Senior LLM Researcher - Alignment

Senior LLM Researcher - Alignment

Full-Time On-site
Astek

For one of our clients, we are looking for a Senior LLM Researcher - Alignment to help build reliable, safe, and high-performing language models.

In this role, you will design and implement alignment, sanitization, evaluation, and guardrailing pipelines that enable the delivery of trustworthy AI at scale. You will also play a key role in advancing Arabic-focused language model capabilities, including dialectal coverage and culturally relevant safety considerations.

Key Responsibilities

  • Own alignment strategies, including:
    • Supervised fine-tuning (SFT)
    • Preference optimization, such as DPO and RLHF
    • Reward modeling
    • Constrained decoding
  • Design and build end-to-end alignment pipelines covering data curation, training, preference optimization, and evaluation.
  • Develop data pipelines for filtering, augmentation, preference-data collection, and quality control.
  • Build model sanitization workflows, including:
    • PII removal
    • Data redaction
    • Prompt and response scrubbing
  • Implement runtime guardrails using policy models, classifiers, rule engines, retrieval-based safety checks, and rate controls.
  • Establish red-teaming and adversarial testing programs, including incident taxonomies and response playbooks.
  • Define and maintain evaluation frameworks covering safety, robustness, task performance, drift, latency, and telemetry.
  • Expand Arabic language coverage across dialects, domains, and culturally relevant safety scenarios.
  • Partner with product, platform, and engineering teams to move research into production.
  • Mentor engineers and researchers while developing internal documentation, playbooks, and best practices.
  • Lead major AI initiatives that improve model helpfulness, harmlessness, faithfulness, reliability, and cost efficiency.

Requirements

  • Proven research or industry experience training and aligning large language models.
  • Strong hands-on experience with SFT and preference optimization, including RLHF, DPO, or reward modeling.
  • Strong machine learning theory and engineering capabilities.
  • Demonstrated experience in LLM safety and security, including guardrails, classifiers, adversarial prompting, or PII handling.
  • Experience designing evaluation frameworks for model quality, safety, robustness, and reliability.
  • Track record of taking research from experimentation through production, supported by clear metrics and documentation.
  • Strong programming skills in Python and experience with modern deep learning frameworks, particularly PyTorch.
  • Ability to work cross-functionally and communicate complex research clearly.
  • Experience mentoring engineers, researchers, or technical teams.

Nice to Have

  • Experience with red-teaming, AI policy design, or compliance in multilingual environments.
  • Familiarity with Arabic NLP, including dialectal variation.
  • Knowledge of retrieval-augmented generation, constrained decoding, or tool-use agents.
  • Experience with inference optimization, quantization, low-latency serving, or observability.
  • Familiarity with distributed training environments and large-scale model deployment.
  • Experience with systems such as Hugging Face, Slurm, LlamaFactory, NeMo, RLHF/DPO frameworks, vector databases, and policy or guardrail services.
  • Experience working with H200 or similar GPU infrastructure.

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Senior LLM Researcher - Alignment employer: Astek

Join a forward-thinking company that values innovation and collaboration, offering a dynamic work environment in either London or Riyadh. As a Software Architect, you will benefit from a culture that prioritises professional growth, with opportunities to lead cutting-edge projects in robotics while enjoying competitive benefits and a commitment to work-life balance. Embrace the chance to be part of a team that champions high-quality engineering practices and fosters continuous learning.

Astek

Contact Details:

Astek Recruitment Team