Principal AI Researcher: Lead Agentic AI & LLMs

HR Tech Job; Pleasanton (CA); Hybrid; USD 228,000 - 342,000; Full time

Job summary

Workday is seeking a Principal AI Researcher to lead the AI Research Team within the Agent Factory hub. You will define research roadmaps for agentic reasoning, long-horizon planning, and model alignment, bridging theory to scalable enterprise deployments.

You will mentor a high-impact team, publish at top venues, and collaborate with engineering pods to deliver production-ready services for global enterprises. Flex work is supported, with substantial in-office collaboration.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of AI/ML research or applied science with production-scale impact.
• PhD or Master’s in CS, AI, Math, Physics, or equivalent.
• 4+ years using deep learning frameworks (PyTorch/JAX/TF).
• 2+ years in LLMs/VLMs, training/ RLHF/DPO / agentic reasoning.
• Strong record of top AI publications or industry-defining innovations.

Responsibilities

• Define research direction in Agentic AI and LLMs.
• Advance state-of-the-art in agentic systems (retrieval, grounding, memory, context).
• Lead foundational model research (pre-training, RLHF, DPO).
• Publish in top venues and drive open-source contributions.
• Bridge research to production with Agent Factory engineering teams.

Skills

AI/ML research

Deep learning

LLMs/VLMs

Publications

Leadership

Education

PhD or Master’s in CS/AI/Math/Physics

Tools

PyTorch

JAX

TensorFlow

Job description

Workday is seeking a Principal AI Researcher to lead the AI Research Team within the Agent Factory hub. You will define research roadmaps for agentic reasoning, long-horizon planning, and model alignment, bridging theory to scalable enterprise deployments.

You will mentor a high-impact team, publish at top venues, and collaborate with engineering pods to deliver production-ready services for global enterprises. Flex work is supported, with substantial in-office collaboration.