Research Scientist - AI Incubation

What you can expect

Zoom's AI Incubation team is seeking a Research Scientist to contribute to the next wave of LLM post‑training, reinforcement learning, and federated AI innovation. You will join a world‑class group of PhDs and applied scientists focused on pushing the boundaries of model alignment, reasoning, and agentic intelligence.

As a Research Scientist, you will advance Zoom's applied AI research, working with cutting‑edge LLM post‑training, RLHF/DPO/RLAIF, federated AI, and multimodal intelligence to deliver breakthroughs that redefine human‑AI collaboration. You will participate in incubation efforts that transform bold research ideas into scalable, production‑ready systems powering the next generation of Zoom AI Companion.

The AI Incubation team is a high‑impact applied research group that has built one of the best‑performing federated AI systems in the industry. The team operates at the frontier of LLM post‑training, reinforcement learning for agentic AI, multimodal understanding, federated AI, and AI evaluation.

Zoom's federated AI architecture—spanning Anthropic, OpenAI, and Google models—enables privacy‑preserving, edge‑to‑cloud learning that adapts to user context while maintaining enterprise‑grade governance. The Incubation team plays a central role in advancing this federated AI leadership, developing new methods for distributed model optimization, personalized prefix learning, and secure collaboration.

• Conduct frontier research in LLM post‑training, reinforcement learning, and federated AI to achieve state‑of‑the‑art reasoning, personalization, and reliability.
• Develop and implement evaluation and benchmarking frameworks for model performance, safety, and user experience across distributed environments.
• Contribute to model architectures, fine‑tuning strategies, and reinforcement learning pipelines across Zoom's federated AI ecosystem.
• Partner with product and infra teams to translate research prototypes into scalable, production‑grade AI systems that leverage edge and cloud collaboration.
• Participate in a culture of scientific rigor, creativity, and rapid experimentation.
• Explore emerging AI paradigms—from agentic reasoning and multimodal fusion to self‑improving federated systems—to continuously advance Zoom's AI frontier.

• Have a PhD or advanced degree in Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, or a related field.
• Demonstrate proven expertise in LLM post‑training, RLHF/DPO/PPO, federated learning, or reinforcement learning for reasoning and alignment.
• Have deep understanding of large‑scale distributed training systems and experience with PyTorch, Transformers, Deep Speed, or CUDA.
• Hold a publication or open‑source record demonstrating innovation in LLM optimization, federated AI, or agentic intelligence.
• Demonstrate passion for applied AI research that bridges scientific discovery and real‑world impact.
• Have experience implementing AI research concepts and translating them into practical applications.

Minimum: $

Maximum: $

In addition the base salary and/or OTE listed Zoom has a Total Direct Compensation philosophy that takes into consideration base salary, bonus and equity value.

Note:

Starting pay will be based on a number of factors and commensurate with qualifications & experience.

We also have a location based compensation structure; there may be a different range for candidates in this and other locations.

At Zoom, we offer a window of at least 5 days for you to apply because we believe in giving you every opportunity. Below is the potential closing date, just in case you want to mark it on your calendar. We look forward to receiving your application!

Anticipated Position Close Date: 01/23/26

Our structured hybrid approach is centered around our offices and remote work environments. The work style of each role, Hybrid, Remote, or In‑Person is indicated in the job description/posting.

As part of our award‑winning workplace culture and commitment to delivering happiness, our benefits program offers a variety of perks, benefits, and options to help employees maintain…