---
title: 'Mathematical Scientist for AI Safety Research at LawZero'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/mathematical-scientist-for-ai-safety-research-lawzero-montreal-kv2e1etp7wk0'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-10'
---

# Mathematical Scientist for AI Safety Research at LawZero

- **Company:** LawZero
- **Location:** Montréal, Canada
- **Posted:** 2026-05-22
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-10
- **Apply:** https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/lawzero/jobs/4224703009

## Job description

Frontier AI companies are throwing billions of dollars into scaling existing architectures and methods such as next-token-prediction, direct preference optimization (DPO), reinforcement learning with human feedback (RLHF), and reinforcement learning with verified rewards (RLVR). These methods are very powerful, yet fundamentally flawed, resulting in misalignment, sycophancy, systematic biases, and other forms of harmful behavior that are already having severely negative consequences in our society.

LawZero is a non-profit founded by Yoshua Bengio developing a fundamentally new approach, the Scientist AI. We are inspired by the fact that scientific theories are both generally useful and, unlike an untrusted agent, equivariant to the consequences of their use (for a broad overview, see our[blogpost](https://lawzero.org/en/publication/scientist-ai-safe-design-not-desiring)). We aim not only to build a novel, safe-by-design system, but to construct a theoretical blueprint for safe AI systems, which are at once capable and come with probabilistic safety guarantees, under finite data and compute constraints.

We are seeking an outstanding theoretical researcher to contribute to the foundational and theoretical efforts here working with Yoshua Bengio and our world-class team of researchers and engineers.

## Key responsibilities

- Boldly go where no one has gone before in exploring new AI system architectures, theoretical frameworks, and new safety mechanisms in search of a  blueprint for safe AGI and corresponding safety guarantees..
- Work closely with Yoshua Bengio and other leading researchers to analyze and refine the formal requirements needed to safely build and deploy the Scientist AI, including proving probabilistic safety guarantees under finite data and compute constraints; and, as the system matures, helping our research teams with empirical validation.
- Analyze, evaluate and contribute to the existing theoretical work already undertaken at LawZero by Yoshua Bengio and leading researchers, including the writing and dissemination of scientific papers.
- Read vigorously to stay up-to-date with relevant AI safety and machine learning research and deeply understand the risks posed by frontier models, including misalignment, reward hacking, instrumental goals, etc.
- Scrutinize and contribute to LawZero’s broader research agenda in order to guide and prioritize experiments to answer critical safety questions efficiently, in a way that does not prevent the highest level of capability.
- Share your knowledge about AI Safety and help researchers and engineers at LawZero better design and implement new ML algorithms and experiments.

## Skills and qualifications

- A PhD  in machine learning, computer science, mathematics, statistics, or an adjacent area relevant to the Scientist AI research program.
- A track record of research, especially in the formalization and fruitful technical analysis of subtle natural-language intuition.
- Strong interest and ideally experience with technical AI safety, including an exceptional ability for abstract systems thinking.
- A deep understanding of the mathematical underpinnings commonly used in the design and analysis of probabilistic machine learning, especially for neural networks and language models.
- The perseverance to work through hard and ill-defined problems, and to use confusion and dead-ends as challenges to dig deeper and further understanding.
- Clear communications: the ability to articulate complex ideas verbally and in writing to both technical and non-technical audiences.
- The ability to work in a collaborative environment and contribute to collective research goals.

Nice to have:

- The ability to regularly travel alongside Yoshua and team members to conferences is a big plus, as it will significantly accelerate the work!

## What we offer

- The chance to contribute meaningfully to a globally critical initiative
- Comprehensive health benefits (including mental health and wellness management account)
- 20 days of vacation per year upon start
- Employer contribution of 4% to your retirement savings, with no required employee match
- Additional compensation totaling 8% of your salary to apply towards additional retirement savings or bonuses (independent of group and individual performance)
- A team of passionate world-class experts in their field
- A collaborative and inclusive work environment in our vibrant office space in the heart of Little Italy, in the trendy Mile-Ex district, close to public transportation

## About LawZero

LawZero is a non-profit organization committed to advancing research and creating technical solutions that enable safe-by-design AI systems. Its scientific direction is based on new research and methods proposed by Professor Yoshua Bengio, the most cited AI researcher in the world. Based in Montreal, LawZero’s research aims to build non-agentic AI that learns primarily to understand the world rather than to act in it, giving truthful answers to questions based on transparent and externalized probabilistic reasoning. Such AI systems could be used to accelerate scientific discovery, to provide oversight for agentic AI systems, and to advance the understanding of AI risks and how to avoid them. LawZero believes that AI should be cultivated as a global public good—developed and used safely towards human flourishing. For more information, visit [www.lawzero.org](https://www.lawzero.org/)

You belong here

At LawZero, diversity is important to us. We value a work environment that is fair, open and respectful of differences. We welcome applications from highly qualified individuals interested in working towards our mission in a respectful, inclusive and collaborative setting.

Your personal information will be collected and processed by LawZero to evaluate your application for employment in compliance with our [Privacy Policy](https://lawzero.org/en/website-privacy-notice). Under privacy laws in force in your country of residence, you may have several privacy rights, such as to request access to your personal information or to request that your personal information be rectified or erased. Details on how you can exercise your rights can be found in our Privacy Policy.

## About LawZero

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: LawZero is a Canadian nonprofit research organization developing "Scientist AI," a non-agentic, safe-by-design artificial intelligence system.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Nonprofit research organization; funded through philanthropic grants)
- **Headquarters**: Montréal, Quebec, Canada
- **Founded**: June 3, 2025
- **Founders**: Yoshua Bengio

## Core Business
- **Primary industry**: AI Safety Research
- **Target customers**: The organization is not a commercial entity; its research outputs are intended for the global public good, with potential downstream users including governments, AI companies, and scientific researchers.
- **Mission or purpose**: To develop AI systems that are "safe by design" through technical research insulated from commercial and government pressures, cultivated as a global public good.

