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Runway is hiring a Prototype Researcher to join Runway Labs, the company's research and exploration team focused on AI video and general world models. In this role, you will imagine, design, and build experimental prototypes that make emerging AI capabilities tangible and communicate a compelling vision for the technology's future.
You will combine creative thinking, hands-on prototyping, and storytelling to develop original ideas, build working prototypes, and shape them into clear, memorable demonstrations. Working closely with researchers, engineers, and designers, you'll explore new interfaces and interaction paradigms for AI-generated video, world models, and agentic systems. Your work will help people understand new AI systems through experiences they can see, use, and engage with.
Key responsibilities include:
- Develop original concepts exploring emerging AI systems, from interactive video and world models to agentic experiences
- Design and build working prototypes that turn research capabilities into engaging, understandable experiences
- Shape each project's narrative: what it explores, why it matters, and what it suggests about the future
- Package explorations into polished demos, films, and interactive experiences that communicate research and vision
- Collaborate with researchers and engineers to understand new capabilities and identify compelling demonstration approaches
- Move quickly through experimentation, using prototypes to test and refine both experience and narrative
Runway is a generative AI company founded in 2018, headquartered in New York with offices in San Francisco and Seattle. The company focuses on building AI to simulate the world through merging art and science, with a particular emphasis on world models as the frontier of AI progress.
REQUIREMENTS:
- Portfolio of original projects demonstrating creative thinking, design craft, technical execution, and strong storytelling
- Ability to take an idea from early concept through working prototype to compelling presentation
- Hands-on experience building interactive experiences with code, with judgment to choose appropriate tools
- Strong visual and interaction design skills with attention to detail and ability to make complex ideas accessible
- Genuine curiosity about AI video, world models, agentic systems, and emerging generative media
- Comfort working in ambiguous research environments, defining your own direction, and learning new tools as work evolves
- Ability to explain the purpose and potential of your work clearly through writing, visuals, demos, or film
About Runway
AI / Data / Infrastructure; Media / Creator Economy — generative AI tools for video and creative production.
