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Staff AI Researcher

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San Francisco, CA Full Time
POSTED ON 8/3/2026
AVAILABLE BEFORE 9/1/2026
The Biological Computing

Software Engineering, Data Science

San Francisco, CA, USA

Posted on Jul 31, 2026

About TBC

The Biological Computing Co. (TBC) is an applied biological computing company that uses real neurons to improve AI models.

We study how biological neural networks process information, extract useful computational principles and translate those insights into software that makes modern AI models better, faster and more efficient. Our Algorithm Discovery Platform brings together biology, computational neuroscience, AI research and software engineering to develop new algorithms, architectures and neurally-optimized software for generative video and next-generation AI infrastructure.

Today, we are commercializing neurally optimized models that run on conventional GPU and cloud infrastructure. Longer term, we are building toward real-time biological compute, where real neurons operate alongside silicon as part of the compute stack.

Our interdisciplinary team includes researchers and engineers with experience at Apple, Johns Hopkins, Meta, MIT, Stanford and other leading institutions.

About The Role

We are building next-generation video generation models that enable robots to learn, plan, and act through imagined futures.

As a Staff AI Researcher you will help set the technical direction for one of TBC’s core research and product areas. You will make high-leverage architectural decisions, anticipate modeling and scaling risks, and partner closely with the founders and product team to translate research into deployable systems. This is a hands-on technical leadership role for someone who can solve foundational research problems while raising the output of the broader team.

You will work closely with TBC’s founders, AI researchers, computational neuroscientists, biologists, engineers and product leaders. You will also help translate computational principles discovered through experiments on living neural networks into new video-model architectures, learning approaches and software systems.

What You’ll Work On

  • Set the technical direction for TBC’s generative video modeling platform, including core modeling, training, evaluation, and deployment decisions
  • Design video generation models that support expressive latent representations, stable rollouts, and control-oriented prediction
  • Improve long-horizon rollout fidelity under autoregressive use, not just one-step accuracy
  • Integrate video priors, physical structure, or object-centric representations into control systems
  • Anticipate architectural and scaling bottlenecks before they constrain research or deployment
  • Establish technical standards, guide key research decisions, and multiply team output through mentorship and collaboration

What We’re Looking For

  • Strong background in machine learning, computer vision, robotics, or a related field
  • Deep experience with one or more of the following:
    • Generative models, including diffusion, autoregressive video, or sequence models
    • Model-based reinforcement learning or planning
    • System identification, physics-informed learning, or simulation
  • Strong technical judgment and a track record of making consequential architectural or research decisions
  • Ability to reason clearly about failure modes in long-horizon prediction and control
  • Experience taking ambiguous research problems from first principles through implementation and evaluation
  • Comfortable working across the stack, including modeling, training systems, evaluation, and deployment
  • Ability to partner closely with founders, product leaders, and researchers to define priorities and convert research into product capability
  • Evidence of improving the effectiveness and technical output of the people around you
  • Deep expertise in computer vision and generative modeling
  • Hands-on experience with diffusion models, autoregressive video models, or related generative architectures
  • Experience designing and scaling novel research systems rather than only applying established approaches
What Success Looks Like

  • TBC has a clear and scalable technical direction for its video generation-modeling platform
  • Video generation models remain coherent and useful under their own long-horizon rollouts
  • Policies learn faster or generalize better by training inside learned simulators
  • Key architectural and scaling risks are identified and addressed early
  • Research decisions translate into measurable product and platform progress
  • The broader team moves faster and makes stronger technical decisions because of your leadership
  • The team develops a clear understanding of when generative video models help—and when they do not

Preferred Qualifications

  • PhD or MS in Computer Science, Robotics, Machine Learning, or a related field
  • Research or industry experience in video generation models, embodied AI, generative video, robot learning, or learned simulation
  • Experience training policies inside learned simulators or over imagined trajectories
  • Experience with action-conditioned video prediction or controllable generative models
  • Experience connecting learned models to real robotic systems
  • Familiarity with latent-action models, cross-embodiment learning, or learning from human video
  • Experience with object-centric representations, physical priors, or structured dynamics models
  • Experience with digital twins, sim-to-real transfer, online adaptation, or closed-loop data collection
  • Experience scaling research systems across large datasets or distributed training environments
  • Publications at leading machine-learning, computer-vision, or robotics venues

See more open positions at The Biological Computing

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