Principal AI Researcher

Job Description:

DataRobot delivers AI that maximizes impact and minimizes business risk. Our platform and applications integrate into core business processes so teams can develop, deliver, and govern AI at scale. DataRobot empowers practitioners to deliver predictive and generative AI, and enables leaders to secure their AI assets. Organizations worldwide rely on DataRobot for AI that makes sense for their business — today and in the future. 

This position aims to advance DataRobot’s unique generative AI position in the market, communicate findings to technical leadership, and foster collaboration on generative AI innovation across teams. DataRobot is an innovative leader in technology to apply AI and realize value. In order to continue this mission, DataRobot runs an AI research team focused on advancing the next frontier of AI technologies that will unlock value across businesses and industries. In particular, this team focuses on advancing deep learning and generative AI approaches and applications, publishing research in scientific journals, and sharing findings internally and externally. Their findings are also integrated into product features in order to have practical impact across hundreds of the world’s largest companies.Researchers at DataRobot have a unique advantage in being able to see the impacts of their work as it is integrated into product capabilities rapidly inside a startup environment. Additionally, they will have unique exposure to many of the world largest enterprise company AI builds to understand the innovations that will have the highest real-world impacts. DataRobot’s research areas today involve enabling businesses to realize value with AI. For example, generative AI assessment involves developing novel approaches to gain confidence in generative AI pipelines behavior before deployment. Research into improving the quality of RAG outputs (or related techniques) includes novel LLM fine-tuning, optimizing embeddings, and agent-based retrieval strategies. Cost reduction research involves developing new strategies to reduce latency and costs of generative AI pipelines. And finally, genAI consumption research involves improving how users engage with AI systems, such as agent based problem solving experiences.

Key Responsibilities:

• You will help identify technology gaps in the industry, particularly in areas that will unlock new value for use-cases for business, and determine research plans to incorporate into research pipelines by writing and motivating strategic research plans

• You will execute on long-term research plans with an efficient team in order to advance the state-of-the-art, resulting in scientific publications, advanced development prototypes, and external facing demonstrations

• As an AI expert you will expand relationships with other technical experts inside DataRobot and with customer AI teams from across the world

• You will foster collaboration and knowledge-sharing across organizational boundaries
   

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:

• Command of different deep learning and generative AI approaches, their tradeoffs, and the latest research advances

• Command of the foundational scientific python ecosystem (pytorch/jax/tensorflow, numpy, scipy, pandas, scikit-learn)

• Ability to communicate complex technical concepts to diverse audiences

• Software design and peer code review skills, including leading others

• Passion for research and innovation, both through individual projects and knowledge sharing with internal and external stakeholders

• PhD in computer science, data science, artificial intelligence, or related field

• 3+ years of combined Python engineering and machine learning experience with a focus on Deep Learning

• Experience with core deep learning and generative AI technology, including pre-training foundation models, fine-tuning of LLMs, contrastive learning, and evaluating generative results

• Experience with retrieval augmented generation and retrieval, ranking, and prompting strategies

• Experience publishing academic papers as a lead author or essential contributor

• Experience participating in a top conference in High Performance Computing, Deep Learning, Machine Learning or AI domains

• Experience with deep learning libraries and frameworks (TensorFlow, JAX, PyTorch, Langchain,  etc.)

Compensation Statement:

The U.S. annual compensation range for this full-time position is between $159,375.00 and $286,125.00 USD/year. This range represents the annual base salary. Actual offers may be higher or lower than this range based on various factors, including (but not limited to) the candidate’s work location, job-related skills, experience, and education.

The talent and dedication of our employees are at the core of DataRobot’s journey to be an iconic company. We strive to attract and retain the best talent by providing competitive pay and benefits with our employees’ well-being at the core. Here’s what your benefits package may include depending on your location and local legal requirements: Medical, Dental & Vision Insurance, Flexible Time Off Program, Paid Holidays, Paid Parental Leave, Global Employee Assistance Program (EAP) and more!

DataRobot Operating Principles:

• Wow Our Customers
• Set High Standards
• Be Better Than Yesterday
• Be Rigorous
• Assume Positive Intent
• Have the Tough Conversations
• Be Better Together
• Debate, Decide, Commit
• Deliver Results
• Overcommunicate

Research shows that many women only apply to jobs when they meet 100% of the qualifications while many men apply to jobs when they meet 60%. At DataRobot we encourage ALL candidates, especially women, people of color, LGBTQ+ identifying people, differently abled, and other people from marginalized groups to apply to our jobs, even if you do not check every box. We’d love to have a conversation with you and see if you might be a great fit. 

DataRobot is proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity and Affirmative Action employer. We do not discriminate based upon race, religion, color, national origin, gender (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, or other applicable legally protected characteristics. DataRobot is committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodations to applicants with physical and mental disabilities. Please see the United States Department of Labor’s EEO poster and EEO poster supplement for additional information.

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