Junior AI Research Scientist
Portugal
AI Research – AI Research /
Full Time /
Remote
Sword Health is on a mission to free two billion people from pain.
With 67% of members achieving a pain-free life and a 70% reduction in surgery intent, at Sword, we are using AI Care to change lives, and save millions for our 25,000+ enterprise clients across three continents. Today, we hold the majority of industry patents, win 70% of competitive evaluations, and have raised more than $300 million from top venture firms like Founders Fund, Sapphire Ventures, General Catalyst, and Khosla Ventures.
Recognized as a Forbes Best Startup Employer in 2025, this award highlights our focus on being a destination for the best and brightest talent. Not only have we experienced unprecedented growth since our market debut in 2020, but we’ve also created a remarkable mission and value-driven environment that is loved by our growing team. With a recent valuation of $4 billion, we are in a phase of hyper growth and expansion, and we’re looking for individuals with passion, commitment, and energy to help us scale our global impact.
Joining Sword means committing to a set of core values, chief amongst them to “do it for the patients” every day, and to always “deliver more than expected” on behalf of our members and clients.
This is an opportunity for you to make a significant difference on a massive scale as you work alongside 1000+ (and growing!) talented colleagues, spanning three continents. Your charge? To help us build a pain-free world, powered by AI, enhanced by people — accessible to all.
At Sword Health, our AI Research team is at the heart of our mission to free two billion people from pain. We build and fine-tune foundational AI models across multiple modalities (e.g., text, vision, and speech) to create a deeply personalized and effective care experience for our members. Our work spans the full research lifecycle, from collecting, generating and annotating data to designing and running experiments and thoroughly testing our models. As an AI Researcher, you won't just be advancing the state-of-the-art; you'll be building the core intelligence that powers our platform and directly helps people live healthier, pain-free lives. We have got all the computing power, data, and talent you need to do your best work.
What you'll be doing:
- Contribute to key stages of the development cycle for our models, from preparing data, training and evaluating models to improve our products.
- Collaborate with senior researchers to translate cutting-edge AI research into practical applications that have clinical implications.
- Execute on well-defined research tasks that contribute to our long-term ambitious goals.
- Translate research ideas – both from literature and from the team – into high-quality, working code.
- Contribute to publications and help share our findings with the research community.
What you need to have:
- An advanced degree MSc in Computer Science with experience in Machine learning (developed during course work and thesis) OR a PhD in a highly technical field (physics, mathematics, medicine, bioengineering, etc) and experience with classical ML.
- Demonstrated experience with the research process, which may include a thesis, publications, or significant research-focused projects.
- Proficiency in Python and experience with common machine learning frameworks (e.g., PyTorch, JAX, TensorFlow).
- Demonstrated ability to design experiments, and analyze and interpret their results..
- Must have or be able to obtain work authorization in Portugal.
What we would love to see:
- Demonstrated research potential, such as publications in peer-reviewed venues (including workshops) or a strong research-oriented Master's thesis.
- Alternatively, a strong research background in another highly quantitative field (e.g., Physics, Applied Mathematics, Computational Statistics), coupled with a deep passion to apply your skills to AI for healthcare.
- A strong foundation and a keen interest in one or more of the following areas: Large Language Models (LLMs), multimodal learning (vision, speech), deep learning, or reinforcement learning (RL).
- Experience implementing and debugging complex algorithms and systems.
- Strong communication skills and a history of effective collaboration on projects.
- A record of academic excellence, demonstrated through strong grades, fellowships, or contributions to open-source projects.
€58,800 - €92,400 a year
This range includes base, variable and equity.
These compensation bands are just the starting point. Once someone joins and proves they’re outlier talent, we adjust quickly to ensure their compensation aligns with their impact.
Our job titles may span more than one career level. Actual pay is determined by skills, qualifications, experience, location, market demand, and other factors. Compensation details listed in this posting reflect the base salary and any potential variable, bonus or sales incentives, and the Company’s estimation of the value of private company stock options, if applicable. The pay range is subject to change, future value of company stock options is not guaranteed, and compensation may be modified in the future. In addition to our total compensation, Sword offers a number of benefits as listed below.
Portugal - Sword Benefits & Perks:
• Health, dental and vision insurance
• Meal allowance
• Equity shares
• Remote work allowance
• Flexible working hours
• Work from home
• Discretionary vacation
• Snacks and beverages
• English class
Note: Please note that this position does not offer relocation assistance. Candidates must possess a valid EU visa and be based in Portugal.
Sword Health, which includes SWORD Health, Inc. and Sword Health Professionals (consisting of Sword Health Care Providers, P.A., SWORD Health Care Providers of NJ, P.C., SWORD Health Care Physical Therapy Providers of CA, P.C.*) complies with applicable Federal and State civil rights laws and does not discriminate on the basis of Age, Ancestry, Color, Citizenship, Gender, Gender expression, Gender identity, Gender information, Marital status, Medical condition, National origin, Physical or mental disability, Pregnancy, Race, Religion, Caste, Sexual orientation, and Veteran status.
