Senior Manager, Research Scientist

Scale AI; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 290,000 - 363,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

Retirement benefits

Learning stipend

Generous PTO

Commuter stipend (eligibility)

Job summary

Scale AI is advancing AI systems by providing data, infrastructure, and tooling. We are building research on GenAI, evaluation, post-training, and RL environments, leading a team to define the roadmap and drive from prototyping to deployment.

You will lead research scientists and engineers, publish findings, mentor talent, and collaborate across functions to translate research into impactful products and insights.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of hands-on research experience in ML/AI domains including generative models.
• Experience leading or managing research teams and mentoring staff.
• Excellent written and verbal communication to diverse stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• Lead, mentor and grow a team of research scientists and engineers.
• Define and drive a multi-year research roadmap with milestones and resources.
• Collaborate with engineering, product, client-facing teams and external partners to translate research into components and insights.
• Publish research, present at conferences, contribute to open-source, represent the team externally.
• Foster an inclusive, high-performing culture and attract top talent.
• Stay connected to the research community and major trends.
• Thrive in a fast-paced startup environment and drive impactful results.

Skills

GenAI research

Team leadership

Publications in ML venues

Mentoring/coaching

Effective communication

Education

PhD or equivalent preferred

Job description

Scale AI accelerates the development of AI systems by providing the data, infrastructure, and tooling that power the most advanced models in the world. Our teams operate at the intersection of cutting-edge research, large-scale engineering, and real-world deployment, partnering with leading frontier labs, enterprises, and government agencies to push Generative AI into new capabilities and applications.

As AI rapidly evolves from static models to dynamic, agentic systems, Scale is building the foundational research, evaluation methodologies, and agent/RL infrastructure that will define this next era. You’ll join a high-impact research organization driving advances in large-language models, post-training, evaluation, and agentic/RL environments, helping shape how next-generation AI is built, measured, and deployed.

As a Research Scientist Manager, you will lead a world-class team of research scientists and engineers, define the research roadmap, and drive execution from early prototyping to deployment. You’ll thrive in a fast-moving environment, balancing deep technical leadership with people management, vision setting, and delivery.

You will:

• Lead, mentor and grow a team of research scientists and engineers working on GenAI research initiatives (e.g., evaluation, post-training, agents, RL environments).
• Define and drive a multi-year research roadmap: identify key scientific questions, set milestones, allocate resources, and ensure rigorous execution.
• Collaborate cross-functionally with engineering, product, client-facing teams and external academic or industry partners to translate research into components, insights, and actionable outcomes.
• Communicate compellingly: publish research, present at conferences, engage in open-source contributions, and represent the team externally.
• Drive an inclusive, high-performing culture: help your team through technical challenges, provide growth opportunities, and attract top talent.
• Stay deeply connected to the research community, understanding major trends, and helping set them.
• Thrive in a high-energy, fast-paced startup environment and are ready to dedicate the time and effort needed to drive impactful results.

Ideally you'd have:

• 5+ years of hands-on research experience (PhD or equivalent preferred) in machine learning, deep learning, generative models, agent/rl systems or related domains.
• A strong track record of research excellence, including publications in top-tier ML/AI venues (NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, ACL, etc.).
• Experience and track of recording in landing major research impacts in a fast-paced environment
• Experience leading or managing research teams. You’re excited to mentor, coach and develop talent.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills. You are able to articulate research ideas and outcomes to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Compensation packages at Scale for eligible roles include base salary, equity, and benefits. The range displayed on each job posting reflects the minimum and maximum target for new hire salaries for the position and may be inclusive of several career levels at Scale; it will be determined during the interview process based on work location and additional factors, including job-related skills, experience, qualifications, interview performance, and relevant education or training. Scale employees in eligible roles are also granted equity based compensation, subject to Board of Director approval. Your recruiter can share more about the specific salary range for your preferred location during the hiring process, and confirm whether the hired role will be eligible for equity grant. You'll also receive benefits including, but not limited to: comprehensive health, dental and vision coverage, retirement benefits, a learning and development stipend, and generous PTO. Additionally, this role may be eligible for additional benefits such as a commuter stipend.

For pay transparency purposes, the base salary range for this full-time position in the locations of San Francisco, New York, Seattle is: $290,400 — $363,000 USD

PLEASE NOTE: Our policy requires a 90-day waiting period before reconsidering candidates for the same role. This allows us to ensure a fair and thorough evaluation of all applicants.

About Us:

At Scale, our mission is to develop reliable AI systems for the world's most important decisions. Our products provide the high-quality data and full-stack technologies that power the world's leading models, and help enterprises and governments build, deploy, and oversee AI applications that deliver real impact. We work closely with industry leaders like Meta, Ernst & Young, Mayo Clinic, Time Inc., the Government of Qatar, and U.S. government agencies including the Army and Air Force. We are expanding our team to accelerate the development of AI applications.

We believe that everyone should be able to bring their whole selves to work, which is why we are proud to be an inclusive and equal opportunity workplace. We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability status, gender identity or Veteran status.

We are committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodations to applicants with physical and mental disabilities. If you need assistance and/or a reasonable accommodation in the application or recruiting process due to a disability, please contact us at [e-mail]. Please see the United States Department of Labor's Know Your Rights poster for additional information.

We comply with the United States Department of Labor's Pay Transparency provision.

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