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Entry Level Phd Jobs in California (NOW HIRING)

Job Summary Technical Recruiter - Entry Level This role is for someone early in their career who is ... or phd scraping * Run structured interview coordination and lead candidate debriefs alongside ...

Job Summary Technical Recruiter - Entry Level This role is for someone early in their career who is ... or phd scraping * Run structured interview coordination and lead candidate debriefs alongside ...

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Entry Level Phd information

What are entry level PhD jobs?

Entry level PhD jobs are positions designed for individuals who have recently completed their doctoral studies and are beginning their professional careers. These jobs typically require advanced research, analytical, or technical skills developed during a PhD program and may include roles in academia, industry, government, or nonprofit sectors. Examples of entry level PhD jobs include postdoctoral researcher, data scientist, research scientist, policy analyst, and consultant. While the specific requirements and responsibilities vary by field, these positions offer opportunities to apply specialized knowledge and begin building a professional track record.

What are some common challenges faced by entry-level PhDs transitioning from academia to industry roles?

Entry-level PhDs often encounter challenges adjusting to the faster-paced, results-oriented environment of industry compared to academia. Adapting to collaborative, cross-functional teams and learning to communicate technical findings to non-expert stakeholders is crucial. Additionally, shifting focus from independent research to project-based work with clear deliverables may require new time management and prioritization skills. However, these challenges present excellent opportunities for professional growth and skill development in a supportive team setting.

What are the key skills and qualifications needed to thrive as an entry level PhD professional, and why are they important?

To thrive as an Entry Level PhD professional, you need advanced research skills, subject matter expertise, and a doctoral degree in your field. Familiarity with specialized software, statistical tools, and laboratory or data analysis systems is commonly required depending on the discipline. Strong communication, problem-solving abilities, and a collaborative mindset help set you apart in multidisciplinary environments. These skills and qualities are crucial for driving innovation, contributing to complex projects, and integrating effectively into research or industry teams.

What is the difference between Entry Level Phd vs Research Assistant?

AspectEntry Level PhdResearch Assistant
Required CredentialsPhD or near completionBachelor's or Master's, sometimes pursuing PhD
Work EnvironmentAcademic, research labs, universitiesResearch labs, academic institutions, industry
Employer & Industry UsageUniversities, research institutes, some industry R&DUniversities, government agencies, private sector
Common Search & Comparison IntentUnderstanding entry-level roles for PhD holdersEntry-level research roles for those with advanced degrees

Entry Level Phd positions typically require candidates to have completed or be close to completing a PhD, often working in academic or research environments. Research Assistants usually hold a Bachelor's or Master's degree and support research projects. While both roles involve research activities, Entry Level Phd roles are geared toward recent PhD graduates or candidates, whereas Research Assistants often have less advanced degrees but support similar research tasks.

What are the most commonly searched types of Phd jobs in California?

The most popular types of Phd jobs in California are:

What job categories do people searching Entry Level Phd jobs in California look for?

The top searched job categories for Entry Level Phd jobs in California are:

What cities in California are hiring for Entry Level Phd jobs?

Cities in California with the most Entry Level Phd job openings:

Infographic showing various Entry Level Phd job openings in California as of August 2026, with employment types broken down into 76% Full Time, 20% Part Time, and 4% Contract. Highlights an 73% Physical, 4% Hybrid, and 23% Remote job distribution.

Machine Learning Engineer, Offline Infrastructure (Entry-Level / New Grad PhD)

3M HEALTHCARE

San Francisco, CA โ€ข On-site

$112.70 - $169.10/hr

Other

Medical, Life, Retirement, PTO

Posted 22 days ago


Job description

Opportunity

Unity Vector builds an offline ML platform that powers insight, experimentation, attribution, and AI-driven decision-making across the company.

Our systems operate at scale across batch and streaming data, supporting analytics, product intelligence, machine learning pipelines, and business operations. As data volume and complexity grow, our platform enables large-scale model training, feature generation, and experimentation workflows that power production ML systems.

Weโ€™re looking for a Machine Learning Engineer to join our Offline Infrastructure team. This is an ideal role for a recent PhD graduate who is excited to work on large-scale systems and apply research-driven thinking to real-world machine learning problems.

