Senior Director, Frontier AI Research, Bay Area, NY

EPAM Systems; San Francisco (CA); Remote; USD 250,000 - 325,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical Insurance

401(k) Match

Paid Time Off

LinkedIn Learning

Job summary

EPAM Systems is seeking a Senior Director for Frontier AI Research to bridge research and delivery across evaluations, RL environments, and training data. The role blends research, architecture, and technical sales while staying technically hands-on during early pilots.

You will translate research goals into concrete specifications, design rigorous evaluation strategies, and collaborate with researchers and customers to craft credible, scalable solutions.

Qualifications

• Significant experience in machine learning, AI research, or research engineering.
• Strong Python skills and experience with ML frameworks, LLM APIs, and evaluation tooling.
• Ability to translate research goals into structured experiments and delivery plans.

Responsibilities

• Engage with researchers, engineers, and leaders to understand objectives in model training, post-training, and evaluation.
• Translate research goals into explicit target capabilities, failure modes, and success criteria for customers and teams.
• Design evaluation approaches, task taxonomies, benchmarks, rubrics, and graders; analyze outputs for improvements.
• Architect RL environments, reward functions, and verifiers with robust signals and mitigations.
• Create training data programs (SFT, RLHF) with clear distributions and quality standards.
• Convert customer needs into repeatable Frontier AI offerings and assets.
• Support sellers with technical SME input from discovery to solution design.
• Translate requirements into clear specifications for delivery teams.

Skills

ML/AI research

Python

LLM APIs

Evaluation tooling

Technical communication

Education

Advanced degree in CS/ML/AI or equivalent

Tools

PyTorch

TensorFlow

LLM APIs

Job description

EPAM's new Frontier AI business unit partners directly with leading AI labs and advanced AI organizations, translating their research and post-training objectives into technically rigorous, deliverable programs across evaluations, RL environments, and training data. Senior Director, Frontier AI Research is EPAM's first dedicated Frontier AI research hire, operating across a broad set of capabilities rather than a single research domain. The role sits at the intersection of research, solution architecture, and technical sales, remaining technically engaged through early pilots while delivery leadership owns day-to-day execution. The right person is a genuine technical peer to sophisticated AI researchers: someone who can translate ambiguous research goals into concrete specifications that delivery teams can execute at quality and scale. Req.#1072890310

Responsibilities

• Engage directly with researchers, engineers, and technical leaders at frontier AI labs to understand model training, post-training, and evaluation objectives
• Translate ambiguous research goals into explicit target capabilities, failure modes, and success criteria, advising customers and internal teams on the right technical approach
• Design rigorous evaluation approaches, including task taxonomies, benchmarks, rubrics, and graders, and analyze model outputs to identify failure modes and improvement opportunities
• Help architect RL environments, reward functions, and verifiers that provide reliable training and evaluation signals while mitigating reward hacking and weak verification
• Design technically rigorous training data programs (SFT, preference data, RLHF), defining task distributions, annotation criteria, and quality standards
• Translate recurring customer research needs into repeatable EPAM Frontier AI offerings, methodologies, and technical assets
• Partner with the Platform and Operations Lead to determine the tooling, infrastructure, and specialist talent required to deliver new offerings
• Serve as the primary research and technical SME supporting Frontier AI Sellers in strategic customer pursuits, from discovery through solution design
• Translate customer requirements into technically compelling solution designs, proposals, and pilot plans that establish credibility with sophisticated AI research organizations
• Convert research requirements into clear specifications, including scope, rubrics, and quality thresholds, that delivery teams can execute without losing the research intent
• Provide technical oversight during early and strategically important engagements, reviewing outputs and model behavior to confirm the program is producing the intended results
• Maintain strong familiarity with developments in frontier model training, post-training, RL, agentic systems, and evaluation, and apply that knowledge to EPAM's offerings
• Build relationships across the Frontier AI research ecosystem and contribute to technically credible customer facing content and thought leadership

