FirstPrinciples · 1 week ago
FirstPrinciples Research Fellow
United States
Full-time
Remote
Senior LevelFirstPrinciples is a non-profit organization focused on building an autonomous AI Physicist to explore the fundamental laws of the universe. The Research Fellow will own a research direction that enhances the AI Physicist's reasoning capabilities in physics and will be involved in designing, testing, and implementing novel methodologies and applications in the field.
Artificial Intelligence (AI)Non Profit
Responsibilities
Research, design, and test novel model architectures that combine academic literature, NLP, symbolic reasoning, and structured scientific workflows
Prototype and build embedding representations for physical concepts, mathematical objects, and logical structures, enabling models to reason over equations, abstractions, and scientific constraints rather than surface text alone
Investigate alternatives to transformer-based architectures and deliver concrete recommendations
Design and run targeted experiments to evaluate new architectural ideas, using empirical results to guide the development of next-generation model architectures
Develop reinforcement learning loops that enable models to run internal and independent thought experiment
Design and automate scalable data ingestion pipelines that aggregate scientific literature, metadata, equations, and experimental data
Create custom benchmarks to measure physical understanding, mathematical reasoning, and failure modes in scientific reasoning and abstraction
Refine and release curated datasets and baselines once internal validation is complete
Run and track model training jobs while managing compute usage and budget constraints
Design sandbox environments for controlled autonomous exploration
Build evaluation frameworks using visual and statistical tools to identify strengths and blind spots
Implement tests and guardrails that flag low-quality or unsafe outputs
Maintain internal issue tracking with clear failure modes and fixes
Work closely with engineers to ensure research is feasible and production-ready
Communicate technical trade-offs clearly to non-technical stakeholders
Present regular research updates tied to defined milestones
Qualification
Required
PhD or postdoctoral researchers in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Theoretical Physics, or a closely related field
Track record of research in either model architectures, representation learning, or reasoning systems (CS/ML path); or mathematical, physical, or formal reasoning applied to fundamental problems (physics path)
Demonstrated ability to translate abstract theory into testable computational systems
Comfortable working across disciplinary boundaries
Can operate independently and own a problem end-to-end
Are motivated by ambitious, long-horizon goals
Have strong builder instincts, not just theory
Value rigor, clarity, and intellectual honesty
Are comfortable engaging with exploratory, incomplete results
Company
FirstPrinciples
Building AI to understand the nature of reality.
Founded in 2024
11-50 employees
Funding
Current Stage
Early StageCompany data provided by crunchbase