Director, LLM & Agentic AI Research

Zillow Group Inc.; United States; Remote; USD 196,000 - 312,000; Full time

Job summary

Zillow Group Inc. is seeking a Principal Applied Scientist to set the scientific direction for the large language models behind its AI assistant.

You will lead a team of applied scientists, define research goals, and drive end-to-end projects from concept to production impact, collaborating with product, engineering, and data teams. The role emphasizes translating state-of-the-art AI into practical improvements used by millions of home shoppers and communicating strategy to executives across the

Qualifications

• PhD in Computer Science, ML or related field, or a Master’s with strong research credentials.
• Deep hands-on expertise with large language models and post-training methods (SFT, RLHF, etc.).
• Proven track record leading scientists or engineers while staying hands-on.
• Ability to scope and solve ambiguous problems and set technical direction.
• Proficiency in Python and ML frameworks; read and guide experimental code.

Responsibilities

• Define the research agenda for LLM post-training and evaluation.
• Lead and grow a group of applied scientists with technical direction and mentorship.
• Drive high-impact problems from product vision to experiments, models, and data.
• Translate cutting-edge AI research into practical product improvements.
• Communicate scientific strategy and results to executives and partners.

Skills

Python

PyTorch

LLMs

Reinforcement learning

Leadership

Education

PhD or MS in CS/ML

Tools

PyTorch

Post-training methods

Job description

Zillow Group Inc. is seeking a Principal Applied Scientist to set the scientific direction for the large language models behind its AI assistant.

You will lead a team of applied scientists, define research goals, and drive end-to-end projects from concept to production impact, collaborating with product, engineering, and data teams. The role emphasizes translating state-of-the-art AI into practical improvements used by millions of home shoppers and communicating strategy to executives across the