Staff Research Scientist, Foundation Models - Tech Research

Research Scientists at Riot combine deep technical expertise across machine learning, artificial intelligence (AI), experimental design, and systems engineering to invent new ways players experience games. As a Staff Research Scientist, you push the boundaries of what’s possible and raise the bar for research quality and its translation into extraordinary gameplay.

The Technology Research team performs applied research to accelerate the pace of building amazing player experiences at Riot Games. As a Staff Research Scientist , you will research and develop world models—learned representations that understand, predict, and simulate game environments. Rather than building general-purpose large language models, you will focus on models that capture the structure and dynamics of Riot's games: how state evolves, how players behave, and how design changes ripple through complex systems. Your work will power scalable simulation for agent training, automated game balancing, synthetic data generation, and new forms of language-conditioned game interaction. You will stay deeply hands-on, turning advances in predictive simulation, latent state representations, and environment modeling into concrete prototypes that game teams can evaluate and build on. You will work closely with game teams to ground your research in real gameplay needs and partner across Technology Research to connect world models with game AI and NLP efforts.

Responsibilities

• Propose, implement, and evaluate world models that learn latent representations of game state, player behavior, and environment dynamics
• Build predictive simulations that enable agent training, game balance testing, and rapid design iteration without full game server overhead
• Develop methods for synthetic data generation and auto-balancing powered by learned environment models
• Explore language-conditioned approaches that combine large language models with state estimators to enable new forms of game interaction
• Work closely with game teams to understand gameplay needs and design constraints, ensuring research is grounded in real player experiences
• Partner with game AI and NLP researchers to integrate world models into broader AI systems across Technology Research
• Stay current with academic and industry advances in world models, predictive simulation, representation learning, and environment modeling (e.g., MuZero, Gato, Dreamer)
• Communicate progress and learnings clearly to stakeholders, helping teams understand both what works and what doesn’t

Required Qualifications

• Ph.D. in Machine Learning, AI, Statistics, Math, or related Computer Science/Quantitative field, or equivalent experience (i.e., M.Sc. with 3+ years of relevant experience, or B.Sc. with over 6+ years of relevant experience, etc.)
• 2+ years experience in deep learning or algorithmic foundations of optimization
• Experience with generative models, representation learning, model-based reinforcement learning, or learned simulation
• Proficiency in C, C++, or Python
• Expertise with TensorFlow or PyTorch

Desired Qualifications

• Experience building or training world models, dynamics models, or latent-space simulators (e.g., Dreamer, MuZero, or similar architectures)
• Familiarity with game engines (e.g., Godot, Unity, or Unreal) for prototyping or data collection
• Distributed computing systems design or large-scale model training infrastructure
• Experience with GCP or AWS
• Demonstrated contributions to public research (e.g., publications, talks, open-source projects)

For this role, you'll find success through craft expertise, a collaborative spirit, and decision-making that prioritizes the delight of players. We will be looking at your past studies, experience, and your personal relationship with games. If you embody player empathy and care about players' experiences, this could be your role!

Our Perks:

Riot focuses on work/life balance, shown by our open paid time off policy and other perks such as flexible work schedules. We offer medical, dental, and life insurance, parental leave for you, your spouse/domestic partner, and children, and a 401k with company match. Check out our benefits pages for more information.

At Riot Games, we put players first . That mission drives every decision in our quest to create games and experiences that make it better to be a player. Whether you’re working directly on a new player-facing experience or you’re supporting the company as a whole, everyone at Riot is part of our mission. And just like in our games, we’re better when we work together. Our goal is to create collaborative teams where you are empowered to bring your unique perspective everyday. If that sounds like the kind of place you want to work, we’re looking forward to your application.

It’s our policy to provide equal employment opportunity for all applicants and members of Riot Games, Inc. Riot Games makes reasonable accommodations for handicapped and disabled Rioters and does not unlawfully discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, handicap, veteran status, marital status, criminal history, or any other category protected by applicable federal and state law. We consider for employment all qualified applicants, including those with criminal histories, in a manner consistent with applicable federal, state and local law, including the California Fair Chance Act, the City of Los Angeles Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance, the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers, the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, and the Washington Fair Chance Act.

Per the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance, the following core duties may create a basis for disqualifying candidates with relevant criminal histories:

• Safeguarding confidential and sensitive Company data
• Communication with others, including Rioters and third parties such as vendors, and/or players, including minors
• Accessing Company assets, secure digital systems, and networks
• Ensuring a safe interactive environment for players and other Rioters

These duties are directly related to essential operations, safety, trust, and compliance obligations within our organization. Please note that job duties may evolve based on business needs and additional responsibilities may be assigned as necessary to maintain operational efficiency and security.

• (Los Angeles Only) Base salary range between $209,900.00 - $293,400.00 USD + incentive compensation + equity + 401K with company match + medical, dental, vision, and life insurance + short and long-term disability + open PTO.