Director, AI Research

AMD; Santa Clara (CA); On-site; USD 210,000 - 320,000; Full time

Job summary

AMD is seeking a Director of AI Research to define and lead a strategic AI research program at the intersection of frontier AI and AMD silicon. You will guide reinforcement learning, model training, and AI-for-systems while shaping hardware and software roadmaps.

This senior role combines hands-on leadership with hands-on engineering as needed. You will build and steer a high-caliber research team, foster external collaborations, and translate research breakthroughs into tangible AMD products

Qualifications

• Demonstrated technical leadership in AI/ML research with impact.
• Experience leading research teams and setting direction across multiple programs.
• Strong track record of impactful publications or production deployments.

Responsibilities

• Define and own a coherent AI research agenda spanning reinforcement learning, model training, and AI-for-systems.
• Build and mentor a high-caliber team of AI researchers and research engineers.
• Prioritize opportunities to maximize AMD's strategic impact.
• Ensure research translates into hardware and software roadmap influence.
• Collaborate across silicon, architecture, compiler, and software teams.
• Establish verification practices for trustworthy results.
• Set milestones, measure progress, and communicate outcomes to leadership.
• Attract, hire, and develop top AI talent for AMD.
• Stay at the frontier of AI research and translate advances into opportunities.

Skills

Leadership in AI/ML research

Reinforcement learning

Large-scale model training

AI-for-systems

Hardware-software integration

Communication to executives

Talent development

Education

PhD in CS/EE/ML or related field

Tools

PyTorch

TensorFlow

Job description

WHAT YOU DO AT AMD CHANGES EVERYTHING At AMD, our mission is to build great products that accelerate next-generation computing experiences—from AI and data centers, to PCs, gaming and embedded systems. Grounded in a culture of innovation and collaboration, we believe real progress comes from bold ideas, human ingenuity and a shared passion to create something extraordinary. When you join AMD, you’ll discover the real differentiator is our culture. We push the limits of innovation to solve the world’s most important challenges—striving for execution excellence, while being direct, humble, collaborative, and inclusive of diverse perspectives. Join us as we shape the future of AI and beyond.

Together, we advance your career.

The Role

AMD is looking for a Director of AI Research to set and lead a research agenda at the intersection of frontier AI and AMD silicon. This is a senior leadership role for a researcher who can see across the full picture—reinforcement learning and model training, AI-for-systems, and the hardware and software that make large models fast—and turn that breadth into a focused, high-impact program.

WHAT YOU DO AT AMD CHANGES EVERYTHING At AMD, our mission is to build great products that accelerate next-generation computing experiences—from AI and data centers, to PCs, gaming and embedded systems. Grounded in a culture of innovation and collaboration, we believe real progress comes from bold ideas, human ingenuity and a shared passion to create something extraordinary. When you join AMD, you’ll discover the real differentiator is our culture. We push the limits of innovation to solve the world’s most important challenges—striving for execution excellence, while being direct, humble, collaborative, and inclusive of diverse perspectives. Join us as we shape the future of AI and beyond. Together, we advance your career. The Role AMD is looking for a Director of AI Research to set and lead a research agenda at the intersection of frontier AI and AMD silicon. This is a senior leadership role for a researcher who can see across the full picture—reinforcement learning and model training, AI-for-systems, and the hardware and software that make large models fast—and turn that breadth into a focused, high-impact program.

The Person You will build and lead a team of AI researchers and research engineers, set technical direction across multiple workstreams, and partner across AMD and with external collaborators to ensure research translates into real advantage—for AMD's products, its hardware roadmap, and the models that run on AMD platforms. The ideal candidate is a recognized technical leader with deep research credibility who can still go hands‑on when it counts, and who knows how to turn open-ended research into measurable outcomes. We are open to candidates who want to remain hands‑on as player‑coaches as well as those who lead primarily through their teams.

Key Responsibilities

• Define and own a coherent AI research agenda spanning reinforcement learning, model training and optimization, and AI-for-systems, aligned to AMD's strategic priorities
• Build, lead, and mentor a high-caliber team of AI researchers and research engineers; set research direction, hiring bar, and standards for technical excellence
• Prioritize across competing research opportunities and focus the team on the work with the highest leverage for AMD
• Ensure research translates into impact—influencing the hardware and software roadmap, improving model performance on AMD platforms, and strengthening external partnerships
• Partner deeply across silicon, architecture, compiler, and software teams, and with external labs and collaborators, to ground research in real problems and real deployment
• Build the evaluation, infrastructure, and verification practices that make research results trustworthy and reproducible
• Set and track measurable goals for the research program—verifiable technical milestones, model and workload performance, and roadmap influence
• Represent AMD's research agenda to executive leadership and to external partners; communicate results, trade-offs, and direction to both technical and business audiences
• Attract, hire, and develop top AI research talent, and help build AMD's reputation as a destination for serious AI research
• Stay at the frontier of AI research and translate emerging techniques into opportunity for AMD

Preferred Experience

• Demonstrated technical leadership in AI/ML research, with a strong track record of impactful published work and/or research shipped into production or frontier models
• Deep, current expertise in one or more core areas—reinforcement learning, large-scale model training, AI-for-systems, or AI performance optimization—with the breadth to lead across several
• Experience leading research teams and setting technical direction across multiple concurrent programs
• Strong understanding of the hardware-software stack underpinning large-model training and inference
• Ability to remain hands‑on with training pipelines, research prototyping, or systems work while leading a team
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to influence executives, partners, and engineers across organizational boundaries
• Track record of attracting, hiring, and developing top AI research talent

Academic Credentials

• PhD in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Machine Learning, or a related field, or equivalent research experience and demonstrated impact

Benefits offered are described: AMD benefits at a glance.

AMD does not accept unsolicited resumes from headhunters, recruitment agencies, or fee-based recruitment services. AMD and its subsidiaries are equal opportunity, inclusive employers and will consider all applicants without regard to age, ancestry, color, marital status, medical condition, mental or physical disability, national origin, race, religion, political and/or third-party affiliation, sex, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity, military or veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. We encourage applications from all qualified candidates and will accommodate applicants’ needs under the respective laws throughout all stages of the recruitment and selection process.

AMD may use Artificial Intelligence to help screen, assess or select applicants for this position. AMD's "Responsible AI Policy" is available here.

This posting is for an existing vacancy.