Role Overview

Surge is hiring a Research Scientist focused on data to support the development of frontier large language models (LLMs). You will work with AI research teams to design and evaluate datasets, experiment with data collection strategies, and develop insights that improve model alignment, safety and performance.

This is a research-focused role involving experimentation in production environments and the development of data-centric methods for AI systems.

Responsibilities

• Research and develop data collection strategies for frontier AI models.

• Design high-impact data slices to identify and investigate model failure modes.

• Partner with AI research teams to evaluate dataset quality and test new data collection approaches.

• Model annotator behavior and design experiments to improve instruction clarity and reward signal reliability.

• Develop metrics and frameworks for evaluating dataset quality, diversity and downstream impact on model alignment.

• Conduct lightweight experiments and iterate quickly to generate actionable insights.

What We're Looking For

• Strong curiosity about how data structure, quality and selection influence LLM performance.

• Ability to think critically and design experiments that produce actionable results.

• A willingness to iterate quickly and test ideas in live production environments.

• Strong interest in contributing to the development and behavior of next-generation AI systems.