Director of AI Research (R&D)

We're Topaz Labs, an AI tech company that builds one-click image and video quality software with deep learning. Over 1M photographers and designers trust us with their work, including teams at Apple, Netflix, NASA, and more. We've processed over 1 billion images, achieved 1500% revenue growth in the last 5 years, and we're just getting started.
About us
Rocketship growth and opportunity for impact ($3M → $45M revenue in five years). Over 1 million customers (including companies like Apple, NASA, Netflix) have used us for over 1 billion photos. Our tech has been covered by Fast Company, The Verge, Engadget, Mashable, BBC, and more. We're a world-class team that executes quickly, obsesses about the customer experience, promotes from within, and we're profitable with infinite runway.
About the role 
As Director of AI Research, you’ll help us define “state-of-the-art” in image and video enhancement. Your primary responsibility will be to manage and guide a team of researchers exploring new deep learning and generative models to solve video and image problems. You'll also evaluate customer feedback and image data to gauge performance and refine our models based on real-world usage.

About you

• PhD in related field, or equivalent industry experience
• 5+ years of experience managing R+D teams, ideally in both business and academia 
• 3+ years of hands-on experience with Tensorflow or PyTorch
• Significant prior experience with CNNs and other common computer vision network architectures
• Well-read on major recent research papers in deep learning for image or video enhancement
• Preferred: Photography skill + interest, programming experience

This is a unique role for someone interested in making a deep impact at a high-growth tech software company. We offer strong base salary, plus significant ownership that scales with the company's growth. We also offer 100% covered medical/dental/vision for employees, 20 days annual PTO / personal days plus holidays, and 401k matching.
This is a full-time onsite role in Dallas, TX, and we will ask you to relocate if you're not in the area