Machine Learning Researcher, Multimodal LLMs
This is the employer's own posting, not a copy on a job board.
What we know
Is it still open?
Confirmed still open
Last checked 1d ago — checked against the employer's own applicant tracking system, which is the company answering directly.
We re-read the employer's own applicant tracking system and the posting was still there. That is the company answering directly.
How old is it?
Posted 195d ago
The date the source published, not the day we noticed it (2026-04-21). Last seen at its source 4h ago.
We have tracked this listing since 3 Sep 2026 (59 days). The employer's own board has carried it every time we have read it, most recently 4 hours ago.
Is it remote?
The listing says yes
The location field doesn't say remote, so our assessment is based on the title or the description. Read the listing before applying.
Who may apply?
San Francisco
The description states no restriction of its own. This is the source's own tag.
Pay
$160k–280k/yr
Published by the source in its own salary field. Shown in the posting's own currency and period; we never convert.
Skills named in the ad
Recognised terms only, from a fixed vocabulary — this is what CV matching compares against.
Carried by 1 source
-
Ashby employer's own board first seen 59d ago · last seen 4h ago
The listing
Machine Learning Researcher, Multimodal LLMs
Location: San Francisco, CA or Remote
About Bland
At Bland.com, our mission is to empower enterprises to build AI phone agents at scale. Voice is quickly becoming the primary interface between businesses and their customers, and we are building the models and infrastructure that make those interactions feel natural, reliable, and genuinely human.
We’ve raised $100M from leading investors including Emergence Capital, Scale Venture Partners, Y Combinator, and founders of Twilio, Affirm, and ElevenLabs.
The Role
We are looking for someone to contribute to the development of our next-generation multimodal LLM stack, combining speech, text, tools, and real-time reasoning into a single unified system. You’ll be responsible for building industry-leading conversational AI models that power Bland's agent, and taking them all the way from idea to production.
At Bland, we're not just thinking about text modeling. You will define how our agents listen, think, and act in real time, integrating streaming audio, tool execution, and dynamic context into a single coherent system. You will take ideas from research through production systems serving millions of calls per day.
What Makes You a Great Fit
Strong LLM / Multimodal Background
Experience with LLMs, multimodal models, or speech-language systems
Deep understanding of prompting, fine-tuning, and alignment techniques
Familiarity with neural audio codecs and modern multimodal LLM techniques
Fast Experimental Loop
You can go from idea → dataset → experiment → conclusion in days
You know how to design experiments that actually answer the question
Product Intuition
Strong sense for what makes an interaction feel natural vs robotic
Ability to translate abstract modeling ideas into user-facing improvements
Builder Mentality
You take ownership from research through deployment
You thrive in ambiguous, fast-moving environments
You care about impact, not just elegance
How You Show Up
You think in systems, not just models
You obsess over latency, correctness, and real-world behavior
You are comfortable discarding ideas quickly when data disagrees
You push toward simple abstractions for complex problems
Bonus Points
Experience with real-time voice systems or conversational AI
Background in tool-using agents or agent frameworks
Experience with multimodal datasets (audio + text + actions)
Contributions to LLM or speech-related research or open source
Compensation & Benefits
Competitive salary: $160,000 – $280,000
Meaningful equity
Full healthcare, dental, vision
Office in Levi's Plaza, SF
High autonomy, high impact
Additional Information
Bland is an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to proving equal employment opportunities to all qualified applicants and employees and do not discriminate based on any legally protected characteristic.
Bland participates in the E-Verify employment verification program. All new hires are required to complete the Form I-9, and employment will be verified though E-Verify as part of the onboarding process.