AI Applied Scientist

Location: San Francisco, CA • New York, NY • United States (This is a full-time role that can be held from one of Figma's US hubs or remotely in the United States.)

Job Description

Figma is growing its team of passionate creatives and builders on a mission to make design accessible to all. The platform helps teams bring ideas to life014 brainstorming, prototyping, translating designs into code, or iterating with AI. Figma empowers teams to streamline workflows, move faster, and collaborate in real time from anywhere. The AI Applied Scientist will build AI technologies to make Figma products more magical by driving fundamental and applied research in Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence. The role involves designing and building AI/ML models and systems to improve Figma019s products.

What you019ll do at Figma:

Drive fundamental and applied research in AI; explore boundaries of current technology to build best-in-class models for Figma019s domains.
Combine industry best practices and first-principles approach to build cutting-edge Generative AI models using techniques like Supervised Finetuning (SFT), Reinforcement Learning (RL), prompt improvements, and synthetic data generation.
Collaborate with product and infrastructure engineers to improve Figma019s products through AI-powered features.
Work closely with product managers and engineers to transform user feedback into requirements for AI systems.
Build evaluation systems to measure and improve the quality of AI features in Figma products.

Requirements

Extensive experience building generative AI features through prompt engineering and fine-tuning models in production environments.
Experience with deep learning and generative AI frameworks such as PyTorch, JAX, HuggingFace.
Experience training Large Language Models (LLMs) with Reinforcement Learning techniques like preference-based RL (DPO, PPO) and/or RL with verifiable rewards (RLVR) such as GRPO/DAPO. Experience with RL from execution feedback for coding, and RL with non-verifiable rewards is a plus.
4+ years in Generative AI.
6+ years experience in one or more of the following: machine learning, natural language processing/understanding, computer vision.
Strong software engineering skills with 5+ years experience in programming languages such as Python, C++, Java or R.
Experience communicating and working across functions to drive solutions.

Preferred but not required:

Proven track record of planning multi-year roadmaps where shorter-term projects ladder up to long-term vision.
Experience mentoring/influencing senior engineers across organizations.
Expertise working on large scale and distributed AI training.

Salary Information

Annual Base Salary Range: $153,000 - $376,000 USD Salary depends on job level, qualifications, market demands, scope of role, work location. For remote roles pay range is localized between 80% - 100% of this range.

Benefits

Figma offers:

Equity to employees
Competitive benefits package including health, dental & vision insurance
Retirement plan with company contribution
Parental leave & reproductive or family planning support
Mental health & wellness benefits
Generous PTO & company recharge days
Learning & development stipend
Work from home stipend
Cell phone reimbursement
Sales incentive pay for sales roles
Annual bonus plan for eligible non-sales roles

Benefits subject to change.

Equal Opportunity Statement

Figma is an equal opportunity workplace committed to diversity and inclusion regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship status,...