## Products & Services
- **Scientist AI**: A novel, non-agentic AI system designed to understand the world through probabilistic reasoning, produce transparent and auditable predictions, and have no hidden goals or preferences. The system is built on three mechanisms: contextualization (separating facts from opinions), consequence invariance (preventing feedback from downstream outcomes), and a generator–estimator architecture (a creative generator held accountable by a neutral estimator). Intended uses include accelerating scientific discovery, providing guardrails for agentic AI systems, and advancing understanding of AI risks. **Type**: Research / Technical Framework

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not applicable (nonprofit)
- **Key Metric**: Total Philanthropic Funding: > US$35 million (as of August 2025, including a grant from the Gates Foundation). An additional > CAD$100 million in financial backing from the Government of Canada was under discussion as of February 2026.
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Funders include Jaan Tallinn, Schmidt Sciences, Coefficient Giving, the Future of Life Institute, and the Gates Foundation. Operating partner is Mila – Quebec AI Institute. Affiliated with MATS (AI-alignment training program).
- **Growth Signals**: Launched in June 2025 with ~15 researchers; grew to ~30 employees by February 2026, with stated plans to expand to more than 100 within a year. Secured significant government interest (letter of intent from the Government of Canada). Inaugural board and global advisory council announced in January 2026, including high-profile members such as historian Yuval Noah Harari and former Prime Minister of Sweden Stefan Löfven.

## Competitive Advantages
- **Founder Reputation**: Founded by Yoshua Bengio, the world’s most cited living AI researcher and a Turing Prize winner, lending unparalleled scientific credibility.
- **Mission-Driven Position**: Operates as a nonprofit, explicitly insulated from market and government pressures, which differentiates its research from major for-profit AI labs (e.g., OpenAI, Google DeepMind, Anthropic).
- **Unique Technical Approach**: Its core concept, "Scientist AI," is a fundamentally different path to advanced AI—non-agentic and designed for safety from the ground up—rather than a modification of existing agentic systems.
- **Compute Advantage**: A potential partnership with the Government of Canada is structured to provide substantial compute resources (the majority of expenditure is for compute), a critical and expensive resource for frontier AI research.

## Strategic Focus
- **Research & Development**: The entire organization is focused on advancing the "Scientist AI" framework, with primary activities being theoretical research (as seen in arXiv preprints and white papers), algorithm development, and building the technical architecture.
- **Talent Acquisition**: Aggressively hiring to scale the research team from ~30 to over 100 people within the next year.
- **Global Governance**: Building a global advisory council and board to influence AI safety policy and standards, in addition to technical research.
- **Scientific Application**: One concrete application area being explored is the use of Scientist AI to accelerate drug discovery and scientific research, supported by the Gates Foundation grant.

## Why Work Here
- **Highly Mission-Driven**: A rare opportunity to work on fundamental AI safety research at a nonprofit, free from the commercial pressures of major AI labs. The explicit goal is to build AI as a global public good.
- **World-Class Leadership**: Work directly under and alongside Yoshua Bengio and a leadership team with deep expertise in AI.
- **Growth Trajectory**: The organization is in a rapid scaling phase (growing from 15 to 100+ people), offering early employees significant influence and rapid career growth.
- **Prime Location**: Based in Montréal, a major AI research hub with access to talent from Mila and top universities.
- **Policy Impact**: Involvement with a high-profile global advisory council that includes former heads of state, offering a chance to shape AI governance.
- **Work Environment**: The culture emphasizes safety, mission integrity, and rigorous scientific research. The organization is structured as a research lab, not a commercial entity.

## Sources
1. [LawZero Official Website](https://lawzero.org/en)
2. [LawZero Careers Page (Greenhouse)](http://job-boards.greenhouse.io/lawzero)
3. [Wikipedia - LawZero](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LawZero)
4. [LawZero Team Page](https://lawzero.org/en/team)
5. [LawZero Research Page](https://lawzero.org/en/research)

## Other roles at LawZero

- [Senior Data Platform Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-data-platform-engineer-lawzero-montreal-x9384bvj4059) — Montréal, Canada
- [Platform Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/platform-engineer-lawzero-montreal-4bef2adt2wpn) — Montréal, Canada
- [Senior Manager, Talent Acquisition](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-manager-talent-acquisition-lawzero-montreal-j5eqjx54dfe3) — Montréal, Canada
- [Operations Admin Lead – Executive Office](https://feeny.ai/job/operations-admin-lead-executive-office-lawzero-montreal-fvvna9c8aper) — Montréal, Canada
- [Senior ML Data Processing Developer](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-ml-data-processing-developer-lawzero-montreal-5wp0w4r3spk7) — Montréal, Canada
- [Senior Researcher Communications Specialist](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-researcher-communications-specialist-lawzero-montreal-70swcv9djdbd) — Montréal, Canada
- [Machine Learning Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/machine-learning-manager-lawzero-montreal-ddxs7d0jnk2v) — Montréal, Canada
- [Join our Talent Community (future opportunities)](https://feeny.ai/job/join-our-talent-community-future-opportunities-lawzero-multiple-a0gzf9abwev7) — Multiple
- [Responsible AI & Data Governance Lead](https://feeny.ai/job/responsible-ai-data-governance-lead-lawzero-montreal-fj7e83h98pqa) — Montréal, Canada
- [Director, Evaluations](https://feeny.ai/job/director-evaluations-lawzero-montreal-nhj2b35b8jy2) — Montréal, Canada