Research Scientist, Infrastructure Modeling and Reliability

Meta

$162K — $195K *
Energy & Utilities
8 - 10 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • 10+ years in statistical or machine learning modeling
  • Proven track record leading cross-functional technical programs
  • Proficient in Python, R, C++, or Java for data applications
  • Strong communication skills for technical concepts
  • Experience influencing technical strategy across organizations
  • PhD in a quantitative field or equivalent experience
  • Bachelor's in a relevant technical field or equivalent experience

Responsibilities

  • Define technical strategy for power consumption modeling
  • Develop machine learning models for power demand forecasting
  • Create methods addressing high-dimensional and correlated data
  • Collaborate with engineering and operational teams for decision-making support
  • Establish evaluation frameworks to measure model quality
  • Identify opportunities for efficiency in power utilization
  • Lead critical technical initiatives and mentor senior scientists

Benefits

  • Work with cutting-edge technology in a global impact setting
  • Opportunity to influence large-scale infrastructure strategy
  • Collaborative environment with cross-functional teams
  • Mentorship opportunities for professional growth
  • Engagement with external industry standards and publications
Full Job Description
Meta's infrastructure supports services used by billions of people, and operating that infrastructure efficiently requires increasingly sophisticated modeling of demand, utilization, reliability, and physical resource constraints. We are seeking an industry-leading Research Scientist or Applied Scientist to define and build new modeling approaches for power utilization across Meta's infrastructure. This role will lead the development of statistical and machine learning models that monitor power consumption, project peak demand, quantify uncertainty, and inform how Meta maximizes usable power within failure domains while maintaining target reliability levels. The ideal candidate has deep experience modeling high-dimensional, noisy, and interdependent systems, and has demonstrated the ability to translate scientific advances into production systems that influence large-scale infrastructure strategy.

Responsibilities

Define the scientific and technical strategy for modeling power consumption, peak risk, and reliability tradeoffs across large-scale infrastructure systems.
• Develop statistical, machine learning, and/or optimization models that forecast power demand, estimate peak distributions, quantify uncertainty, and support operational decision-making.
• Build approaches that reason about high-dimensional signals, correlated demand, failure-domain constraints, reserve margins, and reliability targets.
• Partner with engineering, capacity planning, data center, energy, hardware, operations, and finance teams to translate model outputs into infrastructure planning and utilization decisions.
• Establish evaluation frameworks, backtesting methods, confidence intervals, and monitoring systems to measure model quality and operational risk.
• Identify opportunities to safely increase power utilization, reduce stranded capacity, improve cost efficiency, and guide long-term infrastructure investment.
• Lead ambiguous, company-critical technical initiatives across organizations, influencing strategy and aligning stakeholders around scientifically grounded decisions.
• Mentor senior scientists and engineers, raise the technical bar for modeling and forecasting systems, and represent Meta's work through appropriate external publications, talks, or industry engagement.

Minimum Qualifications
• 10+ years of experience developing statistical, machine learning, simulation, forecasting, optimization, or other quantitative modeling systems
• Experience leading ambiguous, cross-functional technical programs from problem definition through model development, evaluation, deployment, and business impact
• Experience coding in Python, R, C++, Java, or similar languages for data analysis, modeling, simulation, or production systems
• Experience communicating complex technical concepts, assumptions, uncertainty, and tradeoffs to technical and non-technical audiences
• Experience influencing technical strategy across multiple teams or organizations
• PhD in Computer Science, Statistics, Applied Mathematics, Operations Research, Electrical Engineering, Physics, Economics, or a related quantitative field, or equivalent practical experience
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, relevant technical field, or equivalent practical experience

Preferred Qualifications
• Experience modeling high-dimensional, sparse, noisy, or strongly correlated data in production environments
• Experience with time-series forecasting, probabilistic forecasting, Bayesian modeling, extreme-value modeling, causal inference, stochastic processes, simulation, or uncertainty quantification
• Experience with infrastructure, capacity planning, power systems, energy systems, data centers, reliability engineering, distributed systems, supply-chain optimization, or resource allocation
• Experience building models that support operational decisions under explicit reliability, safety, cost, or utilization constraints
• Experience developing peak-demand forecasts, confidence intervals, risk estimates, anomaly detection, or backtesting frameworks
• Experience applying optimization, operations research, or decision science to large-scale resource planning
• Demonstrated record of industry-level technical leadership, such as defining new research directions, influencing company strategy, publishing in leading venues, or shaping external technical standards
• Experience mentoring senior technical contributors and building scientific communities across organizations

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