Director of Machine Learning

San Jose, United States

Adobe

Adobe is changing the world through digital experiences. We help our customers create, deliver and optimize content and applications.

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Our Company

Changing the world through digital experiences is what Adobe’s all about. We give everyone—from emerging artists to global brands—everything they need to design and deliver exceptional digital experiences! We’re passionate about empowering people to create beautiful and powerful images, videos, and apps, and transform how companies interact with customers across every screen. 

We’re on a mission to hire the very best and are committed to creating exceptional employee experiences where everyone is respected and has access to equal opportunity. We realize that new ideas can come from everywhere in the organization, and we know the next big idea could be yours!


 

The Opportunity

We’re looking for a Director of Machine Learning to lead our efforts in designing, developing, and scaling machine learning systems that revolutionize creativity for millions of users around the world.

As the Director of Machine Learning on the Data, Growth & Platforms team focused on Digital Media, you will lead a high-impact, multidisciplinary team of ML/AI engineers and data scientists dedicated to transforming Adobe’s go-to-market (GTM) and revenue strategies through machine learning.

You will define and oversee the ML strategy and model landscape, ensuring alignment with core business outcomes. Your team will drive the development and optimization of models that power GTM motions across routes to market, working in close partnership with other ML teams, Engineering & GTM collaborators. You will also play a key role in operationalizing models through Adobe’s personalization platforms.

Your work will directly influence critical business initiatives - enhancing and personalizing customer experiences across Adobe’s key surfaces, deepening customer understanding, and optimizing revenue across both B2B and B2C contexts, including payments and retention. By applying innovative research to high-impact challenges, you will deliver measurable business outcomes at scale.

What You'll Do:

  • Leadership & Strategy: Define and drive the vision for scalable, responsible machine learning systems that power and optimize Adobe’s GTM strategies across both B2B and B2C. Direct a team of managers, ML engineers, data scientists, and engineers to deliver innovations that elevate customer experience and generate measurable business impact.
  • Team Building & Mentorship: Recruit, mentor, and develop a high-performing, inclusive team. Promote a culture of innovation, technical excellence, and outcome-focused execution.
  • ML System Architecture: Oversee the design and implementation of robust data pipelines, model training workflows, and scalable infrastructure to support use cases including customer segmentation, personalization, lifecycle marketing, and revenue optimization.
  • Multi-Functional Collaboration: Work with sales leadership, marketing, product, data, and engineering teams to see opportunities, align on priorities, and translate business needs into ML-powered solutions. Collaborate closely with other ML and advanced analytics teams across Adobe to ensure alignment, share standard processes, and scale impact across the company.
  • Model Deployment at Scale: Lead efforts to ensure performance, reliability, and cost-efficiency of production ML models, supporting both real-time and batch use cases across the customer journey.
  • Innovation & Business Impact: Apply innovative ML research, including recommender systems, reinforcement learning, predictive modeling, and causal inference—to GTM domains. Focus on delivering solutions that are not only technically innovative but also drive tangible business value across acquisition, engagement, retention, and payments.

What You Need to Succeed

  • MS or PhD in Computer Science, Machine Learning, or a related technical field.
  • 10+ years of experience building and scaling ML systems, with at least 3 years in a technical leadership or management role.
  • Technical Expertise:
    • Deep experience in training and deploying deep learning models using frameworks like TensorFlow and PyTorch.
    • Good foundation in neural architectures including CNNs, RNNs, transformers, GANs, and more.
    • Proficiency in Python and familiarity with modern software engineering practices such as version control (Git), CI/CD, and agile development.
  • ML Infrastructure & MLOps:
    • Proven experience working with large-scale datasets, model training, optimization, and deployment.
    • Expertise in MLOps practices—including code, data, and model management.
    • Familiarity with cloud platforms such as Azure and AWS.
  • Communication & Influence: Outstanding communication and collaborator leadership skills, with a proven ability to influence both technical and executive audiences.
  • Problem Solving: Strong analytical and critical thinking skills with a track record of delivering impactful solutions.

Nice to Have

  • Prior experience in media, graphics, or creative tools domains.
  • Publications in top-tier AI/ML conferences (e.g., NeurIPS, ICML, CVPR).

Our compensation reflects the cost of labor across several  U.S. geographic markets, and we pay differently based on those defined markets. The U.S. pay range for this position is $165,300 -- $327,600 annually. Pay within this range varies by work location and may also depend on job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. Your recruiter can share more about the specific salary range for the job location during the hiring process.

At Adobe, for sales roles starting salaries are expressed as total target compensation (TTC = base + commission), and short-term incentives are in the form of sales commission plans.  Non-sales roles starting salaries are expressed as base salary and short-term incentives are in the form of the Annual Incentive Plan (AIP).

In addition, certain roles may be eligible for long-term incentives in the form of a new hire equity award.

State-Specific Notices:

California:

Fair Chance Ordinances

Adobe will consider qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records for employment in accordance with state and local laws and “fair chance” ordinances.

Colorado:

Application Window Notice

If this role is open to hiring in Colorado (as listed on the job posting), the application window will remain open until at least the date and time stated above in Pacific Time, in compliance with Colorado pay transparency regulations. If this role does not have Colorado listed as a hiring location, no specific application window applies, and the posting may close at any time based on hiring needs.

Massachusetts:

Massachusetts Legal Notice

It is unlawful in Massachusetts to require or administer a lie detector test as a condition of employment or continued employment. An employer who violates this law shall be subject to criminal penalties and civil liability.

Adobe is proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity employer. We do not discriminate based on gender, race or color, ethnicity or national origin, age, disability, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, veteran status, or any other applicable characteristics protected by law. Learn more.

 

Adobe aims to make Adobe.com accessible to any and all users. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation to navigate our website or complete the application process, email accommodations@adobe.com or call (408) 536-3015.

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Tags: Agile Architecture AWS Azure Causal inference CI/CD Computer Science CX Data pipelines Deep Learning Engineering GANs Git ICML Machine Learning ML infrastructure ML models MLOps Model deployment Model training NeurIPS PhD Pipelines Predictive modeling Python PyTorch Recommender systems Reinforcement Learning Research TensorFlow Transformers

Perks/benefits: Career development Conferences Equity / stock options Startup environment Transparency

Region: North America
Country: United States

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