Data Science Researcher (Part-Time 25%)

Data Science Researcher (Part-Time 25%)

Team: Data Research Team 

Time Commitment: 25% (approx. 1 day a week)

Location: Tel Aviv, Israel

About the Role

We are seeking an advanced PhD Candidate to join our Data Research team as a part-time researcher and subject matter expert. The core team is responsible for building and shipping data science algorithms for Rubrik’s product line, with a special emphasis on Cyber Security.

We are opening this specialized role to tackle longer-term, high-complexity research initiatives that require deep academic rigor. You will focus on bringing State-of-the-Art methodologies, with an emphasis in LLMs and Advanced NLP, into our ecosystem.

This role is designed for a researcher who is "hands-on." We value deep theoretical knowledge, but we require the ability to translate that theory into productive, working code within a limited timeframe.

What you’ll be doing

• Long-Horizon Research: Lead specific, deep-dive research initiatives that require advanced methodology (e.g., novel anomaly detection architectures or LLM-based reasoning for security threats) without the pressure of daily sprint cycles.
• LLM Innovation: Design and prototype advanced LLM workflows (RAG, Agents, Fine-tuning) to solve specific security challenges that standard APIs cannot handle.
• Academic-to-Industry Bridge: Act as a knowledge hub for the team; bring SOTA academic concepts, recent paper findings, and novel techniques into the team’s toolkit.
• High-Impact Prototyping: Build functional Proofs of Concept (POCs) that the full-time engineering team can eventually operationalize.

Qualifications

Required:

• Current enrollment in a PhD program (Mathematics, Computer Science, Statistics, or related field) with a focus on Machine Learning, NLP, or AI.
• Previous industry experience (internships or full-time) demonstrating the ability to work with noisy, real-world data.
• Deep Practical Engineering: Strong proficiency in Python and modern ML frameworks (PyTorch, TensorFlow, Hugging Face).
• LLM Expertise: Demonstrated experience working with Transformers and LLMs beyond simple prompting (e.g., experience with embeddings, vector databases, quantization, or fine-tuning).
• Self-Starter: Proven ability to manage research projects independently with minimal supervision.
• Communication: Excellent ability to explain complex mathematical concepts to engineers and stakeholders (English/Hebrew).

Preferred:

• A track record of publications in top-tier conferences (NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, ACL, etc.).
• Background or strong interest in Cyber Security.
• Experience with cloud environments (AWS/Azure/GCP) and distributed data tools (Spark/Databricks).