AI Research Director

About the role

The AI Research Director will lead webAI’s advanced research initiatives across large language models, multimodal systems, edge inference, and distributed AI. This role drives the scientific vision behind our core technologies and works closely with engineering leadership to convert cutting-edge research into production-grade capabilities.

Responsibilities

• Lead webAI’s AI and ML research strategy including long-term vision, experimentation roadmap, and architectural innovation
• Oversee research on LLMs, diffusion and multimodal models, inference optimization, and distributed execution
• Advance techniques for compression, quantization, distillation, and privacy-preserving learning for edge and on-device AI
• Collaborate with Engineering and Product teams to translate research breakthroughs into scalable production-ready capabilities
• Build, mentor, and lead a world-class research team fostering creativity, scientific rigor, and innovation
• Evaluate emerging technologies, academic research, and industry trends to influence strategic direction
• Design and evaluate experiments, benchmarks, and methodologies for model performance and efficiency
• Represent webAI in research discussions with customers, partners, and the broader AI community
• Ensure research initiatives align with customer missions, security requirements, and enterprise needs

Qualifications

• You read papers on a daily basis
• 8+ years of experience in AI, machine learning research, deep learning, or related fields
• Experience leading research teams and delivering impactful ML innovations
• Expertise in modern AI architectures including transformers, diffusion models, multimodal systems, and reinforcement learning
• Strong understanding of distributed systems, edge inference, and model efficiency techniques such as quantization and pruning
• Proficiency in Python and ML frameworks such as PyTorch, TensorFlow, or JAX
• Strong research background demonstrated through publications, patents, or deployed innovations
• Absolutely love to communicate complex concepts clearly to technical and non-technical audiences
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field

Preferred Skills

• Master’s or PhD in Machine Learning, Computer Science, AI, Mathematics, or related field
• Experience with privacy-preserving AI such as federated learning or secure execution
• Strong mathematical foundation in ML optimization and model theory
• Experience integrating novel research into production environments
• Ability to operate in fast-paced, high-growth startup environments