Latest AI JobsBrowse Jobs
Synthesia logo

Staff Research Scientist- Interactive Avatars

SynthesiaEuropeResearch and Development
Apply on company site
Salary
Not listed
Job type
Full-time
Work mode
Remote
Experience
Senior
Posted
6 Oct 2026
Status
Open · checked 7d ago

About this role

Synthesia seeks a Staff Research Scientist in Europe to join the Interactive Avatars team within the R&D department. This position suits an experienced machine learning professional focused on generative AI and diffusion models who wants to build real-time conversational video agents.

Role Overview

Synthesia is hiring a Staff Research Scientist to work within its research and development department on avatar-centric, interactive video diffusion models. The position involves collaborating with a team of over 40 researchers and engineers to build models for natural, real-time conversations. Candidates will operate in a hybrid setting with European offices available in London, Amsterdam, Zurich, and Munich, or remotely within Europe.

Key Responsibilities

Set the research direction and roadmap for dyadic interaction modeling, balancing long-term bets with near-term product impact.
Advance the state of the art in the perceptual layer of interactive agents, including understanding user audio and video and generating contextually appropriate reactions.
Post-train multimodal models to generate rich, natural dyadic interactions from user audio and video inputs.
Adapt diffusion models to new conditioning signals, such as conversational state, turn-taking, and listener cues.
Build robust evaluation frameworks and test suites for continuous tracking of interaction quality.
Partner with the data team to define data needs and shape high-quality datasets.
Lead and mentor a small group of researchers, and drive technical decisions across research, data, and engineering.

Requirements

Deep machine learning expertise and extensive hands-on experience with diffusion models, ideally for video or avatar generation.
A strong publication record at top-tier venues such as CVPR, ICCV, ECCV, NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, or SIGGRAPH in relevant areas, or equivalent demonstrated impact.
Experience leading a small team of researchers and mentoring junior members.
A track record of taking research from idea to production.
Proficiency in PyTorch and modern machine learning tooling for large-scale training.
Clear communication of hypotheses, experiments, and results, with the ability to influence direction across teams.

Nice to Have

Experience with real-time or streaming generation, including autoregressive video diffusion.
Distillation or other techniques for low-latency inference.
Audio-driven facial, gesture, or full-body motion modeling.
Conversational modeling experience, such as turn-taking, backchanneling, or listener-response generation.

Skills and Tools

PyTorch
Diffusion models
Multimodal models
Machine learning tooling for large-scale training

Salary and Benefits

Competitive compensation
Hybrid work setting with offices in London, Amsterdam, Zurich, Munich, or remote in Europe
25 days of annual leave plus public holidays
Company culture with options for regular planning and socials at company hubs
Additional location-dependent benefits

About the Company

Synthesia is an AI video platform founded in 2017 with headquarters in London and offices across Europe and the US. The company serves enterprise customers and is utilized by over 90% of the Fortune 100. Synthesia develops products for visual communication and enterprise skill development, backed by funding from investors such as Accel, NVentures, Kleiner Perkins, GV, and Evantic Capital.

How to Apply

Interested candidates should apply on the official company careers page.

Skills and tech stack

PyTorchDiffusion modelsVideo diffusionReactMachine LearningDiffusionGenerative AI

Questions candidates ask

Where is the Staff Research Scientist position located?

The role offers a hybrid work setting with offices available in London, Amsterdam, Zurich, and Munich, or as a remote position based in Europe.

What team will the Staff Research Scientist join?

The successful candidate will join the Interactive Avatars team within the R&D department, which consists of over 40 researchers and engineers.

What technical background is required for this role?

Candidates need deep machine learning expertise, hands-on experience with diffusion models for video or avatar generation, proficiency in PyTorch, and a strong publication record at top-tier venues or equivalent demonstrated impact.

What benefits are provided with this position?

Benefits include competitive compensation, a hybrid or remote European work setup, 25 days of annual leave plus public holidays, social and planning opportunities at company hubs, and additional location-dependent benefits.

How can an interested candidate apply?

Candidates can apply directly on the official company careers page.

Ready to apply?

The application is on the official Synthesia careers page.

Apply on company site