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Job Description:
We believe in bold ideas, diverse perspectives, and the drive to transform knowledge into impact. Here, your curiosity fuels progress, your voice shapes innovation, and your ambition helps redefine what’s possible within science and learning. We are a culture that obsesses over impact, challenges, and drives what’s next to power infinite possibilities for our customers, colleagues and society at large.
About the Role:
The Applied Scientist serves as the scientific lead within AI Studio engagement pods, partnering with Forward Deployed Engineers to design and deliver solutions for scientific research workflows as part of Wiley’s applied AI professional services practice. This role combines deep domain expertise with applied problem\-solving to translate real\-world research challenges into AI\-enabled solutions that are scientifically rigorous and deployable.
The position requires working directly with customers such as pharmaceutical companies, biotech firms, and materials science organizations to embed AI into evidence\-intensive research processes. The Applied Scientist ensures solutions are grounded in authoritative scientific knowledge and meet rigorous standards for accuracy and reliability, while also contributing to early\-stage scoping, product development, and long\-term customer relationships.
Job Responsibilities:
- Lead the scientific delivery of AI\-driven professional services engagements, including:
+ Mapping customer research workflows to identify AI opportunities
+ Translating scientific problems into technical requirements
+ Evaluating AI\-generated outputs for scientific accuracy and relevance
+ Presenting findings and solutions to senior stakeholders
- Partner closely with Forward Deployed Engineers to bridge scientific and technical domains, ensuring successful solution implementation
- Participate in pre\-sales and early scoping discussions to validate scientific feasibility and shape customer engagements before contracts are finalized
- Build and maintain trusted relationships with senior researchers and R\&D leaders, identifying opportunities for repeat and expanded business
- Contribute to AI Studio product development by:
+ Defining scientific requirements
+ Validating product credibility and fitness for use
+ Providing domain expertise to support product positioning
- Establish domain authority within the customer base and broader scientific community through ongoing engagement and thought leadership
- Ensure all solutions leverage authoritative data sources, including peer\-reviewed research, and adhere to relevant scientific and regulatory standards
- Thrive in sprint\-based delivery models with defined outcomes, tight timelines, and direct accountability to customers
Required Qualifications:
- Advanced degree in a relevant scientific discipline (PhD preferred)
- Significant post\-doctoral or industry research experience (5\+ years), ideally in:
+ Pharmaceutical or biotech organizations
+ Contract research organizations (CROs)
+ Materials science or engineering environments
- Demonstrated ability to:
+ Evaluate AI\-generated outputs for scientific accuracy, grounding, and reliability
+ Apply critical thinking to determine fitness of AI solutions for real\-world scientific use
- Experience with research workflows in evidence\-intensive environments and understanding of how scientific knowledge is generated, validated, and applied
- Strong communication skills, including the ability to:
+ Translate between scientific and technical audiences
+ Present complex findings to senior stakeholders
+ Write clearly for both expert and non\-expert audiences
- Experience operating outside traditional academic environments, including:
+ Managing ambiguous problems
+ Delivering against defined outcomes under time constraints
+ Working directly with external stakeholders
- Familiarity with AI tools or applications in a research context (preferred)
- Industry\-specific expertise (depending on focus area), such as:
+ Life sciences (e.g., pharmacology, clinical research, regulatory science) and understanding of regulatory standards
Chemistry, materials science, or engineering, with experience in experimental or quantitative research
+
We power infinite possibilities.
For more than 200 years, we've transformed knowledge into discoveries that shape the world. Today, our global team of innovators, creators, and experts is driving what's next in science, education, and publishing—creating impact that reaches everywhere.
We're not just observers of progress. We're the ones accelerating scientific breakthroughs, advancing learning, and sparking innovation that redefines entire fields and improves lives.
Here, your talent matters. Your ideas have room to grow. And your work creates breakthroughs that can change everything.
Wiley is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer. We evaluate all qualified applicants and treat all qualified applicants and employees without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, disability, protected veteran status, genetic information, or based on any individual's status in any group or class protected by applicable federal, state or local laws. Wiley is also committed to providing reasonable accommodation to applicants and employees with disabilities. Applicants who require accommodation to participate in the job application process may contact tasupport@wiley.com for assistance.
