Princeton University · 16 hours ago
Lead Research Software Engineer
Princeton, NJ
Full-time
Onsite
Senior Level, Lead/Staff
$160K/yr - $177K/yr
1+ years expPrinceton University is seeking a Lead Research Software Engineer for its Language and Intelligence Initiative, which focuses on advancing AI models and their societal impacts. The role involves leading a team of Research Software Engineers to develop innovative software solutions and contribute to cutting-edge AI research.
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Responsibilities
Directly oversee a team of RSEs dedicated to PLI’s mission. Responsible for managing their effort and all team software development work while establishing project priorities and following best practices in project management
Lead the team in providing technical expertise and guidance for improving the performance and quality of new and existing code bases through hands-on work with ongoing research
Mentor, instruct and educate less experienced Research Software Engineers, including those outside the direct team (including PLI researchers), in advanced computational techniques learned from developing novel research software engineering project solutions
Formally train and mentor the members of the PLI RSE team in both research software engineering as well as AI-specific topics
Organize professional development and professional growth activities for the team. This includes leading code reviews within their projects
Monitor and manage all team projects and architect a set of applicable best practices uniquely appropriate for that project (e.g., version control, continuous integration and continuous delivery, software design, programming model, etc.)
Conduct Annual Performance Reviews for direct report RSE staff
Supervise professional development of direct reports, including the coordination of activities and events supporting the acquisition of new skills and expertise
Build and develop a diverse, effective, and collaborative group of Research Software Engineers and participate in other RSE hiring committees
Create an inclusive atmosphere and environment in which best engineering practices are valued, shared, and prioritized
Collaborate with our diverse team to help develop and improve large AI models, helping conduct experiments, analyze results, and co-author research publications
Develop, maintain, and improve our shared infrastructure for training / fine-tuning and prompting large AI models
Maintain software libraries/environment/GitHub repositories and support model use
Provide support for use of these libraries in the core AI models group as well as for interdisciplinary work. This includes documentation of projects in a descriptive and appropriately detailed manner that can be understood by both researchers and future Research Software Engineers
Serve as liaison with Princeton Research Computing staff on GPU cluster related issues
Learn the underlying science, mathematics, statistics, data analysis, and algorithms of computational research questions. This may involve independent research, studying existing code bases, and keeping up-to-date with publications
Build awareness of software development tools and techniques, software engineering best practices, programming languages, high-performance computing hardware, and computational research solutions
Access to a community of about two dozen research software engineers as well as continued professional development opportunities at Princeton Research Computing
Qualification
Required
A Bachelor/Masters degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Sciences, or related computational field is required
Solid coding skills and good experience with large AI models
Experience leading multiple software projects
Familiarity with GPU computing environments and ML frameworks and libraries (e.g,, DeepSpeed, HuggingFace)
Prior research experience in AI/ML and/or contributions to open-source libraries
Strong written and oral technical communication skills
Preferred
1+ years experience managing a small team
Benefits
Access to state-of-the-art research facilities and a new GPU cluster.
Opportunities for professional growth and career advancement.
Collaborative and inclusive work environment that fosters creativity and innovation.
Comprehensive benefit program to eligible employees.
Company
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private Ivy League university that offers a variety of master’s degrees and Ph. D.s.
5001-10000 employees
H1B Sponsorship
Princeton University has a track record of offering H1B sponsorships. Please note that this does not
guarantee sponsorship for this specific role. Below presents additional info for your
reference. (Data Powered by US Department of Labor)
Distribution of Different Job Fields Receiving Sponsorship
Represents job field similar to this job
Trends of Total Sponsorships
2025 (301)
2024 (220)
2023 (218)
2022 (172)
2021 (207)
2020 (193)
Funding
Current Stage
Late StageTotal Funding
$11.44MKey Investors
US Department of EnergyAlfred P. Sloan FoundationNational Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
2024-06-06Grant· $2M
2023-08-14Grant
2022-02-15Grant· $5.5M
Leadership Team
Amy Robinson Sterling
Executive Director, Eyewire
Anne-Marie Maman
Founding Director - Princeton Entrepreneurship Council
Recent News
2026-01-16
2026-01-09
2026-01-07
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