Research Program Manager - Model Data & Evaluations Flywheel
Reflection AI is hiring a Research Program Manager - Model Data & Evaluations Flywheel in New York, United States. Level rates it ; you can apply on Level.
Level's read on this job
- Works on AI ●●●○ is how Level rates this role: the daily work is on AI products, without building the model.
- Reflection AI mentions visa sponsorship in this posting.
- Tools and skills the posting cites include AI evaluation, AI safety and program management.
- Level files it as a senior role.
- Level lists 45 other open roles at Reflection AI.
AI in this role
Build foundational evaluation frameworks and operational safety infrastructure for frontier AI model development from scratch.
Our Mission
Reflection is a research lab making intelligence open and accessible for everyone to use, customize, and build on. We build open models that let anyone control their intelligence and help shape the future of AI. Our mission: make intelligence open and accessible to all.
About the Role
Research Program Managers at Reflection are high-leverage leaders and operators who embed directly with research and infrastructure teams to accelerate the pace of frontier model development. They are not project trackers. They are force multipliers who bring clarity to ambiguity, drive decisions when the path forward is unclear, and ensure that the work happening across multiple teams connects into a coherent whole.
This is a foundational role. Reflection is building model evals and safety from the ground up, and this RPM will be at the center of that effort. You won't be stepping into an established function with existing processes and tooling. You will be the person who figures out what this function needs to look like, stands it up, and makes it real. That means defining the evaluation frameworks, building the operational infrastructure for model safety, establishing the processes that connect evals to the model development lifecycle, and laying the groundwork for how Reflection interfaces with the broader safety ecosystem. This is 0-to-1 work in its purest form.
You bring a first-responder mentality. When things go sideways, you don't wait to be asked. You jump in, assess the situation, cut through noise, align the people who need to be aligned, and drive resolution.
What You'll Do
Build the foundational infrastructure for model evals and safety at Reflection. Define the evaluation frameworks, tooling requirements, and operational processes that will underpin how we assess model capabilities, risks, and readiness for release.
Stand up model safety operations as a function, including establishing the workflows, review cadences, and decision frameworks that connect safety evaluation to the model development and release lifecycle.
Partner with research and engineering leads across pre-training, mid-training, and post-training to embed safety and evaluation checkpoints into the development process in a way that is rigorous without being a bottleneck.
Drive the scoping and prioritization of eval science and eval infrastructure investments, working with technical leads to determine what to build in-house, what to adopt, and where to invest research effort.
Establish Reflection's engagement with the external safety ecosystem, including third-party assessments, academic partnerships, and industry safety frameworks. Represent the company's safety posture to external stakeholders with credibility and clarity.
Create visibility and reporting structures that give leadership a clear, honest picture of model safety status, evaluation coverage, and open risks, so they can make informed decisions at the pace the business requires.
Champion a culture of blameless post-mortems and continuous learning, turning every safety-relevant finding into a concrete improvement to our systems and processes.
About You
7+ years of experience in technical program management, research operations, or ML engineering, with demonstrated experience standing up new functions, teams, or programs from scratch.
Familiar with the landscape of model evaluation and AI safety, including evaluation methodologies, red-teaming, alignment research, and the evolving regulatory and industry safety ecosystem. You don't need to be a safety researcher, but you need to understand the space well enough to make sound judgments about what matters and what to prioritize.
Deep enough technically to engage with researchers and engineers on topics like model behavior, evaluation design, data pipelines, and safety-critical system architecture. You follow the technical thread and you know when something doesn't add up.
Proven ability to build structures where none exists. You've taken ambiguous mandates and turned them into functioning programs with clear ownership, measurable outcomes, and durable processes.
Strong stakeholder management skills spanning deeply technical ICs, research leadership, and external partners. You build trust through competence and follow-through.
Excited to build from zero to one. We are a small, fast-moving team and this role will help define how model safety and evaluation works at Reflection.
Motivated by enabling researchers and engineers to build the world's most capable open-weight AI systems, responsibly.
What We Offer:
We believe that to make intelligence open and accessible to all, you need to start at the foundation. Joining Reflection means building from the ground up as part of a talent-dense team. You will help define our future as a company, and help define the future of open foundational models.
We want you to do the most impactful work of your career with the confidence that you and the people you care about most are supported.
Top-tier compensation: Salary and equity structured to recognize and retain our talent globally.
Stock options: Everyone who joins and contributes to Reflection's success gets to share in the upside through stock options.
Health & wellness: Comprehensive medical, dental, vision, and life, with an annual wellness allowance.
Meals: Lunch and dinner are provided in the office daily.
Life & family: 22 weeks paid parental leave for all new birthing and non-birthing parents, including adoptive and surrogate journeys.
Vacation days: Unlimited paid time off in the U.S. and 30 days in the U.K.
Sponsorship support: We sponsor visas to help exceptional talent join our team and support long-term immigration pathways where applicable.
Team building: We have regular off-sites, happy hours, and team celebrations.
Export Control Notice: This position may require access to technology or source code subject to the U.S. Export Administration Regulations. Any offer of employment for this role may be conditioned on the Company's ability to provide the candidate with access to such technology or source code in compliance with applicable U.S. export control laws, which may require the Company to seek government authorization.
Candidate and Employee Privacy Notice: We collect and process personal data about applicants for the purposes described in our Candidate and Employee Privacy Notice
How we rate this
Research Program Manager - Model Data & Evaluations Flywheel at Reflection AI rates 75 out of 100 for how much of the daily work is AI. That makes it Works on AI (AI Level 3 of 4). The level is about AI in the job, not seniority.
Works on AI. The daily work is on AI products, without building the model.
- ●●●● Builds AI80 to 100
- ●●●○ Works on AI60 to 79
- ●●○○ Uses AI40 to 59
- ●○○○ Little AI0 to 39
Levels come from how often the tools, models and workflows of the role are named in the posting itself. Open the description and count.
Prepare for this job
Built from this posting and from similar jobs on Level.
Skills and AI tools this role asks for
Questions you could be asked
- How do you decide that one model's output is better than another's for a given task?
- How do you think about the risk of an AI system in this kind of role failing silently?
- Tell me about a project where program management was part of your work. What did you do?
- Tell me about a project where model evaluation was part of your work. What did you do?
- Tell me about a project where operations was part of your work. What did you do?
Adapt your resume
- List these exact terms on your resume: AI Evaluation, AI Safety, Program Management, Model Evaluation, and Operations. 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.
- Show where AI is part of your daily process, not a one-off project. This role expects it to be a running habit.
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