Applied AI Scientist - Hybrid
At a glance
Mid-level AI Research role at XPO Logistics. Boston · $100,000–$120,000 base.
aimlroles summary, based on the employer's posting.
What you'll do
- Build an agent-led testing layer for optimization models, proposing alternatives and measuring results to find promising options
- Create automated benchmarks that compare models and agents with current baselines before production release
- Add regression checks, compute limits, and human review gates to control autonomous experiments before release
- Assess foundation models for ETA and demand forecasts, including pickup prediction applications
- Work with OR scientists and ML engineers on meaningful improvements, evaluation infrastructure, and clear explanations of technical choices
What you bring
- A bachelor’s degree or equivalent related work or military experience
- At least one year creating evaluation tools or benchmarks to compare model or agent results against existing baselines
- Hands-on experience building applied AI systems, plus Python proficiency and use of modern ML or AI frameworks
- Clear communication with technical and business audiences, and the ability to work with optimization or OR scientists
Who this fits
This role suits someone building applied AI systems who can work closely with optimization scientists and explain technical choices to business and technical audiences. The process requires at least one in-person interview; virtual interview participants cannot use backgrounds or wear headphones or earbuds.
From the employer
Please note that the following enhanced screening and interview requirements apply to this role: Virtual backgrounds or headphones / earbuds are not permitted during web-based interviews. Additionally, a minimum of one onsite, in person interview will be required as part of the application process. By choosing to apply, you acknowledge and agree to these requirements.
What you’ll need to succeed as an Applied AI Scientist at XPO:
Minimum qualifications:
- Bachelor's degree or equivalent related work or military experience
- 1 year of experience designing evaluation harnesses or benchmarks to rigorously assess model or agent performance against existing baselines
- Hands-on experience building applied AI systems, including one or more of: agent-based/agentic systems, experimentation frameworks, or applying LLM-based/foundation model architectures to time-series forecasting problems
- Proficiency in Python and modern ML/AI frameworks and platforms (e.g. PyTorch, HuggingFace)
- Strong communication skills, with the ability to explain AI system behavior and tradeoffs to technical and business stakeholders, and to collaborate closely with optimization/OR scientists on what constitutes a meaningful model improvement
Preferred qualifications:
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, AI, Data Science, Engineering, or related field, or equivalent related work or military experience
- Master's degree or PhD in Computer Science, AI, Machine Learning, Statistics, or related field
- 2+ years of experience building agentic systems for production use cases and/or R&D applications
- Experience designing operational safeguards (e.g., automated checks against regressions, runaway compute, or unvalidated models reaching production) for agent-based systems
- Practical experience applying time-series or tabular foundation models (e.g., Chronos or similar) to forecasting problems such as ETA prediction or demand forecasting
- Practical experience with foundation model fine-tuning or post-training techniques
- Practical experience applying reinforcement learning (e.g., RLHF, or RL for agent behavior and decision-making)
- Experience building retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) systems is a plus
- Experience applying agentic or applied AI techniques to logistics, transportation, or operations research domains
About the Applied AI Scientist job:
Pay, Benefits and more:
- Competitive compensation package
- Full health insurance benefits available on day one
- Life and disability insurance
- Earn up to 15 days of PTO over your first year
- 9 paid company holidays
- 401(k) option with company match
- Education assistance
- Opportunity to participate in a company incentive plan
What you’ll do on a typical day:
- Design and build agentic experimentation layer over optimization models developed by the team's OR/data scientists, including proposing variants, running evaluations, and surfacing promising results
- Build evaluation harnesses that rigorously and automatically benchmark model and agent performance against existing baselines before promotion to production
- Implement operational safeguards for autonomous experimentation systems, such as automated regression checks, compute/cost limits, and human-in-the-loop gates before production promotion
- Evaluate and integrate modern LLM-based and foundation model architectures (e.g., Chronos-style time-series models) for ETA prediction and demand forecasting for pickup prediction
- Partner closely with the team's optimization/OR scientists to understand model internals, solver behavior, and what constitutes a meaningful improvement for P&D use cases
- Partner with machine learning engineers on the underlying infrastructure needed to run automated experimentation and evaluation at scale
- Communicate technical approaches and tradeoffs to both technical and business audiences
- Stay current on advances in agentic systems, time-series foundation models, and applied GenAI to guide adoption at XPO
Annual Salary Range: $100,000 to $120,000 Actual compensation may vary due to factors such as experience and skill set. This is an incentive-based position, which may include bonuses, incentive or commission plans.
About XPO
XPO is a top ten global provider of transportation services, with a highly integrated network of people, technology and physical assets. At XPO, we look for employees who like a challenge and can communicate effectively in all situations. We want to leverage your skills and years of experience to drive positive results while ensuring a bright future for yourself and XPO. If you’re looking for a growth opportunity, join us at XPO.
We are proud to be an Equal Opportunity employer. Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, sex, disability, veteran or other protected status.
All applicants who receive a conditional offer of employment may be required to take and pass a pre-employment drug test.
The above statements are not an exhaustive list of all required responsibilities, duties and skills for this job classification.
Review XPO's candidate privacy statement here.