Foundational Research Scientist

About Us

AppLovin makes technologies that help businesses of every size connect to their ideal customers. The company provides end-to-end advertising solutions for businesses to reach, monetize and grow their global audiences. For more information about AppLovin, visit: www.applovin.com.

The Opportunity

We’re creating a world-class academic-industrial hybrid research group to advance recommender systems. Unlike academia, your work won’t live only in papers — it will be deployed into real products, used by millions, and validated at scale. This is your chance to push the science forward and see your ideas transform how the world discovers content.

What You’ll Do

• Drive foundational research to create new recommendation models and paradigms.
• Leverage rich live user data and large-scale compute to validate models rapidly.
• Collaborate closely with engineering and product teams to operationalize research.
• Publish findings and contribute to the broader ML and RecSys community.

Benefits of Research in Industry

• Rich real-time data: access to large-scale, diverse, and dynamic user interactions.
• Massive compute & infrastructure: GPU clusters, feature stores, deployment pipelines.
• Rapid experimentation: immediate feedback through A/B testing and online evaluation.
• Direct impact: see your models shape user experiences and business outcomes.
• Cross-disciplinary collaboration: partner with product, design, and engineering teams.
• Balanced path: combine scientific exploration with practical deployment.

Who You Are

• Rising researchers with strong academic backgrounds and a desire to have real-world impact.
• PhD (or equivalent research experience) in CS, ML, Statistics, or related field.
• Strong background in deep learning.
• Proven track record of research excellence (publications, awards, impactful projects).
• Proficiency in Python and modern ML frameworks (PyTorch).
• Experience with large-scale data and experimentation.

Nice to Have

• Publications in top venues (NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, KDD, RecSys, SIGIR, WWW).
• Experience with sequential modeling, representation learning, or causal inference.
• Knowledge of online experimentation and evaluation methodologies.
• Experience with deploying ML in production systems.

What You’ll Gain

• The opportunity to shape the next generation of recommendation science.
• A research culture that combines academic rigor with industrial scale.
• Access to world-class infrastructure and live experimentation loops.
• A collaborative environment that rewards both innovation and execution.

AppLovin Provides

• A competitive total compensation package with a pay for performance rewards approach.
• Total compensation based on a number of factors including market location.
• Equity, and other forms of incentive compensation (as applicable) may be provided as part of a total compensation package.
• Health Insurance: Medical, Dental, Vision, Life, Disability.
• Retirement Plan: 401(k).
• Discretionary Time Off: Unlimited.
• Paid Holidays: 10 paid holidays per year.
• Paid Sick Leave: 80 hours per year.

Method of Application

To apply, please visit apply online. The application window is expected to close within 30 days of the posting date.

Contact Information

If you have questions or concerns about this posting, please contact peopleops@applovin.com.

Equal Opportunity Employer

AppLovin is proud to be an equal opportunity employer that is committed to inclusion and diversity. All applicants will be considered for employment without attention to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran or disability status, or other legally protected characteristics.