# Applied Researcher

**Company:** [Variant](https://zerogtalent.com/ai-companies/variant)
**Location:** San Francisco, CA, US
**Work mode:** On-site
**Employment type:** Full Time
**Salary:** USD 150K–300K/yr
**Category:** Research
**Listed:** 2026-03-24

[View and apply on Zero G Talent](https://zerogtalent.com/ai-jobs/variant/applied-researcher-81911)

## Job description

**Software should be beautiful.**  
  
Variant is code generation with creativity and taste. Instead of a confined conversation, you can generate endless designs from a single idea. Freely explore, discover directions you wouldn’t have thought of, and build better software as a result.

We're well-capitalized and looking for an **applied researcher** to join us at Variant.  
  
**Job Responsibilities:**

-   Design, train, and evaluate deep neural networks and LLMs
-   Own experiments end-to-end: hypotheses, datasets, metrics, results
-   Prototype fast; turn promising ideas into reliable systems
-   Collaborate with engineering and design to make ideas real
-   Write clearly: papers, docs, and crisp experiment reports
-   Don't compromise between rigor and shipping fast
-   See what needs to be done and do it

**Minimal qualifications:**

-   2+ years in PhD program or in industry
-   Experience training deep neural networks
-   Proficiency in frameworks like Pytorch
-   Published 1 or more papers in the subject of deep learning

**Ideal qualifications:**

-   Experience training LLMs, including SFT, RL-based techniques, etc.
-   Experience in the domain of code generation
-   At least 1 paper accepted into a top conference
-   Proficiency in best software engineering practices
-   Repeated experience formulating, structuring, and answering open ended questions
-   Passionate about visual design or UI design; prior work in the space

We've kept our team small by design. Your code will matter from day one, and its impact will compound over time. **This will be the most meaningful work of your career**.  
  
We work from a beautiful space in San Francisco where we dream up the future and make it real together. We’re well-capitalized and backed by notable investors.  
  
If you've built things you're proud of, we'd love to see them.

## Other open roles at Variant

- [Founding Frontend Engineer (Staff)](https://zerogtalent.com/ai-jobs/variant/founding-frontend-engineer-staff-73621) — San Francisco, CA, US
- [Founding Agentic Backend Engineer (Senior / Staff)](https://zerogtalent.com/ai-jobs/variant/founding-agentic-backend-engineer-senior-staff-75909) — San Francisco, CA, US
- [Storyteller (Short-form)](https://zerogtalent.com/ai-jobs/variant/storyteller-short-form-90617) — San Francisco, CA, US

---
*Source: [Zero G Talent](https://zerogtalent.com), the job board for space, defense, AI, robotics and frontier-tech companies.*