Applied Research Lead, Model Scaling (Sr. Applied Research Scientist) at Runway

Role Overview
Runway is focused on building "World Models"—multimodal AI systems designed to simulate the physical world for creative, robotic, and scientific applications. As a Lead on the Model Scaling team, you will spearhead the pretraining of the next generation of multimodal models. You will bridge the gap between high-level research and software engineering, ensuring that breakthroughs in scaling actually materialize as novel user interfaces for creators.

Key Responsibilities
Model Pretraining: Lead the foundational efforts in scaling and pretraining large-scale multimodal models.

Architecture & Engineering: Write clean, maintainable, and high-performance research code to support complex training pipelines.

Human-in-the-Loop Systems: Develop systems where human creativity and AI simulation interact seamlessly.

Full-Cycle Research: Manage the entire lifecycle of research, from initial theoretical conception to production-ready application.

Mentorship: Act as a technical lead, teaching and mentoring other researchers and engineers within the organization.

Qualifications
Experience: 4+ years of professional experience in ML engineering or applied research.

Domain Expertise: Strong background in computer vision and multimodal learning.

Coding Mastery: Expert-level programming skills with a focus on maintainability and "research-to-production" workflows.

Creative Vision: A deep interest in building tools specifically for artistic and creative expression.

Collaboration: Demonstrated ability to document research clearly and collaborate across diverse teams.

Compensation & Diversity
Runway utilizes market-based salary determinations. While the base range is $280k–$380k for U.S. candidates, the total package includes equity and comprehensive benefits.

Federal Reporting & Diversity Statistics: As a federal contractor, Runway adheres to Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) guidelines.

Disability Goal: Federal law (Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act) establishes a utilization goal of 7% for the employment of qualified individuals with disabilities within a contractor's workforce.

Veterans: Runway tracks the recruitment of "protected veterans," which includes disabled veterans and those recently separated from service (within 3 years), to measure outreach effectiveness.