Thinking Machines

Research Lead, Tinker, Fine-tuning Science

San Francisco · Remote

Research

ABOUT THINKING MACHINES

The mission of Thinking Machines is to build AI that extends human will and judgment. We are training frontier models with Inkling, developing Tinker to let people make models their own, and crafting interfaces that broaden human-AI communication. We believe the future worth building is human, and we're hiring people who want to build it.

ABOUT THE ROLE

At Thinking Machines we build tools that enable people to make AI their own, customizing models to serve their unique needs. This includes the ability to train model weights.

You'll lead the Fine-tuning Science team, setting the research agenda for frontier customization techniques and for Tinker, the leading post-training engine. This is a player-coach role: you'll stay hands-on in the science while growing the team, shaping its direction, and making sure findings ship into Tinker. You'll work closely with our internal research teams, contribute to open science, and engage with external users.

WHAT YOU’LL DO

In this role, you'll advance the science of fine-tuning and frontier post-training techniques. You’ll:

  • Set the research agenda: choose the problems, place the bets, and own the roadmap for pushing Tinker quality, efficiency, and reliability to the frontier.
  • Lead and grow the team: hire, mentor, and develop researchers, and set the bar for experimental rigor and research taste.
  • Stay hands-on in areas like LoRA and parameter-efficient fine-tuning and how they interact with RL and post-training.
  • Improve the stability, efficiency, and reliability of large-scale fine-tu
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