Staff Machine Learning Research Scientist

Smarterdx
US
Remote

Who this role is best for

Aimed at mid-level ML researchers with deep expertise in LLMs and clinical data who thrive in remote, high-autonomy roles.

Best fit for

  • Researchers with published work in top-tier ML venues and hands-on LLM experience.
    — “Strong track record of ML research, ideally with publications in top-tier venues
  • Autonomous thinkers who can critically evaluate and implement academic research.
    — “operate with a high degree of autonomy—identifying promising research directions
  • Candidates skilled in hallucination detection and model reliability for clinical AI.
    — “Deep understanding of LLM failure modes, particularly hallucinations

Things to consider

  • Role requires production deployment experience, not just research.
    — “Experience deploying ML models into production systems
  • Must collaborate cross-functionally with engineers and clinicians.
    — “Collaborate cross-functionally with engineering to productionize models

How to stand out

  • Highlight specific contributions to LLM alignment or hallucination mitigation.
    — “Design, implement, and evaluate novel methods for LLM alignment
  • Showcase experience with clinical or healthcare data if applicable.
    — “Experience working with clinical or healthcare data
  • Demonstrate rigorous evaluation frameworks you've designed for ML models.
    — “Experience designing rigorous evaluation frameworks
Pace · SteadyCollaboration · HighAutonomy · HighDecision Impact · CompanyLevel · Senior

Derived from job-description analysis by Serendipath's career intelligence engine.

What success looks like

  • lead end-to-end ML research
  • translate research into production
  • mentor other researchers
Typical background
PhD in machine learning or related fieldpublications in top-tier ML venues

Skills & requirements

Required

Machine LearningLLM AlignmentHallucination DetectionModel ReliabilityData-centric AILarge-scale Deep LearningMlops

Preferred

Inference Optimization

Stack & domain

PythonPyTorchJaxHealthcare

About the role

Original posting from Smarterdx via Greenhouse

SmarterDx, a Smarter Technologies company, builds clinical AI that is transforming how hospitals translate care into payment. Founded by physicians in 2020, our platform connects clinical context with revenue intelligence, helping health systems recover millions in missed revenue, improve quality scores, and appeal every denial. Become a Smartian and help optimize the way the healthcare system works for everyone. Learn more at smarterdx.com/careers.

As a Staff Machine Learning Research Scientist at SmarterDx, you will set technical direction for cutting-edge ML research and translate it into real-world clinical impact. You’ll work at the intersection of research, engineering, and healthcare, partnering with engineers and clinicians to build systems that deeply understand patient records and improve hospital outcomes. This is a senior, high-impact role where you’ll not only execute on ambitious ideas but also shape the team’s research agenda and standards.

You will be expected to operate with a high degree of autonomy—identifying promising research directions, critically evaluating academic work, and ensuring that what gets built is both scientifically sound and practically useful. Your work will directly influence how we evaluate models, detect hallucinations, and build high-quality datasets, ultimately improving the reliability of AI in healthcare.

**This role is fully remote within the US**

What You’ll Do

Lead end-to-end ML research, from idea generation to production deployment and monitoring

Design, implement, and evaluate novel methods for LLM alignment on proprietary clinical data

Develop and rigorously evaluate approaches for hallucination detection, attribution, and model reliability

Build and curate high-quality datasets, with a strong emphasis on evaluation design and benchmark integrity

Critically assess academic literature to identify strong vs weak methods, and translate the best ideas into practice

Establish best practices for experimental design, including statistically sound evaluation and reproducibility

Collaborate cross-functionally with engineering to productionize models (MLOps, infra, deployment)

Develop methods for long-context and multimodal modeling (structured + unstructured clinical data)

Mentor other researchers and help raise the bar for research quality across the team

Contribute to external presence through papers, talks, and recruiting

What You Bring

Strong track record of ML research, ideally with publications in top-tier venues (e.g., NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, ACL, EMNLP, AAAI, etc.)

Proven ability to distinguish high-quality vs low-quality research, especially in fast-moving areas like LLMs

Deep understanding of LLM failure modes, particularly hallucinations, and how to evaluate and mitigate them

Experience designing rigorous evaluation frameworks and building high-quality test datasets

Strong intuition for dataset quality, bias, and benchmark design (data-centric AI mindset)

Hands-on experience training large-scale deep learning models (multi-GPU / distributed systems)

Deep understanding of modern neural architectures (transformers, SSMs, encoder/decoder models, etc.)

Strong programming skills in Python and ML frameworks such as PyTorch or JAX

Experience deploying ML models into production systems and monitoring their performance

Clear and proactive communicator, able to explain complex ideas and critique work effectively

 

Nice To Haves

Experience with inference optimization techniques (e.g., vLLM, KV caching, speculative decoding)

Familiarity with MLSys concepts (parallelism strategies, distributed training infrastructure)

Experience working with clinical or healthcare data

Background in retrieval systems, graph-based learning, or multimodal modeling

Our Tech Stack

PyTorch, Hugging Face Transformers, Python

AWS (MWAA), Kubernetes, SLURM

DeepSpeed, TorchTune

Snowflake, Airflow, GitHub

Compensation

$220k-260k base salary

#LI-Remote

Benefits

Medical, Dental & Vision – Comprehensive plans with leading insurance providers, covering 75% of your premiums, depending on the plan.

Paid Parental Leave – Generous paid leave to support families through birth or adoption: Up to 12 weeks for parents.

Remote-First Team – Work from anywhere in the U.S.

Unlimited PTO & 10 Holidays – So you can relax and recharge.

401(k) with Traditional & Roth Options – Tax-advantaged retirement savings through Fidelity with a 4% match.

Minimal Bureaucracy – A fast-moving, high-impact environment where you can focus on what matters.

Incredible Teammates! – Work alongside smart, supportive, and mission-driven colleagues.

Source: Smarterdx careers (Greenhouse)

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