Job Title: AI Researcher – Video Generation Models
Location: Sunnyvale, CA (Onsite preferred; hybrid work model supported)
Level: Senior to Team Lead
Application Contact: hiring@utopaistudios.com
Overview
As an AI researcher at Utopai Studios, you will help shape the future of domain-specific media (image, video, audio) generation models for professional filmmaking. Your work will center on advancing continuous pre-training and post-training methods to enhance model performance, controllability, and creative capabilities (reasoning and editing). You will also drive the development of future film workflow agents and unified text-image-video modeling. You will design and run scalable training pipelines on large-scale GPU clusters, bridging cutting-edge generative research with real-world filmmaking applications.
Responsibilities
- Lead large-scale training and fine-tuning of image and video generative models on clusters with hundreds to thousands of GPUs.
- Research and develop advanced training strategies, including continuous pretraining or midtraining, RL-based post-training for advanced capabilities (e.g., reasoning, controllability, consistency), and unified text-image-video modeling.
- Design and optimize high-quality data pipelines to enable effective multimodal training with large-scale domain specific datasets.
- Build automated evaluation frameworks to assess fidelity, coherence, and adherence to input conditions.
- Collaborate with researchers, engineers, and creative teams to translate research breakthroughs into practical filmmaking production workflows.
Qualifications
- PhD in Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, or a related field, or equivalent senior research experience.
- Proven industry experience with large-scale image or video generative model training.
- Deep expertise in diffusion, transformer, and multimodal generation models (e.g., text-to-video, image-to-video, video-to-video).
- Hands-on experience with advanced training methods, including continuous training, post-training, or reinforcement learning.
- Proficiency in PyTorch and distributed training frameworks.
- Research contributions demonstrated through publications in top AI conferences (e.g., NeurIPS, CVPR, ICCV, SIGGRAPH).
Nice to have:
- Familiarity with AI filmmaking tools and workflows (e.g., MidJourney, Runway, Wan, ComfyUI).
- Interest in AI filmmaking or experience creating your own AI short films.
Benefits
- Compensation: Highly competitive cash package with founding team stock options.
- Health & Security: Comprehensive coverage including medical, dental, vision, life, and disability insurance; industry-leading 401(k) match; plus generous PTO, holidays, visa/greencard sponsorship, and flexible remote/hybrid options.
- Perks & Lifestyle: Relocation package, travel stipends, wellness and gym reimbursements, library stipend, free AMC A-List membership, full streaming reimbursements (Netflix, HBO, Disney+, Amazon Prime, Hulu, Apple+), and complimentary family trips to Universal Studios and Disneyland.
About Utopai Studios
Utopai Studios (https://utopaistudios.com, formerly Cybever) is an AI-native film and television studio that empowers creators to tell epic stories and transform finite resources into infinite worlds. The studio rebranded from Cybever, the 3D world creation and video generation innovator. Combining proprietary production technology with world-class creative talent, Utopai develops and produces ambitious, cinematic-quality projects for audiences worldwide. Headquartered in Sunnyvale and West Hollywood, California, with a European subsidiary in Berlin, the studio originates its own slate of high-profile films and series while partnering with leading global players to bring bold storytelling visions to life.
