AI Researcher - PhD

The AI Platform team at Figma is working on an exciting mission of expanding the frontiers of AI for creativity, and developing magical experiences in Figma products. This involves making existing features like search smarter, and incorporating new features using cutting edge Generative AI and deep learning techniques. 

We’re looking for engineers with a background in Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence to improve our products and build new capabilities. You will be driving fundamental and applied research in this area. You will be combining industry best practices and a first-principles approach to design and build ML models that will improve Figma’s design and collaboration tool.

What you’ll do at Figma:

• Driving fundamental and applied research in ML/AI using Generative AI, deep learning and classical machine learning, with Figma product use cases in mind.
• Formulate and implement new modeling approaches both to improve the effectiveness of Figma’s current models as well as enable the launch of entirely new AI-powered product features.
• Work in concert with other ML researchers, as well as product and infrastructure engineers to productionize new models and systems to power features in Figma’s design and collaboration tool.
• Expand the boundaries of what is possible with the current technology set and experiment with novel ideas.
• Publish scientific work on problems relevant to Figma in leading conferences like ICML, NeurIPS, CVPR etc.

We'd love to hear from you if you have:

• Recently obtained or is in the process of obtaining a PhD in AI, Computer Science or a related field. Degree must be completed prior to starting at Figma.
• Demonstrated expertise in machine learning with a publication record in relevant conferences, or a track record in applying machine learning techniques to products.
• Experience in Python and machine learning frameworks (such as PyTorch, TensorFlow or JAX).
• Experience building systems based on deep learning, natural language processing, computer vision, and/or generative models.
• Experience solving sophisticated problems and comparing alternative solutions, trade-offs, and diverse points of view to determine a path forward.
• Experience communicating and working across functions to drive solutions.

While not required, it’s an added plus if you also have:

• Experience working in industry on relevant AI projects through internships or past full time work.
• Publications in recent advances in AI like Large language models (LLMs), Vision language Models (VLMs) or diffusion models.

At Figma, one of our values is Grow as you go. We believe in hiring smart, curious people who are excited to learn and develop their skills. If you’re excited about this role but your past experience doesn’t align perfectly with the points outlined in the job description, we encourage you to apply anyways. You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles.

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