Director, Frontier AI Research & Partnerships

AMD; Santa Clara (CA); Hybrid; USD 300,000 - 600,000; Full time

Job summary

AMD seeks a Director of AI Research-Strategic Partnerships to lead research collaborations with frontier AI labs and model-development partners. This senior role sets the technical agenda across RL, frontier model training, and AMD silicon, translating partnerships into hardware/software roadmap impact.

You’ll lead a team of researchers and engineers, drive joint programs, and earn credibility as a scientific peer with partner labs and AMD executives.

Qualifications

• Demonstrated technical leadership in AI/ML research with published work or production model impact.
• Deep expertise in reinforcement learning, large-scale model training, GPU programming, or AI systems/performance optimization.
• Experience leading research teams and setting direction across multiple programs.

Responsibilities

• Define and own the AI research strategy for AMD's strategic lab partnerships and align roadmaps with hardware/software priorities.
• Build, lead and mentor a high-caliber team of AI researchers and engineers; set direction and standards for excellence.
• Represent AMD's research agenda to external partners and executives; communicate results and roadmap implications.

Skills

AI leadership

Reinforcement learning

Large-scale model training

GPU programming

AI systems optimization

Cross-team leadership

Education

PhD in CS/EE/ML or equivalent

Tools

CUDA

MPI

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, AI Research-Strategic Partnerships to lead our research collaborations with frontier AI labs and strategic model-development partners. This is a senior leadership role for someone who can set technical direction at the intersection of reinforcement learning, frontier model training, and AMD silicon-and turn those partnerships into measurable advances for both our partners' models and AMD's hardware and software roadmap.

THE PERSON

You will build and lead a team of AI researchers and research engineers, own the technical agenda across multiple lab partnerships, and serve as a credible scientific peer to the researchers we collaborate with. The ideal candidate is a recognized technical leader who has shipped real research, can still go deep on training pipelines and kernels when it matters, and knows how to translate frontier-lab needs into hardware and roadmap decisions. 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 the AI research strategy for AMD's strategic lab partnerships, aligning joint technical roadmaps with AMD's hardware and software 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
• Serve as AMD's senior research counterpart to partner labs-earning credibility as a peer on reinforcement learning, model training, and large-scale systems
• Drive joint research programs spanning RL training pipelines (e.g., async RL, importance sampling, reward modeling), GPU programming, kernel and PPA optimization, and frontier model performance on AMD platforms
• Translate frontier-model requirements into concrete, prioritized input to AMD's hardware roadmap and software stack, partnering closely with silicon, architecture, and compiler teams
• Establish IP-preserving collaboration architectures (e.g., confidential compute) that let AMD and partners co-develop while protecting each party's intellectual property
• Set and track measurable goals for each partnership-model uplift, kernel and workload performance, and verifiable research milestones
• Represent AMD's research agenda to executive leadership and to external partners; communicate results, trade-offs, and roadmap implications to both technical and business audiences
• Stay at the frontier of AI research and translate emerging techniques into opportunities for AMD and its partners

PREFERRED EXPERIENCE

• Demonstrated technical leadership in AI/ML research, with a track record of impactful published work and/or research shipped into production or frontier models
• Deep, current expertise in one or more of: reinforcement learning, large-scale model training, GPU programming, and AI systems/performance optimization
• Experience leading research teams and setting technical direction across multiple concurrent programs
• Experience working with or inside frontier AI labs, or leading external research partnerships, with the credibility to operate as a scientific peer
• Strong understanding of the hardware-software stack underpinning large-model training and inference, and how architectural decisions affect model performance
• Ability to remain hands-on with training pipelines, kernels, or research prototyping while leading a team
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to influence executives, partners, and engineers across organizational and company 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

#LI-BW1

#LI-hybrid

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