Youโ€™ll help build and evolve the infrastructure that powers training data generation, ML workflows, and distributed model training. Working closely with experienced engineers and researchers, youโ€™ll contribute to systems that ensure our ML pipelines are reliable, scalable, and efficient.

This role offers the opportunity to bridge research and productionโ€”translating advanced ideas into systems that operate at scale.

What you'll be doing
  • Build and maintain data pipelines that generate training datasets for machine learning models and experimentation
  • Contribute to infrastructure that supports distributed training workflows (e.g., PyTorch, Ray)
  • Work with workflow orchestration tools (e.g., Airflow, Flyte, or similar) to support multi-stage ML pipelines
  • Improve reproducibility and reliability through dataset validation, monitoring, and testing
  • Partner with ML engineers to support experimentation and model iteration
  • Help optimize performance and efficiency across data processing and training systems
  • Contribute to the evolution of our offline ML platform architecture as it scales
What we're looking for
  • PhD in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Systems, or a related field
  • Strong foundation in machine learning systems, distributed systems, or large-scale data processing (through research or projects)
  • Experience with Python and working with data-intensive workloads
  • Familiarity with ML frameworks (e.g., PyTorch, TensorFlow) and/or distributed systems (e.g., Ray, Spark)
  • Experience (academic or applied) with data pipelines, model training workflows, or large datasets
  • Strong problemโ€‘solving skills and ability to translate research ideas into practical systems
  • Interest in building scalable, reliable infrastructure for machine learning
  • Nice to Have
  • Experience with workflow orchestration systems (Airflow, Flyte, etc.)
  • Exposure to largeโ€‘scale data platforms (data lakes, warehouses, streaming systems)
  • Publications or research in ML systems, distributed systems, or related areas
Additional information
  • Relocation support is not available for this position
  • Work visa/immigration sponsorship is not available for this position
Benefits

At Unity, we want our team members to thrive. We offer a wide range of benefits designed to support wellโ€‘being and workโ€‘life balance.

While specific benefits vary, here are some of the ways we strive to take care of our eligible team members globally: Comprehensive health, life, and disability insurance | Commute subsidy | Employee stock ownership | Competitive retirement/pension plans | Generous vacation and personal days | Support for new parents through leave and familyโ€‘care programs | Office food snacks | Mental Health and Wellbeing programs and support | Employee Resource Groups | Global Employee Assistance Program | Training and development programs | Volunteering and donation matching program

Life at Unity

Unity [NYSE: U] is the worldโ€™s leading game engine, powering play for more than 3 billion consumers each month. The top mobile games in the world, the most played PC indie titles, the most innovative console games, and virtually all of the top XR and Web Games are developed, deployed, and grown in Unity. Unity also enables teams across industries like automotive, manufacturing, and healthcare to design, simulate, and collaborate in 3D โ€” closing the gap between ideas and reality. For more information, please visit www.unity.com.

Unity is a proud equal opportunity employer. We are committed to fostering an inclusive, innovative environment and celebrate our employees across age, race, color, ancestry, national origin, religion, disability, sex, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, or any other protected status in accordance with applicable law. Our differences are strengths that enable us to support the growing and evolving needs of our customers, partners, and collaborators. If you have a disability that means there are preparations or accommodations we can make to help ensure you have a comfortable and positive interview experience, please fill out this form to let us know.

Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

This position requires the incumbent to have a sufficient knowledge of English to have professional verbal and written exchanges in this language since the performance of the duties related to this position requires frequent and regular communication with colleagues and partners located worldwide and whose common language is English.

Headhunters and recruitment agencies may not submit resumes/CVs through this Web site or directly to managers. Unity does not accept unsolicited headhunter and agency resumes. Unity will not pay fees to any thirdโ€‘party agency or company that does not have a signed agreement with Unity.

Your privacy is important to us. Please take a moment to review our Prospect Privacy Policy and Applicant Privacy Policy. Should you have any concerns about your privacy, please contact us at DPO@unity.com.

*Note: Certain locations require a good faith disclosure of the base salary range for the role. The actual salary for the successful candidate may differ based on location, experience, and other job-related factors.

Gross pay salary: $112,700โ€”$169,100 USD

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