The Role
You will lead research and experimentation into what drives visibility in AI-powered search engines such as Perplexity, ChatGPT, and Gemini. This is a senior hands-on research and engineering role - you will architect experiments, build and own models, mentor junior researchers, and see your work directly shape product strategy.
What You Will Do:
- Design, lead, and oversee experiments to identify and validate GEO ranking factors
- Architect and own the development of algorithms and scoring models end-to-end
- Drive large-scale data analysis to extract actionable insights and translate findings into strategic recommendations
- Collaborate closely with the founding team to define the research roadmap and translate research into product features
- Mentor and guide junior researchers and engineers on experimental design and best practices
What We're Looking For
Must-have
- PhD with 2+ years of industry experience, or Master's degree with 4+ years of relevant experience
- Deep expertise in machine learning, NLP, or information retrieval
- Proven track record of designing, executing, and shipping research-driven products or features
- Strong leadership and communication skills - able to influence without authority and present findings to non-technical stakeholders
- Self-directed and comfortable operating with ambiguity at the frontier of a new field
Nice to have
- Strong familiarity with how LLMs process, rank, and retrieve information
- Hands-on experience leading search, ranking, or recommendation systems in production
- Prior work in SEO, content analytics, or search quality evaluation
- Experience building or contributing to research teams from an early stage
No prior GEO experience needed - we will learn together.
