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Applied Research Scientist, AI Research

DescriptSan Francisco, CA or Remote, USAI Research
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Salary
$197K - $262,500 USD
Job type
Full-time
Work mode
Remote
Posted
25 Aug 2026
Status
Open · checked 7d ago

About this role

The Applied Research Scientist, AI Research position at Descript is an exciting opportunity based in San Francisco, CA or available as a remote position across the United States. This role suits a machine learning professional who wants to build specialized, production-ready AI models that directly empower video and audio creators.

Role Overview

Descript seeks an Applied Research Scientist to join the AI Research department. The team creates specialized models for editing workflows, such as video regeneration, zero-shot voice cloning, and Studio Sound. This role focuses heavily on multimodal understanding, training systems to perceive edited media similarly to a human editor. The mission centers on helping the Underlord AI editing agent judge its own output and comprehend creative choices.

Key Responsibilities

Build vision-language systems that allow agentic editing features to evaluate the audio and visual content of media projects.
Design evaluation benchmarks that measure editorial quality while balancing latency and cost factors.
Construct necessary datasets, including generating synthetic data when real-world examples are scarce.
Train specialized models from scratch or fine-tune existing foundation models to achieve specific product capabilities.
Transition models smoothly from research prototypes into production features alongside engineering teams.
Identify future research directions that can translate directly into Descript product features, with senior team members owning this process end-to-end.

Requirements

Demonstrated ability to design and implement deep learning algorithms through open-source contributions, publications, or shipped models.
Strong programming abilities paired with deep fluency in PyTorch.
Proven track record of generating creative machine learning ideas and running rapid, honest experiment evaluations.
Clear communication skills to share both successful findings and dead ends transparently with the team.
A Master's or PhD in deep learning or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience.
Must meet at least one of the following criteria: first or lead author of an accepted publication at a top-tier venue like CVPR, NeurIPS, or ICML, or a key role in shipping a deep learning production feature.

Nice to Have

Direct experience with vision-language models, multimodal understanding, or generative modeling for audio, video, or images.
Experience with post-training, fine-tuning, or reinforcement learning on large foundation models.
Background in building evaluation systems for generative outputs or taking research ideas all the way to shipped features.

Skills and Tools

PyTorch
Spark
Computer Vision
Vision-Language Models
Generative Modeling

Salary and Benefits

Base annual salary range of $197,000 to $262,500, complemented by equity and benefits.
Generous healthcare package and a 401(k) matching program.
Catered lunches and flexible vacation time.
Options for remote work flexibility or hybrid collaboration based out of the San Francisco headquarters.

About the Company

Descript develops a powerful, intuitive editing tool for video and audio tailored for the era of artificial intelligence. Backed by prominent investors like OpenAI and Andreessen Horowitz, the 150-person team operates with strong product-market fit while maintaining an early-stage culture where every employee makes a measurable impact. Descript is an equal opportunity workplace dedicated to diversity and inclusion.

How to Apply

Interested candidates should visit the official company careers page on remote.com to submit an application for this role.

Skills and tech stack

PyTorchSparkComputer Vision

Questions candidates ask

What is the location for the Applied Research Scientist role?

The role can be performed from San Francisco, CA or remotely within the United States.

What is the salary range for this position?

The base salary range is between $197,000 and $262,500 per year, plus equity and benefits.

What framework is required for this position?

Deep fluency in PyTorch is required for the role.

Is publishing academic papers mandatory?

No, publishing academic papers is supported by the company but is not a requirement of the job.

What does the AI Research team at Descript focus on?

The team focuses on building specialized models for specific editing workflow problems—such as multimodal understanding, video regeneration, and voice cloning—rather than general-purpose generative models.

Ready to apply?

The application is on the official Descript careers page.

Apply on company site