Principal Investigator – AI Residency Program

4 days ago

Melbourne, Victoria, Australia Maincode Full time $180,000 - $250,000 per year

About The Job
Maincode is building sovereign AI models in Australia. We train foundation models from scratch, design new reasoning architectures, and deploy them on state-of-the-art GPU clusters. This is not fine-tuning someone else's work. This is creating new systems from first principles.

We're looking for a principal investigator to run our AI Residency Program. The program brings top academic talent into Maincode — late-stage PhD students, postdocs, and professors — for six-month residencies where they pursue ambitious research projects in their domain of expertise. The goal is to explore ideas at the frontier of AI while connecting them to the scale, infrastructure, and engineering talent of industry.

The residency program is a strategically important aspect of Maincode's research agenda; enabling exploratory, high-upside research that complements and extends core-team efforts, and acts as a pipeline for exceptional talent into Maincode. As the principal investigator, you will own its growth and direction, shaping projects, attracting world-class residents, and ensuring the work aligns with Maincode's long-term goals. This is a full-time, permanent role based in Australia.

What You'll Do

  • Lead Maincode's AI Residency Program end-to-end, setting its direction and ensuring high-impact outcomes
  • Attract and evaluate outstanding researchers to join the residency program, ensuring the highest level of research talent
  • Shape and approve research projects, balancing novelty with strategic alignment
  • Provide scientific mentorship and intellectual guidance to residents, enabling them to pursue ambitious research projects and produce impactful publications.
  • Promote Maincode's research externally, representing us at conferences and industry events
  • Build relationships with universities, industry labs, and the broader AI research community to grow the program's reach and attract top talent
  • Collaborate closely with Maincode's core research team to ensure residency projects complement and extend our own agenda

Who You Are

  • Deeply versed in AI research, with strong technical grounding and an intuitive sense for promising ideas and directions
  • Experienced in supervising and leading researchers, such as PhD students or postdocs, and comfortable guiding multiple projects simultaneously
  • Confident evaluating research quality and spotting high-potential candidates and projects
  • Comfortable representing Maincode externally and building new connections across academia and industry
  • Excited to move beyond academic constraints and make an impact where cutting-edge AI research is increasingly happening: in industry
  • A confident communicator who thrives at the intersection of research, engineering, and external engagement
  • Highly autonomous and comfortable taking ownership of a strategically important program

Why Maincode
We are a small, mission-driven team building some of the most advanced AI systems in Australia. We operate our own GPU clusters, run large-scale training, and work closely across research and engineering to push the frontier of what's possible.

You'll Be Surrounded By People Who

  • Care deeply about model internals, not just outputs
  • Build things that work at scale
  • Take pride in learning, experimenting, and shipping
  • Believe Australia must have independent, world-class AI systems

If you want to lead a program that empowers world-class researchers to test ideas at scale and shape the future of AI science, we'd love to hear from you.

  • Principal AI Engineer

    1 week ago

    Melbourne, Victoria, Australia Preacta Full time $200,000 - $250,000 per year

    Principal AI Engineer$200–$250k + Super + EquityMelbourne (Hybrid)Join one of Australia's most exciting applied AI start-ups, a team of proven founders who've built and exited a successful product before, now driving a new wave of enterprise-scale AI innovation.They are looking for a strong engineer, a genuine problem solver who has operated in a start up...

  • Principal AI Engineer

    2 weeks ago

    Melbourne, Victoria, Australia Bunnings Full time $120,000 - $180,000 per year

    Join us and experience Bunnings from the other side of the counterWhat's in it for youwhen you're part of our team:Team discount at Bunnings and other Wesfarmers brands including Kmart, Target and Officeworks to name a fewFree standard OnePass membershipAccess to over 100+ exclusive team member benefits across health, shopping, travel and stay, wealth, work...

  • Investigator

    2 weeks ago

    Melbourne, Victoria, Australia Sharp & Carter Full time $80,000 - $120,000 per year

    About our Client:We are working with a large education organisation that oversees hundreds of schools across Melbourne to appoint a Senior Advisor - Reportable Conduct to its Child Safety and Risk team.About the Role:This specialist role is focused on ensuring schools meet their obligations under the Victorian Reportable Conduct Scheme and the Child Safe...

  • Principal Fabric Data and AI Engineering Consultant

    4 days ago

    Melbourne, Victoria, Australia 91ad01a2-4921-48e8-9144-74e64799a4bc Full time $190,000 per year

    Principal Fabric Data & AI EngineerLocation:Anywhere in Australia (Remote or Sydney)Type:Permanent | Full-Time - Remote anywhere in aus.Salary:Up to$190k + SuperAbout the RoleA growingsmall–medium Data & AI consultancyis searching for a hands-onPrincipal Fabric Engineer. You'll work across major data initiatives, take real ownership, and often be thrown...

  • Investigator

    1 week ago

    Melbourne, Victoria, Australia Department of Education Victoria Full time

    About the DepartmentThe Department of Education (DE) leads the delivery of education and development services to children and students both directly through government schools and indirectly through the regulation and funding of early childhood services and non-government schools.About the DivisionThe Conduct and Integrity Division provides expert advice and...

  • Senior Investigator

    12 hours ago

    Melbourne City Centre, Victoria, Australia Department of Education Full time $104,000 - $160,000 per year

    About the DepartmentThe Department of Education (DE) leads the delivery of education and development services to children and students both directly through government schools and indirectly through the regulation and funding of early childhood services and non-government schools.About the DivisionThe Conduct and Integrity Division provides expert advice and...

  • Planning and Heritage Investigations Officer

    4 days ago

    Melbourne, Victoria, Australia VicGov People Careers Full time $90,000 - $120,000 per year

    About usWe create thriving places and connected communities. We bring together transport, planning, land use, precinct and policy functions in a single department to deliver the best outcomes for Victorians.  Together with our portfolio agencies, we are responsible for planning, building, operating and maintaining Victoria's transport, planning and land...

  • Planning and Heritage Investigations Officer

    2 weeks ago

    Melbourne, Victoria, Australia Department of Transport and Planning Full time $80,000 - $100,000 per year

    Title: Planning and Heritage Investigations OfficerRequisition ID: 8561Work Type: Fixed Term Full TimeFixed Term Period: 30 June 2026Location: Melbourne - CBDDate Posted: 10 Nov 2025About UsWe create thriving places and connected communities. We bring together transport, planning, land use, precinct and policy functions in a single department to deliver the...

  • AI Change

    1 week ago

    Melbourne, Victoria, Australia Corporate Services - DEECA Full time $80,000 - $120,000 per year

    Company description: Department of Energy, Environment and Climate ActionJob description: The Artificial Intelligence (AI) Change and Adoption Lead is responsible for developing, coordinating, and executing strategies that drive the successful implementation and acceptance of the AI platform within DEECA. The position is responsible for facilitating the...

  • Principal Service Designer

    1 week ago

    Melbourne, Victoria, Australia Victorian Department of Families, Fairness & Housing Full time $120,000 - $180,000 per year

    THE ROLEThe Principal Service Designer brings a human-centred design lens to the development of services and digital initiatives across DFFH. This role complements the work of Business Analysts and Strategic Advisors by ensuring that projects are not only technically sound but also effective, inclusive, and sustainable. It also plays a key role in shaping...