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Staff Research Scientist

Join MongoDB's Voyage AI team as a Staff Research Scientist to develop next-generation AI models for unstructured data search and retrieval.

Location
Palo Alto
Compensation
$151k–$297k/yr
Level
staff
Type
full time · Hybrid

Posted by employer 5 months ago

First seen on Joblaze 5 months ago

Last verified on the company career page 1 day ago

AI in the day-to-day

The team is building embedding models and rerankers for AI applications like search and recommendation.

Requirements

Education
PhD

Not disclosed in this posting: years of experience, visa sponsorship.

Benefits

401k Match Equity/Stock Options Health Insurance Parental Leave

Joblaze summary

The Staff Research Scientist at MongoDB's Voyage AI team focuses on advancing AI models, particularly in the realms of embedding and reranking for unstructured data retrieval. This role requires a strong foundation in machine learning, deep learning, and natural language processing, along with a proven track record of innovative research. Ideal candidates will possess a PhD and experience in building complex neural networks, making this position suitable for seasoned professionals looking to impact AI development. The team is composed of top-tier researchers from prestigious institutions, fostering a collaborative environment for cutting-edge innovation.

Joblaze insights

  • Listed about 5 months ago — first seen on Joblaze May 29, 2026. Last confirmed on MongoDB's careers page November 6, 2026.
  • Salary band is below the typical range for AI/ML roles (median ~$190,000).
  • Starts above 6% of 34 comparable staff ai/ml roles in United States that list Machine Learning we track (median $230,000 across 12 companies). See Machine Learning salary trends
  • Machine Learning appears in 18.5% of 270 comparable staff ai/ml roles in United States; Natural Language Processing appears in 1.5% of 270 comparable staff ai/ml roles in United States.

Quick facts

Is the Staff Research Scientist role remote?
It's hybrid — MongoDB expects some on-site time in Palo Alto.
What's the salary range?
MongoDB lists $151,000–$297,000 for this role.
Where is the role based?
MongoDB is hiring for this position in Palo Alto.
What's the tech stack?
Joblaze extracted these technologies from the posting: Deep Learning, Machine Learning, Natural Language Processing.
What seniority level is this role?
MongoDB targets staff-level candidates for this position.
Is this full-time or contract?
Full-time for this Staff Research Scientist role at MongoDB.

From the original posting

About Voyage AI Team at MongoDB

Voyage AI team in MongoDB is building a best-in-class, general-purpose, domain-specific, and fine-tuned embedding models and rerankers to enable accurate, efficient unstructured data search and retrieval for RAG, recommendation, semantic search, and more. It is backed by a strong team of AI researchers from Stanford, MIT, Berkeley, Princeton, and CMU, who have conducted over five years of cutting-edge research on training embedding models. Voyage AI was acquired by MongoDB recently, and is now integrating the SOTA embedding models with MongoDB's data platform to create powerful end-to-end solutions.

We are looking to speak to candidates who are based in Palo Alto for our hybrid working model.

Position Overview

We are seeking a Staff Research Scientist to join our team and contribute to the development of next-generation AI models. This position offers a unique opportunity to work on challenging problems at the intersection of machine learning research and practical deployment of large neural networks.

This role can be based out of our Palo Alto office, or remotely in the United States.

Responsibilities

  • Conduct cutting-edge research in artificial intelligence, from frontier LLMs to embedding models and rerankers
  • Innovate in next-generation information retrieval and LLM agent paradigm
  • Collaborate closely with other research scientists and research engineers as well as peers across the organization

Qualifications

  • PhD degree in Computer Science or related field
  • At least 6 years of full-time professional experience in research or a closely related field
  • A track record of coming up with new ideas or improving upon existing ideas in machine learning, demonstrated by accomplishments such as first author publications in top venues
  • Strong background in machine learning, deep learning, and natural language processing
  • Experience building complex neural networks for language and visual understanding
  • Capable of conducting rigorous empirical studies to validate theoretical results
  • Excellent leadership, problem-solving, and communication skills

What We Offer

  • Opportunity to work on real-world problems at the cutting edge of AI research
  • Opportunity to utilize research vision to innovate the entire company and make real-world impact
  • Exposure to the full lifecycle of AI model development, from research to production
  • Our compensation (base + equity) for this position is competitive with frontier AI labs

With offices worldwide and over 67,000 customers, including 75% of the Fortune 100 and AI-native startups, relying on MongoDB for their most important applications, we’re powering the next era of software.

MongoDB, Inc. provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type and makes all hiring decisions without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws.

Req ID: 2273454547

MongoDB’s base salary range for this role is posted below. Compensation at the time of offer is unique to each candidate and based on a variety of factors such as skill set, experience, qualifications, and work location. Salary is one part of MongoDB’s total compensation and benefits package. Other benefits for eligible employees may include: equity, participation in the employee stock purchase program, flexible paid time off, 20 weeks fully-paid gender-neutral parental leave, fertility and adoption assistance, 401(k) plan, mental health counseling, access to transgender-inclusive health insurance coverage, and health benefits offerings. Please note, the base salary range listed below and the benefits in this paragraph are only applicable to U.S.-based candidates.

MongoDB’s base salary range for this role in the U.S. is:
$151,000—$297,000 USD

Standard company text repeated across MongoDB's postings is omitted here.

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