Requirements

• Significant experience in machine learning, AI research, or research engineering, with demonstrated work on modern deep learning and large language models
• Strong understanding of the model training and post-training lifecycle, including SFT, RLHF, reward modeling, and evaluation
• Demonstrated depth in one or more Frontier AI focus areas (evaluations, RL environments, agentic systems, reward or verifier design, coding agents), with the breadth to operate across adjacent areas
• Experience translating ambiguous research objectives into structured experiments, datasets, evaluations, or environments
• Hands-on technical capability, including strong Python skills and experience with modern ML frameworks, LLM APIs, and evaluation tooling
• Demonstrated ability to communicate complex technical concepts clearly to both technical and cross-functional audiences
• Advanced degree in Computer Science, Machine Learning, AI, Statistics, or a related field, or equivalent demonstrated research experience

Nice to have

• Peer-reviewed AI/ML research or a strong record of technically substantive applied research
• Prior experience building solutions or conducting research for frontier AI labs or leading foundation model companies
• Direct experience with RLHF, RLAIF, preference optimization, or synthetic data generation and curation
• Comfortable operating as a genuine technical peer to sophisticated researchers, with the commercial awareness to translate research credibility into customer trust
• Entrepreneurial mindset, comfortable building a new capability and creating structure where established process does not yet exist

We offer

• Medical, Dental and Vision Insurance (Subsidized)
• Health Savings Account
• Flexible Spending Accounts (Healthcare, Dependent Care, Commuter)
• Short-Term and Long-Term Disability (Company Provided)
• Life and AD&D Insurance (Company Provided)
• Employee Assistance Program
• Unlimited access to LinkedIn learning solutions
• Matched 401(k) Retirement Savings Plan
• Paid Time Off - the employee will be eligible to accrue 15-25 paid days, depending on specific level and tenure with EPAM (accrual eligibility may change over time)
• Paid Holidays - nine (9) total per year
• Legal Plan and Identity Theft Protection
• Accident Insurance
• Employee Discounts
• Pet Insurance
• Employee Stock Purchase Program
• If otherwise eligible, participation in the discretionary annual bonus program
• If otherwise eligible and hired into a qualifying level, participation in the discretionary Long-Term Incentive (LTI) Program

This Remote Position Cannot be Performed in New York City.

EPAM is a leading global provider of digital platform engineering and development services. We are committed to having a positive impact on our clients, our employees, and our communities. We embrace a dynamic and inclusive culture. Here you will collaborate with multi-national teams, contribute to a myriad of innovative projects that deliver the most creative and cutting-edge solutions, and have an opportunity to continuously learn and grow. No matter where you are located, you will join a dedicated, creative, and diverse community that will help you discover your fullest potential.

Engineer the Future with a Career at EPAM

This posting includes a good faith range of the salary EPAM would reasonably expect to pay the selected candidate. The range provided reflects base salary only. Individual compensation offers within the range are based on a variety of factors, including, but not limited to: geographic location, experience, credentials, education, training, the demand for the role; and overall business and labor market considerations. Most candidates are hired at a salary within the range disclosed. Salary range: $250,000-$325,000 USD. This position is also eligible for variable compensation incentives. In addition, the details highlighted in this job posting above are a general description of all other expected benefits and compensation for the position.

In accordance with the LA County Fair Chance Ordinance, you may find a copy of the Notice containing a summary of the Ordinance's key provisions here: Concept FCO Posting 8 27 24 (lacounty.gov)

Applicants and Employees in Unincorporated Los Angeles County: The Los Angeles Fair Chance Ordinance (LAFCO) requires employers conducting criminal history checks for applicants or employees to state the job duties for which certain criminal history may have a direct, adverse and negative relationship. For this position, these job duties include: engaging with clients, employees, and other third-parties (including the general public); accessing company and client information, IT systems and infrastructure, assets, property, and products, including proprietary coding, programs, applications, and data; and appropriately handling such information, including company and client confidential and personal information. For this reason, certain criminal history may result in the withdrawal of a condition offer of employment. Qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment in accordance with the LAFCO and the California Fair Chance Act.

EPAM welcomes all applicants and will consider qualified candidates with criminal history such as arrest and conviction records in a manner consistent applicable law, including the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance and Los Angeles Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring.

EPAM will not provide new H-1B visa sponsorship for this position. Candidates with existing transferable H-1B status may be considered.

It is unlawful in Massachusetts to require or administer a lie detector test as a condition of employment or continued employment. An employer who violates this law shall be subject to criminal penalties and civil liability.