---
title: 'Research Scientist at Hedra'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/research-scientist-hedra-san-francisco-hngsa0qcezzv'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-05'
---

# Research Scientist at Hedra

- **Company:** Hedra
- **Location:** San Francisco, CA
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Posted:** 2026-04-15
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-05
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/hedra/0558c340-1810-4a6f-8f23-8a46952f488d

## Job description

## OVERVIEW:

Hedra is building a world-class Physical AI research team to push the boundaries of action-conditioned world models and generative AI for physical systems. As a Researcher, you will drive original research into the intersection of generative modeling, embodied AI, and real-world physical applications alongside industrial partners. You will have access to large-scale compute, the freedom to pursue high-impact research directions, and a direct path to publication at top venues. We are looking for researchers who are excited to go beyond benchmarks and build models that operate in the real world — drawing on Hedra's leadership in generative modeling and the depth of our academic partnerships, including connections to Fei-Fei Li and the Stanford Vision & Learning Lab.

## RESPONSIBILITIES:

- Define and lead research directions in action-conditioned world models, physical AI, and generative modeling for embodied systems
- Design novel architectures, training objectives, and evaluation frameworks for VLMs, VLAs, and world models
- Direct research efforts with the goal of publishing in top journals.
- Partner with industrial collaborators to ground research in real-world physical AI use cases
- Mentor research engineers and collaborate cross-functionally to move research into production
- Stay at the frontier of the field — synthesizing relevant literature and identifying opportunities for impactful contributions
- Contribute to Hedra's research culture and external scientific reputation

## QUALIFICATIONS:

- PhD in Machine Learning, Computer Science, Robotics, or a related field, with publications at top ML or robotics venues
- Deep expertise in generative modeling, world models, or vision-language(-action) models
- Strong publication record at NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, CVPR, CoRL, or equivalent venues
- Experience with large-scale model training and modern deep learning infrastructure
- Ability to independently drive research projects from ideation through publication
- Background in embodied AI, robotic manipulation, or sim-to-real transfer is highly desirable
- Experience with RLHF, DPO, or preference optimization for model alignment is a plus
- Strong collaboration and communication skills — comfortable bridging research and applied teams

## BENEFITS:

- Competitive compensation and equity
- 401k (no match)
- Healthcare (Silver PPO Medical, Vision, Dental)
- Lunch and snacks at the office

We encourage you to apply even if you don't fully meet all the listed requirements; we value potential and diverse perspectives, and your unique skills could be a great asset to our team.

## About Hedra

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Hedra is a Frontier AI Lab building a unified creative superintelligence platform that enables content creators and marketers to generate video, image, and audio content using proprietary and partner AI models.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Series A)
- **Headquarters**: San Francisco, California, United States (also has an office in New York)
- **Founded**: 2023
- **Founders**: Not publicly named; the founding team is listed as part of the core leadership.

## Core Business
- **Primary industry/industries**: Generative AI (GenAI), Creative Software, Video Production, Marketing Technology
- **Target customers**: B2B (content creators, marketers, businesses of all sizes); B2C (individual creators). Over 125k businesses use the platform.
- **Mission or purpose statement**: "Help build the future of generative media" and "usher in a new era of visual-first storytelling, where every creator can create stunning content at scale." [hedra.com](https://www.hedra.com/company)

## Products & Services
- **Hedra Agent**: A creative agent that learns a user’s brand, connects to their data, searches the web, and creates reusable skills. It can strategize, ideate, plan, and execute creative work.
- **Character-3 (Proprietary Model)**: Hedra’s category-leading audio-to-video multimodal foundation model for video generation, enabling realistic character animation and lip-sync.
- **Character-1.5**: An earlier version of their video generation model.
- **Infinite Canvas**: A workspace where users can generate videos using Hedra’s proprietary models or other leading generative AI models.
- **All-the-Models Platform**: Provides access to top models across video, image, and audio categories, with an agent that intelligently selects the right model for each task.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not disclosed
- **Key Metric**: **Total Funding**: $43M (as of latest reports) [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/hedra-labs)
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Index Ventures, Abstract Ventures, Alexa Fund, AWS Generative AI Accelerator. [cbinsights.com](https://www.cbinsights.com/company/hedra)
- **Growth Signals**:
    - Used by over 125,000 businesses.
    - Headcount grew +108.7% year-over-year (reaching ~44 employees).
    - Raised $32M in a Series A round led by Andreessen Horowitz in May 2025. [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/hedra-labs)
    - Received $1M in non-equity assistance from Amazon Web Services in November 2025. [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/hedra-labs)
    - Billions of impressions generated by their models. [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/hedra-labs)

