MongoDBSenior Research Scientist
MongoDB is hiring a Senior Research Scientist in Palo Alto, United States. It pays $101k-$273k a year and Level rates it ; you can apply on MongoDB.
Level's read on this job
- Level rates this research scientist role Builds AI ●●●●: the job is building AI systems.
- Tools and skills the posting cites include Python, PyTorch and RAG.
- Level classifies it as a senior role.
- Level lists 382 other open roles at MongoDB.
AI in this role
Conduct cutting-edge research in AI, LLMs, and embedding models as part of MongoDB's Voyage AI team.
About Voyage AI Team at MongoDB
Voyage AI team in MongoDB is building a best-in-class, general-purpose, domain-specific, and fine-tuned embedding models and rerankers to enable accurate, efficient unstructured data search and retrieval for RAG, recommendation, semantic search, and more. It is backed by a strong team of AI researchers from Stanford, MIT, Berkeley, Princeton, and CMU, who have conducted over five years of cutting-edge research on training embedding models. Voyage AI was acquired by MongoDB recently, and is now integrating the SOTA embedding models with MongoDB's data platform to create powerful end-to-end solutions.
Position Overview
We are seeking a Senior Research Scientist to join our team and contribute to the development of next-generation AI models. This position offers a unique opportunity to work on challenging problems at the intersection of machine learning research and practical deployment of large neural networks.
We are looking to speak to candidates who are based in Palo Alto for our hybrid working model.
Responsibilities
- Conduct cutting-edge research in artificial intelligence, from frontier LLMs to embedding models and rerankers
- Innovate in next-generation information retrieval and LLM agent paradigm
- Collaborate closely with other research scientists and research engineers as well as peers across the organization
Qualifications
- PhD degree in Computer Science or related field
- Strong background in machine learning, deep learning, and natural language processing
- Familiarity with training distributed training of neural networks for language and visual understanding
What We Offer
- Opportunity to work on real-world problems at the cutting edge of AI research
- Opportunity to utilize research vision to innovate the entire company and make real-world impact
- Exposure to the full lifecycle of AI model development, from research to production
- Our compensation (base + equity) for this position is competitive with frontier AI labs
About MongoDB
MongoDB is built for change, empowering our customers and our people to innovate at the speed of the market. We have redefined the data platform for the AI era, enabling builders to create, transform, and disrupt industries with software. MongoDB’s unified data platform, the most widely available, globally distributed data platform on the market, helps organizations modernize legacy workloads, embrace innovation, and unleash AI. Our cloud-native platform, MongoDB Atlas, is the only globally distributed, multi-cloud data platform and is available across AWS, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure.
With offices worldwide and over 67,000 customers, including 75% of the Fortune 100 and AI-native startups, relying on MongoDB for their most important applications, we’re powering the next era of software.
Our compass at MongoDB is our Leadership Commitment, guiding how and why we make decisions, show up for each other, and win. It’s what makes us MongoDB.
To drive the personal growth and business impact of our employees, we’re committed to developing a supportive and enriching culture for everyone. From employee affinity groups, to fertility assistance and a generous parental leave policy, we value our employees’ wellbeing and want to support them along every step of their professional and personal journeys. Learn more about what it’s like to work at MongoDB, and help us make an impact on the world!
MongoDB is committed to providing any necessary accommodations for individuals with disabilities within our application and interview process. To request an accommodation due to a disability, please inform your recruiter.
MongoDB, Inc. provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type and makes all hiring decisions without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws.
Req ID: 2273430550
MongoDB’s base salary range for this role is posted below. Compensation at the time of offer is unique to each candidate and based on a variety of factors such as skill set, experience, qualifications, and work location. Salary is one part of MongoDB’s total compensation and benefits package. Other benefits for eligible employees may include: equity, participation in the employee stock purchase program, flexible paid time off, 20 weeks fully-paid gender-neutral parental leave, fertility and adoption assistance, 401(k) plan, mental health counseling, access to transgender-inclusive health insurance coverage, and health benefits offerings. Please note, the base salary range listed below and the benefits in this paragraph are only applicable to U.S.-based candidates.
MongoDB’s base salary range for this role in the U.S. is:$101,000—$273,000 USDHow we rate this
Senior Research Scientist at MongoDB rates 95 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.
Builds AI. The job is building AI systems.
- ●●●● 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. 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
Also common in research scientist jobs at this level
Pay
- This job starts at
- $101k
- Typical research scientist job
- $192k
This posting starts 47% below the typical research scientist job. See research scientist jobs
Questions you could be asked
- How would you design a retrieval step so the model answers from real data instead of guessing?
- How do you decide when an AI agent can act on its own versus asking for approval first?
- What NLP problem have you worked on, and how did you measure whether it actually worked?
- Tell me about a research question you investigated. What did you find?
- Tell me about a project where machine learning was part of your work. What did you do?
Adapt your resume
- List these exact terms on your resume: RAG, AI agents, NLP, AI Research, and Machine learning. 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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