Research Scientist, Core Team

Who we are 

Tractable is an Artificial Intelligence company bringing the speed and insight of Applied AI to visual assessment. Trained on millions of data points, our AI-powered solutions connect everyone involved in insurance, repairs, and sales of homes and cars – helping people work faster and smarter, while reducing friction and waste.

Founded in 2014, Tractable is now the AI tool of choice for world-leading insurance and automotive companies. Our solutions unlock the potential of Applied AI to transform the whole recovery ecosystem, from assessing damage and accelerating claims and repairs to recycling parts. They help make response to recovery up to ten times faster – even after full-scale disasters like floods and hurricanes. 

Tractable has a world-class culture, backed up by our team, who have rated us 4.9/5 on Glassdoor, making us Europe’s top-rated unicorn to work for! 

We're a diverse team, uniting individuals of over 40 different nationalities and from varied backgrounds, with machine learning researchers and motor engineers collaborating together on a daily basis. We empower each team member to have tangible impact and grow their own scope by intentionally building a culture centred around collaboration, transparency, autonomy and continuous learning.

What you will do

Research is in our DNA at Tractable, having started to bring the breakthroughs in supervised learning and ImageNet to application back in 2015. Seven years later, our first products within visual expert assessment having been brought to commercial success, the core research team is focused on building the next generation of applied AI.

We have a rich dataset of millions of labelled images, damage segments and other rich metadata within vehicle damage, and our research encompasses three primary areas:

1. Representation learning, multi-model reasoning and systematic generalisation
   including: vision/language reasoning, vision-transformers, self-supervised and few-shot learning, modularity and attention, multi-objective optimisation
2. Videos, generative modeling and 3D mapping
   including: GANs and VAEs, neural rendering, 3D reconstruction and mapping, video captioning and temporal reasoning
3. Expert decision making, causal inference and reasoning with incomplete information
   including: compositional reasoning, causal inference, uncertainty, visual QA and intuitive reasoning, reinforcement learning

Our small but growing team is focused on conducting novel research in these areas, disseminating this through publications, and using this to fuel the growth of our next products in auto damage assessment and beyond.

As a Research Scientist on the Core team, you will:

• Work on novel solutions to some of the biggest applied research challenges in expert visual reasoning and intelligence which form the foundation of our technology
• Design, implement and evaluate models combining rich visual and metadata cues to achieve this
• Communicate your work both internally and externally and engage in collaborations with both other researchers and domain experts to meet ambitious research goals

What you need to be successful

• A PhD in Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence or similar
• Strong publication record (commensurate with opportunities and experience) at principal computer vision conferences (CVPR, ECCV, ICCV, Neurips, ICML, ICLR etc.)
• Experience working at the intersection of machine learning, deep learning and computer vision
• Ability to independently plan and manage a research project
• Excellent communication skills, including the ability to write for publication and present research proposals and results

What’s in it for you

Generous financial reward for your effort

• Twice a year compensation reviews
• Generous equity package
• 5% employer match on pension

Time off and flexible working

• 25 days paid annual leave + bank holidays
• Ability to work from abroad for up to 6 weeks/year
• Competitive maternity + paternity leave
• Flexible hours and hybrid working 
• Additional leave to support you when you need it, including sick pay, compassionate leave, or paid time-off to recharge after an intense work period

Support for your health and wellbeing

• Highest tier of private health coverage through Bupa 
• Access to a virtual GP through Babylon
• Mental health and career coaching through Sanctus
• Free annual Headspace subscription

Additional perks 

• L&D budget to use on Learnerbly (our learning platform)
• Cycle to Work scheme

Diversity commitment

At Tractable, we are committed to building a diverse team and inclusive workplace where people’s varied backgrounds and experiences are valued and recognised. 

We encourage applications from candidates of all backgrounds and offer equal opportunities without discrimination.