Level

Sentra

Machine Learning Research Scientist

Sentra is hiring a Machine Learning Research Scientist in San Francisco, United States. It pays $120k-$300k a year and Level rates it ; you can apply on Sentra.

Level's read on this job

  • Level rates this research scientist role Builds AI ●●●●: the job is building AI systems.
  • The posting mentions ChatGPT, Claude and PyTorch among its tools and skills.
  • Level classes it as a senior role.
  • Sentra has 2 other open roles on Level.

AI in this role

chatgptclaudepytorchcursor
nlpai-research

Position Overview

Sentra is building organizational superintelligence through memory infrastructure that reasons across time, causality, and context. As a Research Scientist, you will tackle fundamental problems in knowledge representation, temporal reasoning, and semantic compression. You will design and implement systems that maintain execution state for entire organizations, consolidate millions of micro-events into durable knowledge, and learn patterns that predict events before it happens.

Key Responsibilities

  • Build LLM-powered information extraction pipelines that process unstructured communications and text data into structured entity-relationship representations.

  • Develop memory consolidation algorithms that validate information through multiple observations, merge duplicate entities, and prune ephemeral data.

  • Design temporal knowledge graph architectures that model organizational execution state as living, continuously updated systems rather than static records.

  • Create graph attention mechanisms and reasoning systems for complex causal queries about blockers, dependencies, and outcome patterns.

  • Research lossy semantic compression using information-theoretic principles to condense event streams into query-relevant long-term memory.

  • Design entity resolution systems handling identity evolution where entities merge, split, and transform through time.

  • Build meta-learning systems that identify organizational patterns and recognize when current situations match historical success or failure indicators.

  • Develop privacy-preserving cross-organizational learning using federated learning and differential privacy techniques.

  • Publish research findings and contribute to the broader research community on knowledge graphs and organizational intelligence.

Must-have Requirements

  • 5+ years building novel systems in machine learning, NLP, knowledge graphs, or related areas with evidence through publications, production implementations, or significant open-source contributions.

  • Deep knowledge of knowledge graphs, graph neural networks, or temporal reasoning demonstrated through shipped systems and architectural exploration.

  • Strong ML and NLP foundation, particularly in information extraction, entity resolution, or semantic representation.

  • Proficiency in Python and modern ML frameworks (PyTorch preferred) with experience deploying models at scale.

  • Track record of publishing research (conference papers, technical blog posts, or detailed technical documentation) and exploring novel architectures.

  • Ability to move between theoretical investigation and practical implementation, shipping research into production.

Bonus skills:

  • Graph databases (Neo4j, TigerGraph, Neptune) and query optimization for large-scale graphs.

  • Information theory, compression, or temporal data structures.

  • Causal inference, probabilistic reasoning, or Bayesian methods.

  • Distributed systems, stream processing, or real-time ML serving.

  • Human memory and cognition models.

  • Privacy-preserving ML (federated learning, differential privacy, secure multi-party computation).

  • Enterprise AI systems, workflow automation, or organizational software.

  • Publications at top-tier conferences (NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, KDD, EMNLP, ACL, WWW, SOSP, OSDI).

Compensation and Benefits

  • Base Salary: $150,000 – $300,000

  • Equity: 0.3% - 2% depending on level

  • Comprehensive Health Coverage: Medical, dental, and vision

  • Wellness & Productivity Stipend: $2,500/month to cover meals, transport, gym memberships, or other personal productivity needs

  • Hardware & Tools: Latest MacBook Pro and AI development tools (ChatGPT Pro, Claude Pro, Cursor, etc.)

  • Learning & Growth: Dedicated budget for conferences, courses, and professional development

  • Relocation Support: Available for on-site hires

  • Flexible Time Off Policy

Total estimated annual benefits package: ~$30K–$35K in addition to base and equity.

How we rate this

Machine Learning Research Scientist at Sentra rates 99 out of 100 for how much of the daily work is AI. That makes it Builds AI (AI Level 4 of 4). The level is about AI in the job, not seniority.

Classification

Builds AI. The job is building AI systems.

  1. ●●●● Builds AI80 to 100
  2. ●●●○ Works on AI60 to 79
  3. ●●○○ Uses AI40 to 59
  4. ●○○○ Little AI0 to 39

Levels come from how often the tools, models and workflows of the role are named in the posting itself. Read the description and count the AI tools, models and workflows it names.

Prepare for this job

Built from this posting and from similar jobs on Level.

Skills and AI tools this role asks for

NLPAI ResearchChatGPTClaudePyTorchCursor

Also common in research scientist jobs at this level

Pay

This job starts at
$120k
Typical research scientist job
$192k

This posting starts 37% below the typical research scientist job. See research scientist jobs

Questions you could be asked

  1. What NLP problem have you worked on, and how did you measure whether it actually worked?
  2. Tell me about a research question you investigated. What did you find?
  3. What are the limits of ChatGPT that you've run into, and how did you work around them?
  4. What's a project where you used Claude hands-on?
  5. Walk me through how you've used PyTorch in your day-to-day work.

Adapt your resume

  • List these exact terms on your resume: NLP, AI Research, ChatGPT, Claude, and PyTorch. An applicant tracking system matches the wording, not the idea.
  • Attach one line of real, concrete experience to at least one of them. A tool named with nothing behind it rarely survives a human read.
  • Lead with what you built, trained or shipped. This role is judged on the AI system itself, not the tools around it.

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