Research Scientist - Audiovisual Understanding, Model Foundations

Lightricks is an AI-first company creating next-generation content-creation technology for businesses, enterprises, and studios, with a mission to bridge the gap between imagination and creation. At our core is LTX-2, an open-source generative video model, built to deliver expressive, high-fidelity video at unmatched speed. It powers both our own products and a growing ecosystem of partners through API integration. The company is also known globally for pioneering consumer creativity through products like Facetune, one of the world’s most recognized creative brands, which helped introduce AI-powered visual expression to hundreds of millions of users worldwide. We combine deep research, user-first design, and end-to-end execution from concept to final render to bring the future of expression to all. Team & role The Core Generative AI team at Lightricks Research is a unified group of researchers and engineers dedicated to developing our generative foundational models that serve LTX Studio, our AI-based video creation platform. Our focus is on creating a controllable, cutting-edge video generative model by merging cutting-edge algorithms with exceptional engineering. This involves enhancing machine learning components within our sophisticated internal training framework, crucial for developing advanced models. We specialize in both research and engineering that enable efficient and scalable training and inference, allowing us to deliver state-of-the-art AI-generated video models. As a Large Scale Video Understanding Research Scientist, you will play a key role in improving video generation quality and efficiency by improving video and audio understanding pipelines used for both training data construction and model evaluation.. This role demands hands-on work with large-scale Video Language Models (VLLMs), including fine-tuning, post-training, and control, alongside implementing classic computer vision and signal processing algorithms and applying strong research skills. Your expertise in post-training and controlling large scale foundational models, understanding statistics, implementing complex systems and eliminating bugs will be crucial, as our video training sets consist of petabytes of data processed across hundreds to thousands of virtual machines. What you will be doing Fine-tune and control VLLMs for video and audio understanding. Design algorithms for balancing, filtering, and curating training and evaluation datasets, informed by model behavior and failure modes. Implement classic and modern algorithms for processing, clustering, evaluation and filtering of large scale datasets. Work within high-performance, scalable distributed systems capable of handling petabytes of data, with attention to throughput, correctness, and reproducibility.. Collaborate with other researchers and product stakeholders to iteratively improve training sets and evaluation protocols through tight feedback loops driven by model performance. Your skills and experience Experience training, fine-tuning, or post-training large-scale VLLMs or multimodal foundation models. Strong software engineering skills, proficient in Jax or PyTorch. Ability to develop and implement computer vision models for data filtering and evaluation. Understanding of relevant topics in statistics, clustering. Enjoys delving into system implementations to enhance performance and maintainability. This role is designed for individuals who are not only technically proficient but also deeply passionate about pushing the boundaries of AI and machine learning through innovative engineering and collaborative research. Why Join Us: We’re here to push the boundaries of what’s possible with AI and video - not for the buzz, but for the craft, the challenge, and the chance to make something genuinely new. We believe in an environment where people are encouraged to think, create and explore. Real impact happens when people are empowered to experiment, evolve, and elevate together. At Lightricks, every breakthrough starts with great people and a collaborative mindset. If you're looking for a place that combines deep tech, creative energy, and zero buzzword culture, you might be in the right place. We got you covered We run daily door-to-door shuttles, offering Car-to-go subscriptions from several locations for several locations in central Israel, plus free parking and train-station pickups. We’re proud to have 2 chef-led restaurants on site by the legendary Machneyuda Group (yes, that Machneyuda!), plus a bakery nestled in the heart of our office, filled daily with the scent of fresh pastries. We empower employees with cutting-edge tools and learning opportunities to grow and succeed through workshops, access and training on platforms, subscriptions, and clear guidelines for responsible AI use.