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Vlad Feinberg is Google DeepMind’s pre-training area lead; Ryan Peterman…

2026-06-15 · 13:00 UTC ·@ryanlpeterman ·1 min read

Brief

Vlad Feinberg, Google DeepMind’s pre-training area lead, joins Ryan Peterman (post created 2026-03-11, updated 2026-04-04) to explain concrete steps and domain skills for landing jobs at frontier labs (Google DeepMind, Anthropic, OpenAI). The hour-long episode covers skills vs engineering, key domains, marketing yourself, and an anecdote about Jeff Dean, with links and a transcript.

Why it matters

Vlad Feinberg is Google DeepMind’s pre-training area lead; Ryan Peterman published the episode on 2026-03-11 (last updated 2026-04-04) focused on how to land roles at frontier labs including Google DeepMind, Anthropic, and OpenAI.

Key details

  • The episode is chaptered with practical timestamps: 00:33 – Skills frontier labs need; 08:45 – AI research vs engineering; 35:13 – Concrete steps engineers can take; 47:23 – Jeff Dean spot bonus story.
  • Listen/watch via YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts; episode includes links to Vlad’s blog (vladfeinberg.com) and a transcript, and is sponsored by WorkOS (SSO/SCIM/RBAC APIs).
Source evidence

Vlad Feinberg (@FeinbergVlad) is Google DeepMind’s pre-training area lead and I asked him all about how to land a job at a frontier lab like Google DeepMind, Anthropic or OpenAI.

In this episode:

• Skills frontier labs need
• Differences between software engineering and AI research
• Domains that matter for frontier research
• Concrete steps engineers can take to get closer to research
• Jeff Dean spot bonus story

Where to watch:

• YouTube - piped.video/cDyi91onoJ8
• Spotify - open.spotify.com/episode/5Xg…
• Apple Podcasts - podcasts.apple.com/us/podcas…
• Transcript - developing.dev/p/google-deep…

Thank you to the sponsor of this episode for supporting my work:

• WorkOS: makes your app Enterprise Ready with easy to use APIs to add SSO, SCIM, RBAC, and more in just a few lines of code, check them out at workos.com/

Chapters:

00:00 - Intro
00:33 - Skills frontier labs need
08:45 - The difference between AI research and engineering
21:41 - Domains that matter for the frontier
30:50 - Marketing yourself to frontier labs
35:13 - Concrete steps engineers can take
38:29 - Overview of pre-training areas
47:23 - Jeff Dean spot bonus story
50:14 - Favorite Gemini war story
58:59 - Advice for his younger self
01:03:07 - Outro

Video

Vlad Feinberg (@FeinbergVlad)

How to land a job at a frontier lab

vladfeinberg.com/2026/05/10/…

Link

How to Land a Frontier Lab Job

Vlad's Blog
vladfeinberg.com

— https://nitter.net/FeinbergVlad/status/2056383124829872466#m