Zoph Returns to Google DeepMind Amid Leadership Turmoil

Barret Zoph has rejoined Google DeepMind as Vice President of Research after leaving his previous roles at OpenAI and co-founding Thinking Machines Lab. Zoph's return to Google DeepMind comes during a time of significant upheaval for the lab, with leadership setbacks and departures among top researchers.

Zoph previously worked at Google Brain, where he was a research scientist for six years before joining OpenAI as Vice President of Research. He later co-founded Thinking Machines Lab with Mira Murati, but left after allegations of misconduct emerged in January 2026.

At the time, Zoph rejoined OpenAI to lead the company's enterprise push, but his stint lasted only five months before he departed again. Now, as Vice President of Research at Google DeepMind, Zoph will be focusing on reinforcement learning and post-training work, areas where the lab is seeking to make significant strides.

However, Zoph's return may do little to alleviate concerns about the future of Google DeepMind. The lab has seen a significant decline in its share of research hires over the past year, with 25% of departing staff joining Anthropic and 21% joining Meta.