We are proud that our workplace promotes continual learning and internal mobility. Our values support courageous teammates, needle movers, and learning champions all while striving to support the health and well\-being of all employees. We offer meeting\-free Friday afternoons allowing more time for heads down work and professional development, and through a robust body of employee programing we facilitate a wide range of opportunities to foster community, learn, and grow.
We are committed to fair, transparent pay, and we strive to provide competitive compensation in addition to a comprehensive benefits package. The range below represents Wiley's good faith and reasonable estimate of the base pay for this role at the time of posting roles in the United Kingdom, Canada, USA, Austria, Czechia, Denmark, France, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Romania, or Spain. It is anticipated that most qualified candidates will fall within the range, however the ultimate salary offered for this role may be higher or lower and will be set based on a variety of non\-discriminatory factors, including but not limited to, geographic location, skills, and competencies.
When applying, please attach your resume/CV to be considered.
Salary Range:
118,600 USD to 173,933 USD\&\#xa;\&\#xa;\#LI\-JG1
Salary Context
This $118K-$173K range is in the lower quartile for Research Scientist roles in our dataset (median: $183K across 83 roles with salary data).
Role Details
About This Role
Research Scientists push the boundaries of what AI can do. They design experiments, develop novel architectures, publish papers, and translate research breakthroughs into production capabilities. This is where the fundamental advances happen, from attention mechanisms to diffusion models to reasoning chains.
The work is intellectually demanding and often ambiguous. You might spend months on an approach that doesn't pan out. The best research scientists combine deep mathematical intuition with engineering pragmatism. They know when to go deep on theory and when to run experiments. They read papers voraciously and can spot incremental contributions from genuine breakthroughs.
Across the 3,708 AI roles we're tracking, Research Scientist positions make up 3% of the market. At Wiley, this role fits into their broader AI and engineering organization.
Research Scientist roles are concentrated at major AI labs (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google DeepMind, Meta FAIR) and well-funded AI startups. The competition is intense. PhD is effectively required for most positions, and publication track record matters. Compensation is among the highest in AI, reflecting both the scarcity of talent and the strategic importance of research breakthroughs.
What the Work Looks Like
A typical week includes: reading and discussing recent papers with your team, designing and running experiments on multi-GPU clusters, analyzing results and iterating on hypotheses, writing up findings for internal review or publication, and collaborating with engineering teams to productionize promising results. The ratio of thinking to coding is higher than in engineering roles.
Research Scientist roles are concentrated at major AI labs (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google DeepMind, Meta FAIR) and well-funded AI startups. The competition is intense. PhD is effectively required for most positions, and publication track record matters. Compensation is among the highest in AI, reflecting both the scarcity of talent and the strategic importance of research breakthroughs.
Skills in Demand for This Role
PhD strongly preferred for most roles. Deep expertise in a specific area (NLP, computer vision, reinforcement learning, multimodal) is expected. PyTorch is the standard. Publication track record matters. Strong mathematical foundations in linear algebra, probability, optimization, and information theory are assumed.
Beyond the fundamentals, companies value experience with large-scale distributed training, novel architecture design, and the ability to bridge theory and practice. Understanding of current frontier topics (reasoning, multimodal, long-context, alignment) is essential. Code quality matters more than many researchers expect. Labs want researchers who can implement their ideas cleanly.
Strong research postings specify the research area, mention the team you'd join, and describe the problems they're working on. They often list recent publications from the team. Vague 'AI research' postings without specifics usually mean the company wants to sound impressive but doesn't have a real research agenda.
Compensation Benchmarks
Research Scientist roles pay a median of $222,200 based on 197 positions with disclosed compensation. Mid-level AI roles across all categories have a median of $200,000. This role's midpoint ($146K) sits 34% below the category median. Disclosed range: $118K to $173K.
Across all AI roles, the market median is $217,500. Top-quartile compensation starts at $272,100. The 90th percentile reaches $325,000. For comparison, the highest-paying categories include AI Safety ($300,000) and Research Engineer ($280,000). By seniority level: Entry: $120,000; Mid: $200,000; Senior: $230,000; Director: $272,150; VP: $250,000.
Wiley AI Hiring
Wiley has 2 open AI roles right now. They're hiring across Research Scientist, AI/ML Engineer. Based in Hoboken, NJ, US. Compensation range: $102K - $173K.
