Preferred Location: This role is ideally based in NYC or SF, though we are open to exceptional remote candidates.

About Patronus AI

Patronus AI's mission is to provide the security and risk management layer for AI. We are solving the problem of scalable oversight - how can humans continue to supervise AI systems when AI far outperforms them in many real world scenarios? Our vision is a world in which AI evaluates AI.Our founding team comes from top applied ML and research backgrounds, including Facebook AI Research (FAIR), Airbnb, Meta Reality Labs, and quant finance. As a team, we have published research papers at top ML conferences (NeurIPS, EMNLP, ACL), designed and launched Airbnb's first conversational AI assistant, pioneered causal inference at Meta Reality Labs, exited a quant hedge fund backed by Mark Cuban, and scaled 0→1 products at high growth startups. We are backed by Lightspeed Venture Partners and high profile operators like Amjad Masad, Gokul Rajaram, and Fortune 500 executives and board members. We are advised by Douwe Kiela, Adjunct Professor at Stanford University and former Head of Research at Hugging Face.

We are seeking a highly motivated Ph.D. Research Fellow to join our Applied Research team. This fellowship offers an opportunity for advanced doctoral candidates or recent Ph.D. graduates to bridge cutting-edge academic research with high-impact, real-world applications. You'll collaborate with top researchers, engineers, and product teams to advance the state of AI evaluation.

Responsibilities

Conduct advanced research on LLM and agent evaluation, AI safety and guardrails, and model interpretability and alignment.
Publish research findings and present internally and externally at leading venues.
Collaborate cross-functionally to apply research outcomes to product development and infrastructure.
Design and build high-quality evaluation datasets using synthetic and public data sources.
Write robust, production-grade code to support scalable AI systems and experiments.
Engage with the broader AI research community to contribute to the advancement of AI safety.

Qualifications

Current Ph.D. candidate or recent graduate in Computer Science, Machine Learning, or a related field.
Strong research background in LLMs, agentic systems, or AI alignment.
Demonstrated track record of publications in top-tier venues (e.g., NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, ACL).
Proficient in Python and experienced with ML frameworks such as PyTorch, JAX, or TensorFlow.
Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with a creative and curious mindset.
Excellent communication skills and ability to convey complex ideas.
Passionate about advancing AI safety, robustness, and trustworthy AI.
Self-driven and collaborative, comfortable working in a fast-paced, mission-driven environment

This Research Fellow position at Patronus AI can be structured as a paid intern, or Patronus AI can sponsor the research conducted at your university.

Patronus AI is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity in our workplace, and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, ancestry, color, family or medical care leave, gender identity or expression, genetic information, marital status, medical condition, national origin, physical or mental disability, political affiliation, protected veteran status, race, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, or other legally protected characteristics.

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Ph.D. Research Fellow