Lead AI Research Scientist

About the role

Workato is building enterprise infrastructure for the agentic era and seeks a leader to drive our AI Research Lab. You will define a 24-month research vision and lead a team to develop advanced enterprise AI systems. In this capacity, you will own the technical direction and scientific integrity of our research initiatives from inception to deployment. You will act as the primary architect of our long-term research strategy in the context of enterprise automation. The role requires you to balance ambitious academic inquiry with the practical constraints and opportunities of real-world enterprise customers. You will be responsible for ensuring that our research output translates into tangible product advantages and durable intellectual property. This position demands comfort with ambiguity and the ability to chart a course in a rapidly evolving technological landscape. You will serve as a key representative of Workato's technical credibility within the broader AI research community.

Key facts

What you'll do

• Establish a 24-month research roadmap covering automated agent design, goal-based agents, synthetic data, automated post-training, reinforcement learning, evaluation techniques, and model optimization.
• Recruit, mentor, and manage a team of 10+ applied researchers and interns while maintaining a culture of scientific excellence.
• Produce peer-reviewed research and secure patents to establish market differentiation.
• Collaborate with engineering and product departments to move prototypes into production within six months of proof of concept.
• Work with lighthouse customers to test research ideas and create scalable reference architectures.
• Define rigorous evaluation frameworks to assess agent behavior, safety, and performance in enterprise contexts.
• Explore advanced data strategies, including synthetic data generation and curation, to improve model quality and efficiency.
• Drive initiatives in post-training methodologies, including instruction tuning, preference modeling, and automated feedback loops.
• Lead efforts in model optimization to reduce inference costs and latency without sacrificing capability.
• Partner with cross-functional stakeholders to align research priorities with business objectives and customer needs.
• Champion the adoption of modern LLM frameworks, transformer architectures, and reinforcement learning techniques.
• Ensure all research activities adhere to best practices for reproducibility, documentation, and knowledge transfer.

Requirements

• MS or PhD in Computer Science, Machine Learning, or a related discipline.
• 5+ years of experience leading applied research teams.
• Proven history of moving research projects into production environments.
• Strong publication history in major ML venues such as NeurIPS, ICML, or ICLR.
• Ability to work onsite in the San Francisco office.
• Demonstrated expertise with PyTorch or JAX as primary deep learning frameworks.
• Extensive experience with modern LLM frameworks and the broader ecosystem of tools.
• Mastery of large-scale model training techniques, including distributed computing and cluster management.
• Deep understanding of Transformer architectures and their implications for system design.
• Proficiency in designing and implementing reinforcement learning systems.
• Practical experience with CUDA and GPU-accelerated computing for model development.
• Familiarity with handling structured and unstructured enterprise data in complex environments.

Nice to have

• Publications or patents specifically related to agentic AI, automated reasoning, or generative models.
• Experience with productionizing AI systems in regulated enterprise environments.
• Background in building or contributing to open-source AI frameworks or libraries.
• Knowledge of industry-specific compliance and security standards relevant to enterprise AI.

Practical notes

• Compensation for California applicants starts at $357,000 base salary plus variable pay, equity, and benefits.
• Reference REQ ID: 2730 when applying.
• Engagement is Full-time, onsite, requiring physical presence at the San Francisco office.
• This position does not offer remote or hybrid arrangements; all work must be conducted on-site.
• The role is subject to immediate start for the right candidate capable of driving high-impact research.
• Travel may be required to interact with key customers and partners at their locations or industry events.
• Visa sponsorship is not available for this position at this time.
• Candidates must be authorized to work in the United States without sponsorship.
• The successful applicant will be expected to integrate fully with the existing AI Research Lab team and collaborate intensively on a daily basis.