Location Context
Across all AI roles, 14% (508 positions) offer remote work, while 3,180 require on-site attendance. Top AI hiring metros: New York (1,045 roles, $220,000 median); San Francisco (810 roles, $277,088 median); Los Angeles (397 roles, $215,000 median).
Career Path
Common paths into Research Scientist roles include PhD Student, Research Engineer, Postdoc.
From here, career progression typically leads toward Research Lead, Distinguished Scientist, VP of Research.
The PhD is the entry point for most paths. Choose your advisor and research area carefully since they'll define your first industry position. Publish consistently, contribute to open-source projects in your area, and build relationships at conferences. Industry research offers better compensation and compute resources than academia, but the pressure to show product impact is real.
What to Expect in Interviews
Research interviews are multi-stage: a research talk (present your best paper), technical deep-dives on your methodology, and often a 'research proposal' exercise where you design an experiment to test a hypothesis. Coding rounds test implementation ability alongside theoretical knowledge. Be prepared to implement a paper from scratch and discuss the design choices the authors made. Strong candidates can critique papers constructively and identify gaps in experimental methodology.
When evaluating opportunities: Strong research postings specify the research area, mention the team you'd join, and describe the problems they're working on. They often list recent publications from the team. Vague 'AI research' postings without specifics usually mean the company wants to sound impressive but doesn't have a real research agenda.
AI Hiring Overview
The AI job market has 3,708 open positions tracked in our dataset. By seniority: 102 entry-level, 1,705 mid-level, 1,469 senior, and 432 leadership roles (Director, VP, C-Level). Remote roles make up 14% of the market (508 positions). The remaining 3,180 roles require on-site or hybrid attendance.
The market median for AI roles is $217,500. Top-quartile compensation starts at $272,100. The 90th percentile reaches $325,000. Highest-paying categories: AI Safety ($300,000 median, 21 roles); Research Engineer ($280,000 median, 147 roles); AI Architect ($254,798 median, 67 roles).
Research Scientist roles are concentrated at major AI labs (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google DeepMind, Meta FAIR) and well-funded AI startups. The competition is intense. PhD is effectively required for most positions, and publication track record matters. Compensation is among the highest in AI, reflecting both the scarcity of talent and the strategic importance of research breakthroughs.
The AI Job Market Today
The AI job market spans 3,708 open positions across 16 role categories. The largest categories by volume: AI/ML Engineer (2,605), Data Scientist (310), AI Software Engineer (259). These three account for the majority of open positions, though smaller categories often have higher per-role compensation because of specialized skill requirements.
The seniority mix tells a story about where AI teams are in their maturity. Entry-level roles (102) are outnumbered by mid-level (1,705) and senior (1,469) positions, reflecting that most companies are past the 'build a team from scratch' phase and need experienced engineers who can ship production systems. Leadership roles (Director, VP, C-Level) total 432 positions, representing the bottleneck between technical execution and organizational strategy.
Remote work availability sits at 14% of all AI roles (508 positions), with 3,180 requiring on-site or hybrid attendance. The remote share has stabilized after the post-pandemic correction. Senior and specialized roles (Research Scientist, ML Architect) are more likely to be remote-eligible than entry-level positions, partly because experienced hires have more negotiating power and partly because these roles require less hands-on mentorship.
AI compensation is structured in clear tiers. The market median sits at $217,500. Top-quartile roles start at $272,100, and the 90th percentile reaches $325,000. These figures include base salary with disclosed compensation. Total compensation (including equity, bonuses, and sign-on) runs 20-40% higher at companies that offer those components.
Category matters for compensation. AI Safety roles lead at $300,000 median, while Prompt Engineer roles sit at $140,000. The spread between highest and lowest-paying categories reflects the premium on specialized technical skills versus broader analytical roles.
The most in-demand skills across all AI postings: Python (1,890 postings), Aws (1,103 postings), Azure (877 postings), Rag (855 postings), Gcp (631 postings), Prompt Engineering (560 postings), Pytorch (545 postings), Claude (498 postings). Python dominates, appearing in the vast majority of role descriptions regardless of category. Cloud platform experience (AWS, GCP, Azure) is the second most common requirement. The newer entrants to the top skills list (RAG, vector databases, LLM APIs) reflect the shift from traditional ML toward generative AI applications.
Frequently Asked Questions
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