How Davis hired an AI Research Scientist.
Hire a top-tier researcher to help an early-stage startup move past the current state of the art and bring new generative AI technologies into production.
40days
Time to fill
95%
CV relevance
40days
Time to hire
Moving past the scientific state of the art to scale and industrialize an early-stage AI solution.
Davis was looking for a very specific profile with experience on diffusion models or on the pre-training of large foundation models. The goal was to hire an expert able to build on the latest academic research and turn it into production features within their product.
Extreme scarcity on the market. These profiles work on highly complex research topics and are actively pursued by the largest labs in the world. On top of that, the role required full-time on-site presence (no remote work), which sharply reduced the pool of available candidates.
Target profile
AI Research Scientist
Experience
At least 4 years of research experience on diffusion models, post-training or pre-training of large models, with a strong affinity for early-stage startups.
Soft Skills
Strong sense of ownership, excellent cultural fit with a startup environment, and a clear drive to turn academic work into real production.
Hard Skills
Diffusion models (flow matching), foundation models and command of generative AI.
Activate a tightly targeted expert network and map the leading research labs.
In an extremely narrow market, and although we came in after two competing firms already working on the search, we took a very precise approach. We went straight to our network of experts working on similar projects and identified the key academic research labs specializing in these topics.
- 100
Candidates approached
We contacted 100 highly qualified profiles holding a PhD on related topics. The main challenge was to question their mindset and convince them to leave pure academic research for the operational world of startups.
- 7
Candidates sent to the client
7 candidates were presented after we validated their close technical fit with Davis’s requirements and ran an in-depth assessment of their soft skills.
Process and closing
Working with Davis went very smoothly. The partner was highly involved, extremely responsive and collaborative throughout the process. Despite a demanding hiring process with many steps, the pace held. Lity listened closely to the candidate to understand what personally motivated them and shared this with Davis at every step, which secured a perfect closing.
Bringing a new technology to market to support exceptional growth ambitions.
Although the candidate has not started yet, this key strategic hire should give Davis a unique competitive advantage and position it among the future French unicorns in AI.
Testimonial
« Lity really took the time to understand what we were looking for, and also to understand our tech, our processes, our business and our culture. Their attentiveness, their responsiveness and the quality of the candidates they sent make Lity by far our best experience with a recruitment firm. Thanks again! »
Donia Gharbi
Founding Chief of Staff · Davis
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