Research Scientist, Reinforcement Learning, Deepmind

Google Google · Big Tech · London, United Kingdom

Research Scientist at Google DeepMind focusing on Reinforcement Learning. The role involves proposing and pursuing novel research directions, implementing algorithmic ideas, conducting end-to-end experiments, designing evaluations, and building infrastructure for research at scale. The position requires a PhD in Machine Learning or equivalent, experience in RL research, and contributions to peer-reviewed publications. Preferred qualifications include experience with advanced RL topics, modern research stacks, and scaling methodologies.

What you'd actually do

  1. Propose and pursue novel research directions by formulating and testing hypotheses.
  2. Implement algorithmic ideas and conduct end-to-end experiments, analyzing results and iterating on findings.
  3. Design evaluations and ablations to answer key questions and drive research decisions.
  4. Build and improve infrastructure to enable research at scale.
  5. Communicate research findings through write-ups, presentations, and publications, while fostering a culture of high standards and constructive feedback.

Skills

Required

  • PhD in Machine Learning or equivalent practical experience
  • Implementing algorithms within research codebases
  • Research in reinforcement learning
  • Contributions to peer-reviewed publications
  • Designing and executing end-to-end experiments

Nice to have

  • Advanced reinforcement learning topics (e.g., RL for sequence models, post-training, preference-based learning, or agentic systems)
  • Modern research stacks (e.g., JAX/Flax or PyTorch)
  • Scaling experiments
  • Scaling methodologies
  • Evaluation techniques
  • Diagnosing complex failure modes
  • Push projects forward
  • Prioritize effectively
  • Take initiative
  • Strong experimental judgment
  • Selecting appropriate baselines
  • Designing insightful ablations
  • Clear presentation of research results

What the JD emphasized

  • PhD in Machine Learning
  • reinforcement learning
  • peer-reviewed publications
  • end-to-end experiments
  • advanced reinforcement learning topics
  • scaling methodologies
  • experimental judgment

Other signals

  • Reinforcement Learning
  • Algorithm Design
  • Large-scale Experiments
  • Publications