## Competitive Advantages
- **Unified Creative Superintelligence**: Combines a proprietary agent, top-tier models (including their own Character-3), and an infinite canvas into a single workflow, competing with fragmented tools.
- **Category-Leading Video Model**: Their audio-to-video multimodal foundation model (Character-3) is a key differentiator in the generative video space.
- **Brand Learning**: The platform learns from every asset a user creates, building deep brand intelligence that accelerates workflow and ensures output alignment over time.
- **Strong Funding & Backing**: Backed by top-tier VCs (a16z, Index Ventures) and strategic partners (AWS, Alexa Fund), providing resources for rapid scaling.

## Strategic Focus
- **Scaling the Agent**: Developing the "Hedra Agent" to be the central hub for creative work, capable of researching, reasoning, and producing content.
- **Multi-Model Platform**: Continuing to integrate the best models across video, image, and audio, rather than relying solely on a single proprietary model.
- **Enterprise Readiness**: Targeting large businesses with features like brand intelligence, reusable skills, and data connectivity.
- **International Growth**: Operating in 11 countries and actively hiring to support global expansion. [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/hedra-labs)

## Why Work Here
- **High-Impact Work**: Join a small, fast-growing team (~44 people) building frontier AI models and products that are already used by hundreds of thousands of businesses.
- **Culture & Values**: Emphasizes ownership, action, hands-on leadership, customer obsession, empathy, respect, and unity. Described as a meritocracy where ideas are valued regardless of title. [hedra.com](https://www.hedra.com/company)
- **Cutting-Edge Tech**: Work on the latest in generative AI (video, image, audio) with a team that includes talent from Meta, HeyGen, Synthesia, and other top AI labs. [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/hedra-labs)
- **Locations**: Offices in San Francisco and New York. Remote/hybrid policy is not explicitly stated, but the presence of multiple offices and a globally distributed team suggests flexibility.
- **Active Hiring**: Currently hiring for multiple high-impact roles including Research Scientist, Senior Full-Stack Engineer, Research Engineer, Staff Growth Engineer, and Senior Backend Engineer. [jobs.ashbyhq.com](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/hedra)
- **Rapid Growth**: Yearly headcount growth of +108.7% and strong funding signal a high-growth trajectory with ample opportunity for career advancement. [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/hedra-labs)

## Sources
1. [hedra.com](https://www.hedra.com/)
2. [hedra.com/company](https://www.hedra.com/company)
3. [hedra.com/careers](https://www.hedra.com/careers)
4. [linkedin.com/company/hedra-labs](https://www.linkedin.com/company/hedra-labs)
5. [cbinsights.com/company/hedra](https://www.cbinsights.com/company/hedra)
6. [jobs.ashbyhq.com/hedra](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/hedra)

## Other roles at Hedra

- [Senior Video Producer](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-video-producer-hedra-san-francisco-s53ek8b939wt) — San Francisco, CA
- [Head of Marketing](https://feeny.ai/job/head-of-marketing-hedra-san-francisco-8ayrt2dd5k6h) — San Francisco, CA
- [Account Executive](https://feeny.ai/job/account-executive-hedra-san-francisco-07yj5t908tqg) — San Francisco, CA
- [Customer Success Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/customer-success-engineer-hedra-san-francisco-gkvaxfrqa35z) — San Francisco, CA
- [Senior Backend Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-backend-engineer-hedra-san-francisco-2j8k3yzfqbfw) — San Francisco, CA
- [Senior Full-Stack Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-full-stack-engineer-hedra-san-francisco-0y7967rs748q) — San Francisco, CA
- [Research Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/research-engineer-hedra-san-francisco-60yph5qfns3p) — San Francisco, CA
- [Research Scientist](https://feeny.ai/job/research-scientist-anduril-industries-fort-collins-colorado-7ctqc6rcbmvz) — Fort Collins Colorado, United States
- [Research Scientist](https://feeny.ai/job/research-scientist-samsung-semiconductor-cambridge-massachusetts-x16g9ged2dam) — Cambridge Massachusetts, United States
- [Research Scientist](https://feeny.ai/job/research-scientist-pluralis-research-usa-or-v7z1rqs3sas3) — Usa OR, Australia