- For more details about our benefits, please see our Benefit Package for Permanent Roles
- A caring team that values respectful work relations and a healthy work-life balance
- Opportunities to grow/advance your career and engage in professional development
- Low administrative bureaucracy
- We don’t provide snacks but we could mail you a box of Oreos if you want!
- Location: While the role is remote and we welcome applicants from all time zones, you may be expected to attend meetings during working hours between UTC-8 and UTC+3 time zones, where most of our staff are based.
- Language: Please submit all of your application materials in English and note that we require professional level English proficiency.
- Travel: Travel is not an essential requirement for this position. However, a majority of our staff travel a few times per year for conferences, retreats, and other work-related purposes. In most cases, travel is not mandatory, but encouraged.
- Accessibility: We’re committed to running an inclusive and accessible application process. We warmly invite you to reach out to careers@epochai.org with any questions or accessibility requests such as chat box use during interviews.
- Inclusivity and fairness: Epoch is committed to building an inclusive, equitable, and supportive community for you to thrive and do your best work. We’re committed to finding the best people for our team, so please don’t hesitate to apply for a role regardless of your age, gender identity/expression, political identity, personal preferences, physical abilities, veteran status, neurodiversity or any other background. We provide reasonable accommodations and benefits, including, for example, flexible work schedules and locations, mental health coverage in medical benefits (as available), and budgets, to purchase assistive technology or engage in job coaching.
- Epoch is fiscally sponsored by Rethink Priorities.