Principal Investigator – AI Residency Program
3 days ago
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.
-
AI Residency Program Lead
5 days ago
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia Maincode Full time $104,000 - $130,878 per yearAbout The JobMaincode 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 leader to run our AI Residency Program. The...
-
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia Meltwater Full timeOverviewMEST AI Startup Program – Technical Fellow In-ResidenceLocation: Accra, Ghana (in-person position) | Start Date: January 2026 | End Date: December 2026 | Contract: One-yearReporting to: AI Startup Program DirectorTeam: AI Startup Program TeamExperience Level: 2 - 4+ years in software development and AI/MLAbout MEST Africa: Lunched in 2008 by...
-
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia Meltwater Full timeOverviewMEST AI Startup Program – Technical Fellow In-ResidenceLocation: Accra, Ghana (in-person position) | Start Date: January 2026 | End Date: December 2026 | Contract: One-yearReporting to: AI Startup Program DirectorTeam: AI Startup Program TeamExperience Level: 2 - 4+ years in software development and AI/MLAbout MEST Africa: Lunched in 2008 by...
-
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia Meltwater Group Full timeMEST AI Startup Program – Technical Fellow In-ResidenceLocation: Accra, Ghana (in-person position)Reporting to: AI Startup Program DirectorTeam: AI Startup Program TeamExperience Level: 2 - 4+ years in software development and AI/MLContract: One-yearStart Date: January 2026End Date: December 2026About MEST AfricaLaunched in 2008 by Meltwater Founder & CEO...
-
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia Meltwater Group Full timeMEST AI Startup Program – Technical Fellow In-Residence Location: Accra, Ghana (in-person position) Reporting to: AI Startup Program Director Team: AI Startup Program Team Experience Level: 2 - 4+ years in software development and AI/ML Contract: One-year Start Date: January 2026 End Date: December 2026 About MEST Africa Launched...
-
Principal, AI Domain Architect
4 weeks ago
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia IAG Full timeOverviewJoin to apply for the Principal, AI Domain Architect role at IAG.Have a meaningful impact as a Principal, AI Domain Architect. Join the largest general insurance group in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand. We're a top-tier ASX-listed company helping to make the world a safer place through creating a stronger and more resilient business and enabling...
-
Principal, AI Domain Architect
4 weeks ago
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia IAG Full timeOverviewJoin to apply for the Principal, AI Domain Architect role at IAG.Have a meaningful impact as a Principal, AI Domain Architect. Join the largest general insurance group in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand. We're a top-tier ASX-listed company helping to make the world a safer place through creating a stronger and more resilient business and enabling...
-
Principal Software Engineer
1 day ago
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia Trusst AI Full time $150,000 - $200,000 per yearWe are looking for aPrincipal Software Engineerto design, build, and ship our upcoming new inventions and apply AI to optimize contact centers with human and AI agents. You will get anadventure, in terms of the opportunity to play a leading role in this growth. It will be difficult. It would be easier to take a higher salary with a larger MANGO company. At...
-
Principal AI Architect
1 week ago
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia NCS Group Australia Full time $120,000 - $250,000 per yearAbout us:At NCS Australia, we believe in doing technology services better. Our commitment to quality, focus on people, and willingness to challenge traditional thinking set us apart. Our team brings this belief to life by partnering with our clients and communities to make tomorrow together.We are committed to creating an environment that prioritises...
-
Principal AI Architect
1 week ago
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia NCSI Australia Pty Limited Full time $150,000 - $200,000 per yearCompany DescriptionAbout us:At NCS Australia, we believe in doing technology services better. Our commitment to quality, focus on people, and willingness to challenge traditional thinking set us apart. Our team brings this belief to life by partnering with our clients and communities to make tomorrow together.We are committed to creating an environment that...
