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# Research Programmer IV- Machine Learning & Computational Neuroscience, Kennedy Lab

- **Company:** The Scripps Research Institute
- **Location:** San Diego, CA, United States
- **Experience:** Expert
- **Salary:** $90,000.0 - $110,000.0
- **Contract:** Permanent contract
- **Skills:** Artificial Neural Networks, Computer Vision, Computer Simulation, Information Systems, Computer Programming, Github, Hidden Markov Model, Python (Programming Language), Machine Learning, Software Engineering, Systems Architecture, Reinforcement Learning, Information Technology, Free and Open-Source Software, Software Version Control
- **Published:** October 22, 2026
- **Apply:** https://diversityjobs.com/career/18731191/Research-Programmer-Iv-Machine-Learning-Computational-Neuroscience-Kennedy-Lab-California-San-Diego

## About the Role

We seek motivated individuals interested in gaining hands-on experience in scientific research projects, with a goal of contributing to scientific papers and participating in an active lab environment. You will also have the opportunity to lead independent research projects on existing datasets from our collaborators (U Penn, UCLA, Harvard, U Utah, Northwestern, and others). This is an ideal position for applicants interested in building their scientific CV ahead of applying to graduate programs in Computational Neuroscience or Machine Learning, or those looking for a longer term position where they can contribute to original scientific research and model development., * Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems or related field or an equivalent combination of education, training and/or experience. A degree in a biological or chemical science may be accepted if applicable to the science developed/performed in the individual lab.

 * Minimum of 8 years experience in software application development or research programming.
 * Extensive experience with software development in Python.
 * Experience building and training deep neural networks for supervised, unsupervised, or reinforcement learning problems.
 * A demonstrated ability to apply the fundamentals of software application development.
 * Experience with version control, including git and github.

Please include code samples and/or a link to a public code repository with examples of your work.

PREFERRED SKILLSET:

Prior experience with the one or more of the following is preferred:

 * Experience with sequence/time series data, control/reinforcement learning problems and environments, time series forecasting.
 * An understanding of generative modeling (hidden Markov models, diffusion models, etc).
 * Familiarity with topics in motor control, robotics, and neuroscience.

As a member of a computational lab working in team projects, the following general skills are also preferred:

 * Experience developing scalable system architectures that adhere to good software engineering principles.
 * Ability to tackle large, open-ended research questions independently and as part of a team.
 * Willingness to be an active participant in a computational lab environment, including taking part in lab meetings, journal clubs, and hackathons.
 * Experience working within a diverse, interdisciplinary team.
 * Experience contributing to open source software projects.

## Description

The Kennedy laboratory is involved in numerous projects to track, quantify, and forecast individual and group behavior and relate it to recorded neural activity. We develop new computational methods to understand how agents (animals, humans, virtual) gather information about their sensory environment, integrate this with internal motivational needs, and execute goal-directed actions in complex, naturalistic environments. We also develop machine learning and computer vision platforms for high-throughput animal phenotyping, with the goal of accelerating drug screening and repurposing efforts at Scripps.