Research Positions @ Timaeus

By Tatiana K. Nesic Skuratova @ 2026-04-22T14:33 (+4)

TLDR: Timaeus team is hiring three research scientists and one research engineer, and potentially a research lead to work on applications of singular learning theory to alignment. In-depth familiarity with SLT is not required. Submit your application by 30 April 2026 at 11:59 PM GMT.

 

About Timaeus

Timaeus’ mission is to empower humanity by making breakthrough scientific progress on alignment. Our research focuses on applications of singular learning theory (SLT) to interpretability and alignment.

Our two primary research programs are:

In addition to this, we conduct basic research on foundations in deep learning theory: on extensions of singular learning theory to reinforcement learning, on connections with Solomonoff induction and related areas, on improving and scaling the MCMC methods that underpin spectroscopy and patterning, and on further developing the connections between data structure, loss landscape geometry, susceptibilities, and generalization.

We also conduct research on direct applications of our work to immediate problems in AI safety, such as elicitation and steering reward model biases.

We’re a team of ~20, distributed across three main hubs (Berkeley, Melbourne, and London) and beyond, with funding from Coefficient Giving, the UK AISI, and others.

We are also launching a Research Fellows Program for tenured faculty and senior researchers who want to contribute to our research while maintaining their existing (academic) positions.

Position Details

Open Roles

We’re hiring for Research Scientist and Research Engineer positions. We may also consider exceptional Research Lead candidates.

We expect some familiarity with Timaeus’ research and research agenda for all open roles, but in-depth familiarity with singular learning theory (SLT) is not required.

Research Scientist

We’re looking for RS hires with distinct profiles (though ultimately we expect that many of our best candidates will not fit neatly into one profile):

1. Experimentalist

You’d work on scaling susceptibility-based interpretability to frontier models and/or on elicitation and in-context learning. This role sits at the boundary of research and engineering: you need enough theoretical understanding to follow the research direction, but your main contribution is iterating fast on experiments.

2. Theorist (SLT / Mathematical Foundations)

You’d work alongside our theory team on extending the mathematical foundations of SLT and its application to alignment. We are primarily looking for mathematical maturity:

3. Computational Statistician (Sampling)

You’d work on improving and scaling the MCMC methods (primarily SGLD variants) that underpin both spectroscopy and patterning. This is the computational backbone of everything we do.

Shared RS responsibilities:

Shared RS requirements:

Research Engineer

You’d build, maintain, and scale the infrastructure that our research runs on. We expect engineering to become increasingly important as we automate more of the research process.

Responsibilities:

Requirements:

Nice to have:

3.3Research Lead (Expressions of Interest)

We’re not running a dedicated RL search, but we’re open to hearing from senior researchers who could direct research programs, mentor researchers, and interface with the broader alignment community.

We’d especially value candidates who:

If this describes you, apply and indicate your interest in the application form.

Alternatively, you may be a good fit for our Timaeus Research Fellows Program.

On Research Automation

We expect that AI will increasingly automate large parts of the research process in the coming months and years. At Timaeus, AI research assistants already play a central role in our workflow — from generating theoretical calculations to running experiments and writing code. The primary bottleneck is no longer execution but verification and supervision: ensuring that AI-generated work is correct, identifying where models are likely to make errors, and directing their efforts productively.

As a result, we are placing a premium on the ability to supervise and direct AI research assistants effectively. In practice, this looks a lot like supervising graduate students: quickly assessing the quality and correctness of work you didn’t produce yourself, identifying high-risk areas that need careful review, and structuring tasks so that the work is verifiable. Candidates with graduate student supervision experience, research management experience, or demonstrated skill in working with AI assistants will stand out.

What We Offer

For employees, we offer:

For contractors, we offer a 30% bonus to offset benefits.

How to Apply

Apply here by 30 April 2026 at 11:59 PM GMT. We review applications on a rolling basis and encourage early submission - we may advance candidates or make offers before this date.

Your application should include:

We use a multi-stage process: application review → screening call → coding assessment (optional, but encouraged) → work test (compensated) → interview → references → offer. We aim to move quickly, with first offers going out by late May.

We also welcome applications from strong candidates in previous hiring rounds (including for programs like MATS) who may be fast-tracked through parts of the pipeline.

Diversity and Inclusion

We’re aware that factors like gender, race, and socioeconomic background can affect people’s willingness to apply for roles for which they meet some but not all the suggested attributes. We’d especially like to encourage people from underrepresented backgrounds to express interest.

There’s no such thing as a “perfect” candidate. If you’re on the fence about applying because you’re unsure whether you’re qualified, we’d encourage you to apply.

If you require any adjustments to the application process, such as accessibility accommodations, additional preparation time, or other, please contact careers@timaeus.co. We’re happy to support your needs and adjust the application process.