Senior Research Scientist

Job Description

NIQ is seeking a highly skilled and innovative Senior Research Scientist to join our advanced AI/GenAI team. In this role, you will lead the design, experimentation, and implementation of cutting-edge Generative AI services. You will work at the intersection of research and engineering, transforming theoretical advancements into scalable, production-ready solutions. Your expertise in Python, data pipelines, and AI/ML will be critical in shaping the future of our AI-driven products. 

Responsibilities: 

• Lead research and development of GenAI models and services, with a focus on real-world applications. 
• Rapidly prototype and validate experimental approaches to assess feasibility and effectiveness. 
• Act as a technical reference and mentor for other team members, providing guidance on best practices, architecture, and model development. 
• Translate complex business requirements into clear, actionable research tasks and technical objectives. 
• Design and implement robust data pipelines to support large-scale AI/ML experimentation and deployment. 
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams including ML engineers, data scientists, and product managers to define research goals and translate them into deliverables. 
• Conduct rigorous experimentation, benchmarking, and evaluation of GenAI models (e.g., LLMs, diffusion models). 
• Stay abreast of the latest research in GenAI, NLP, and machine learning, and apply findings to improve model performance and capabilities. 
• Develop high-quality, maintainable Python code for research prototypes and production systems. 
• Contribute to the publication of research findings in top-tier conferences and journals (optional but encouraged). 
• Support the deployment of GenAI services on cloud platforms, preferably Azure. 

Qualifications

• Bachelor's or master's degree in computer science, Data Science, Machine Learning, or related field. 
• 5+ years of professional experience in AI/ML development, with a strong focus on NLP, generative AI, and vector search. 
• Strong proficiency in Python programming, with hands-on experience using libraries such as PyTorch, TensorFlow, Hugging Face Transformers, and LangChain. 
• Deep understanding of machine learning fundamentals, including deep learning, optimization techniques, generative AI, NLP, LLMs, and Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG). 
• Expertise in transformer-based models and embeddings (e.g., BERT, RoBERTa, GPT), and their application in real-world scenarios. 
• Proficiency with vector databases and approximate nearest neighbor (ANN) search tools such as FAISS, Milvus, or Pinecone. 
• Experience building and maintaining scalable data pipelines using tools like Pandas, Spark, or Airflow. 
• Familiarity with SQL for data manipulation and analysis. 
• Experience with cloud platforms (Azure preferred) and containerization technologies (e.g., Docker, Kubernetes). 
• Excellent problem-solving skills, attention to detail, and a research-oriented mindset. 
• Strong communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to work in cross-functional teams.