Research Lead, Training

About this role

About Goodfire

Goodfire is a research company using interpretability to understand, learn from, and design AI systems. Our mission is to build the next generation of safe and powerful AI—not by scaling alone, but by understanding the intelligence we're building.

Scaling has proven powerful, but today's approach is fundamentally limited: we can't meaningfully understand, debug, or shape what models learn. Every engineering discipline has been gated by fundamental science and AI is at that inflection point now.

We're advancing the science of how AI systems actually work. Treating models as black boxes is an unnecessary handicap—we have access to the structures inside them, and understanding those structures lets us steer what models learn, make them safer and more useful, and extract the vast knowledge they contain. Our goal is to make AI that can be understood, debugged, and shaped like software.

Goodfire is a public benefit corporation headquartered in San Francisco with a team of the world’s top interpretability researchers and engineers from organizations like OpenAI and DeepMind. We're backed by over $200M from B Capital, Menlo Ventures, Lightspeed, Eric Schmidt, and others.

About the role

We're hiring a Research Lead, Training to lead Goodfire's model training organization and define the research agenda behind how we train more capable, aligned, and interpretable AI systems, including exploring the research frontier of intentional design .

We’re looking for a senior research leader who can drive model training today while exploring the next generation of training methods, from interpretability-informed approaches to entirely new paradigms. You'll build, mentor, and grow a world-class team of researchers, set technical direction, and partner closely with scientific leadership to turn ambitious ideas into production systems and lasting research breakthroughs.

Key responsibilities:

• Lead Goodfire’s training organization and manage a high-performing team from day one

• Set direction for model training as Goodfire develops and deploys its own models

• Drive execution on post-training and model improvement work, with accountability for shipping high-quality training outcomes

• Define and lead a research agenda in intentional design, interpretability-informed training, and alignment

• Partner with our Chief Scientist to shape priorities, balance research and delivery, and translate strategy into execution

• Build the team over time, including hiring, mentoring, and creating strong technical and managerial foundations

What you’ll bring

Required experience and qualifications

• Experience leading post-training, model training, or closely related efforts in a frontier AI environment

• Track record of owning ambitious technical programs that combine research depth with executional rigor

• Experience managing teams and operating effectively in fast-moving, high-expectation environments

• Strong judgment on how to balance longer-term research bets with near-term product or model delivery

• Interest in intentional design, alignment, and interpretability-informed training

• Ability to work closely with senior scientific leadership while also independently setting direction and driving outcomes

Our values

Goodfire is looking for individuals who embody our values and share our deep commitment to making interpretability accessible. We are building a team first and foremost.

Put mission and team first

All we do is in service of our mission. We trust each other, deeply care about the success of the organization, and choose to put our team above ourselves.

Improve constantly

We are constantly looking to improve every piece of the business. We proactively critique ourselves and others in a kind and thoughtful way that translates to practical improvements in the organization. We are pragmatic and consistently implement the obvious fixes that work.

Take ownership and initiative

There are no bystanders here. We proactively identify problems and take full responsibility over getting a strong result. We are self-driven, own our mistakes, and feel deep responsibility over what we’re building.

Action today

We have a small amount of time to do something incredibly hard and meaningful. The pace and intensity of the organization is high. If we can take action today or tomorrow, we will choose to do it today.

Where we work

We are hiring for this position in both our San Francisco HQ and our New York office. We are in person 5 days a week, with one company-wide remote week per month.

What we offer

This role offers market competitive salary, equity, and competitive benefits.

The expected salary range for this position is $400,000 - $600,000 USD.

Most importantly, you'll have the opportunity to join a vital mission at an important point in its trajectory — we are developing groundbreaking technology with a world-class team on the critical path to ensuring a safe and beneficial future for humanity. If you want to do your life’s work with us, even if you believe you do not meet every single requirement, apply now.

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