WHOOP is an advanced health and fitness wearable on a mission to unlock human performance and extend healthspan. By providing members with a deep understanding of their bodies, behaviors, and daily lives, WHOOP empowers healthier choices and peak performance.
We are seeking a Principal AI Researcher to join our Foundation AI team. This team builds the foundation models that underpin WHOOP’s next generation of intelligent, personalized, and health-enhancing experiences. These models integrate data across wearable sensors, language, biomarkers, clinical information, and self-reported inputs to create scalable AI systems that understand human physiology and behavior.
In this role, you'll be one of the senior technical leaders at WHOOP. You will own the technical execution of our foundation modeling workstreams and your technical judgment will shape a core part of WHOOP’s AI efforts and the products they power.
RESPONSIBILITIES:
- Set the architectural direction for the development of large-scale models spanning wearable sensor data, text, biomarkers, and behavioral signals, and personally own the highest-stakes, hardest-to-reverse design decisions.
- Identify which research bets in self-supervised and representation learning are worth making, and drive the most ambiguous and unproven ones from thesis to validated, production capability.
- Contribute to the broader AI strategy and standards at WHOOP, shaping the platform, compute, and infrastructure choices the team operates on, not just working within them.
- Partner across research, product, and engineering to connect technical breakthroughs to product and business outcomes.
- Raise the technical bar across the team: grow staff and senior engineers, strengthen design-review and evaluation norms, and act as a force multiplier.
- Represent WHOOP's technical work externally, helping with recruiting, partnerships, and visibility in the broader AI research community.
QUALIFICATIONS:
- Advanced degree (Master’s or Ph.D.) or equivalent depth, with extensive experience in large-scale machine learning and AI research.
- A track record of owning technical direction for a significant area and making architectural decisions whose impact outlived any single project.
- Demonstrated ability to take ambiguous, high-risk research directions all the way to production impact and the judgment to discontinue those that will not.
- Deep expertise in modern deep learning (transformers, state space models), multimodal training, self-supervised and representation learning, RL-based post-training (PPO/DPO/GRPO), and large-scale distributed training (data, model, and context parallelism).
- A history of being a technical authority that teams defer to, and evidence of multiplying their output.
- Excellent communication and the ability to influence both the engineering bench and senior leadership.
- Publications and evidence of community building at top-tier machine learning venues.
- Passion for WHOOP's mission to improve human performance and extend healthspan through science and technology.
Skills Required
- Advanced degree (Master's or Ph.D.) or equivalent depth with extensive experience in large-scale machine learning and AI research
- Track record of owning technical direction and making long-lived architectural decisions
- Proven ability to take ambiguous, high-risk research directions to production impact and to discontinue unpromising directions
- Deep expertise in modern deep learning (transformers, state space models), multimodal training, self-supervised and representation learning
- Experience with RL-based post-training methods (PPO, DPO, GRPO)
- Experience with large-scale distributed training including data, model, and context parallelism
- History as a technical authority who multiplies team output and mentors senior staff
- Excellent communication and ability to influence engineering teams and senior leadership
- Publications and evidence of community building at top-tier machine learning venues
- Passion for WHOOP's mission to improve human performance and extend healthspan
What the Team is Saying
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WHOOP Compensation & Benefits Highlights
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Parental & Family Support — Parental leave is described as generous, with an additional transition period to support return-to-work. Feedback suggests this policy stands out within the overall package.
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Wellbeing & Lifestyle Benefits — Wellness stipends, free WHOOP memberships (including a giftable one), a sleep-performance cash incentive, daily meals, and access to onsite gym and recovery tools create a lifestyle-oriented offering. Feedback suggests these perks meaningfully enhance the total rewards experience beyond base pay.
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Equity Value & Accessibility — Equity participation and stock option eligibility are highlighted, and ownership is portrayed as rewarding as the company grows. Feedback suggests this sense of ownership positively influences perceptions of compensation.
WHOOP Insights
What We Do
At WHOOP, we’re on a mission to unlock human performance. WHOOP empowers members to perform at a higher level through a deeper understanding of their bodies and daily lives. Our wearable device and performance optimization platform has been adopted by many of the world's greatest athletes and consumers alike.
Why Work With Us
At WHOOP, we’re focused on building an inclusive and equitable team with a strong sense of belonging for everyone—increasing representation in every way as our team grows. We believe that our differences are our source of strength—so much so it’s one of our core values.
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Employees engage in a combination of remote and on-site work.
