What You Will Work On
Design and train large‑scale transformer and hybrid foundation models
Own model architecture choices across text, multimodal, and emerging paradigms
Diagnose and resolve training instabilities at scale
Navigate scaling tradeoffs across data and compute
Define the technical direction for next‑generation models
Core Responsibilities
Deep Learning & Transformer Foundations
Apply strong fundamentals in deep learning and representation learning
Design and modify transformer architectures, including:
Attention variants
RoPE, ALiBi
Grouped Query Attention (GQA)
Mixture‑of‑Experts (MoE)
Build models from first principles, not just adapt pre‑existing codebases
Optimisation Dynamics & Training Stability
Own optimiser and scheduler choices, including:
AdamW
Lion
Adafactor
Learning‑rate and warmup schedulers
Understand and debug:
Optimiser instability
Gradient pathologies
Scaling Laws & Compute Tradeoffs
Apply and validate scaling laws
Navigate Chinchilla‑style compute vs data tradeoffs
Make informed decisions about model size, dataset size, and training duration
Loss Functions & Alignment
Design and experiment with loss functions including:
Next‑token prediction
Contrastive objectives
RLHF, DPO, GRPO
Understand how loss design impacts convergence, generalization, and alignment
Distributed Foundation Model Training
Design and execute large‑scale training using:
FSDP
ZeRO‑3
Tensor parallelism
Pipeline parallelism
Apply:
Mixed precision (bf16, fp8)
Gradient checkpointing
- Partner closely with ML systems teams
What we offer
We offer a generous compensation and benefits package (in addition to the base salary), including:
Salary range $123,500.00 - $197,600.00 USD It is not typical for offers to be made at or near the top of the range. The actual salary will be determined based on experience and other job-related factors.
Annual bonus opportunity
Insurance coverage (medical, dental, vision, life, and disability)
Paid time off
Paid holidays
Company contribution to the RRSP (Registered Retirement Savings Plan)
Equity awards for certain positions and levels
Remote and/or hybrid work available depending on the position All compensation and benefits are subject to the terms and conditions of the underlying plans or programs, as applicable, and may be amended, terminated, or replaced from time to time.
Cerence Inc. (Nasdaq: CRNC and www.cerence.com) is the global industry leader in creating unique, moving experiences for the automotive world. Spun out from Nuance in October 2019, Cerence is a new, independent company that has quickly gained traction as a leader in the automotive voice assistant space, working with all of the world’s leading automakers – from Ford and Fiat Chrysler to Daimler, Audi and BMW to Geely and SAIC – to transform how a car feels, responds and learns. Its track record is built on more than 20 years of industry experience and leadership and more than 500 million cars on the road today across more than 70 languages.
As Cerence looks to the future and continues an ambitious growth agenda, we need someone to join the team and help build the future of voice and AI in cars. This is an exciting opportunity to join Cerence’s passionate, dedicated, global team and be a part of meaningful innovation in a rapidly growing industry.
EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYERCerence is firmly committed to Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) and to compliance with all federal, state and local laws that prohibit employment discrimination on the basis of age, race, color, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sex, sex stereotyping, pregnancy, national origin, ancestry, religion, physical or mental disability, medical condition, marital status, citizenship status, sexual orientation, protected military or veteran status, genetic information and other protected classifications. Cerence Equal Employment Opportunity Policy Statement.
All prospective and current Employees need to remain vigilant when it comes to executing security policies in the workplace. This includes:
- Following workplace security protocols and training programs to familiarize with the ways to maintain a safe workplace.
- Following security procedures to report any suspicious activity.
- Having respect for corporate security procedures to allow those procedures to be effective.
- Adhering to company's compliance and regulations.
- Encouraging to follow a zero tolerance for workplace violence.
- Basic knowledge of information security and data privacy requirements (e.g., how to protect data & how to be handling this data).
- Demonstrative knowledge of information security through internal training programs.
Skills Required
- Strong fundamentals in deep learning and representation learning
- Design and modify transformer architectures (attention variants)
- Experience with RoPE and ALiBi attention variants
- Experience with Grouped Query Attention (GQA) and Mixture-of-Experts (MoE)
- Ability to build models from first principles (not just adapt codebases)
- Experience selecting and tuning optimizers and schedulers (AdamW, Lion, Adafactor, LR warmup)
- Ability to diagnose and resolve optimizer instability and gradient pathologies
- Knowledge of scaling laws and Chinchilla-style compute vs data tradeoffs
- Experience designing and experimenting with loss functions (next-token prediction, contrastive objectives, RLHF, DPO, GRPO)
- Experience with large-scale distributed training (FSDP, ZeRO-3, tensor and pipeline parallelism)
- Experience with mixed precision training (bf16, fp8) and gradient checkpointing
- Basic knowledge of information security and data privacy handling practices
Cerence Inc. Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Cerence Inc. and has not been reviewed or approved by Cerence Inc..
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Healthcare Strength — Healthcare is described as strong and affordable, with mentions of a great health care plan and wellness support. Feedback suggests these offerings contribute to work-life balance and peace of mind.
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Wellbeing & Lifestyle Benefits — Lifestyle perks such as gym membership reimbursement and transit subsidies are highlighted as meaningful add-ons. Feedback suggests these perks enhance the overall rewards package.
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Strong & Reliable Incentives — Bonuses and equity incentives, including spot awards, short-term incentive targets, and ESPP, are cited as part of total rewards. Feedback suggests these programs are a notable component beyond base pay.
Cerence Inc. Insights
What We Do
Cerence (NASDAQ: CRNC) is the global industry leader in creating unique, moving experiences for the mobility world. As an innovation partner to the world’s leading automakers and mobility OEMs, it is helping advance the future of connected mobility through intuitive, powerful interaction between humans and their cars, two-wheelers, and even elevators, connecting consumers’ digital lives to their daily journeys no matter where they are. Cerence’s track record is built on more than 20 years of knowledge and more than 400 million cars shipped with Cerence technology. Whether it’s connected cars, autonomous driving, e-vehicles, or buildings, Cerence is mapping the road ahead.
