Applied Methods
~The MetaResearch & ScienceResearch Management

Research Management

Research managers in this role oversee teams developing AI solutions for complex scientific and technical challenges, from drug discovery and autonomous systems to model evaluation and safety research. They balance hands-on technical leadership with strategic planning, setting research directions and priorities while mentoring scientists and engineers through exploratory work. What distinguishes these leaders is their ability to translate frontier AI research into measurable outcomes—whether that's evaluating model capabilities, optimizing machine learning pipelines, building new evaluation frameworks, or steering teams toward products that solve real customer problems. They typically operate within specialized research functions nested within larger product or engineering organizations, working cross-functionally to ensure research breakthroughs integrate into platforms and services that matter.

$ titles --canonical
Research Science ManagerDirector, Machine Learning Research
Open Jobs30
Companies Hiring16
$02

Skills

What companies are looking for in this role.

$ skills --core

Leading and mentoring multidisciplinary research teams across applied and foundational AI problems

95%

Defining and executing research roadmaps aligned with strategic business objectives and product impact

93%

Collaborating with cross-functional teams including engineering, product, and external partners

92%

Translating cutting-edge research into production-ready systems and deployable solutions

91%

Designing and implementing scalable machine learning pipelines and infrastructure

88%

Advancing large language model training, fine-tuning, and inference optimization techniques

85%

Conducting rigorous evaluation and benchmarking of AI model capabilities and limitations

82%

Publishing research findings and presenting work at top-tier conferences

79%

Managing complex data collection, labeling, and quality assurance processes

75%

Optimizing compute resource allocation and managing infrastructure constraints

68%

Developing causal inference and statistical modeling approaches for real-world data analysis

65%
$ skills --emerging

Developing post-training techniques including reinforcement learning and preference optimization

80%

Building agentic AI systems and managing reinforcement learning environments

72%

Applying machine learning to domain-specific scientific problems and translational research

70%

Implementing data-centric AI development approaches and dataset creation methodologies

68%

Architecting foundation model distillation and teacher-student model frameworks

65%
$ skills --soft

Fostering collaborative team culture emphasizing innovation, knowledge sharing, and continuous learning

88%

Recruiting, hiring, and onboarding high-caliber research talent

86%

Communicating complex technical concepts to diverse stakeholders including executives and non-technical partners

84%

Navigating ambiguity and managing shifting priorities in fast-paced, dynamic environments

80%

Building strong relationships with external academic, industry, and government partners

73%

Providing strategic input and scientific leadership on domain-specific applications and use cases

71%
$03

Technology

The tools and technologies that define this role.

$ tech --language
Pythonhigh
Rmoderate
$ tech --framework
PyTorchmoderate
TensorFlowlow
$ tech --platform
CUDAmoderate
GPU Cloudmoderate
Kuberneteslow
$ tech --tool
AlphaFoldlow
High-Content Imaginglow
SASlow
Simulationlow
$ tech --concept
Foundation Modelsvery high
LLMvery high
Evaluation Benchmarkshigh
Reinforcement Learninghigh
Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedbackhigh
Supervised Fine-Tuninghigh
Agent Systemsmoderate
Knowledge Distillationmoderate
LoRAmoderate
Mixture of Expertsmoderate
MLOpsmoderate
Multimodal Modelsmoderate
Preference Optimizationmoderate
Quantizationmoderate
RAGmoderate
Sparsitymoderate
Data Flywheellow
iPSClow
PEFTlow
$04

Open Jobs

30 open Research Management jobs across 16 companies.

Databricks1w
Principal Research Scientist - AI Scaling & Optimization
Mountain View, California; San Francisco, California·Research & Science
OpenAI1w
Program Manager, Human Data
San Francisco·Research & Science
Recursion1w
Director, Neuroscience (In Vitro Biology)
Salt Lake City, Utah·Research & Science
Nscale1w
Vice President, AI Research
EMEA·Research & Science
PhysicsX1w
Principal Research Scientist
London, United Kingdom·Research & Science
Crusoe1w
Senior Director, AI Model LifeCycle
San Francisco, CA - US·Research & Science
Isomorphic Labs1w
Head of Translational Sciences, Drug Design, Cambridge, MA
Cambridge, MA·Research & Science
Databricks2w
Principal Research Scientist – Scaling
San Francisco, California·Research & Science
Isomorphic Labs2w
Head of Computational Drug Design, Cambridge, MA
Cambridge, MA·Research & Science
Snorkel AI3w
Senior Manager - Research
San Francisco, CA (Hybrid)·Research & Science
Cohere3w
Manager of Technical Staff, Sovereign AI
Toronto·Research & Science
Perplexity3w
Member of Technical Staff (AI Research Lead)
San Francisco·Research & Science
Isomorphic Labs4w
Head of Chemistry, Drug Design, Cambridge, MA
Cambridge, MA·Research & Science
Scale AI4w
Director, Enterprise Machine Learning & Research
San Francisco, CA; New York, NY·Research & Science
Recursion1mo
Vice President, Real World Evidence (RWE)
New York, New York; Salt Lake City, Utah·Research & Science
Waymo1mo
Director of AI Foundations, Foundation Model Evaluation & Data
Mountain View, CA, USA; San Francisco, CA, USA·Research & Science
Scale AI1mo
Tech Lead/Manager, Machine Learning Research Scientist- LLM Evals
San Francisco, CA; Seattle, WA; New York, NY·Research & Science
Scale AI1mo
Manager, Machine Learning Research Scientist, GenAI
San Francisco, CA; Seattle, WA; New York, NY·Research & Science
Nebius1mo
Director, Machine Learning Research (Product)
Remote - United States·Research & Science
Isomorphic Labs1mo
Team / Research Leader, Computational Drug Design, London, Lausanne
Lausanne; London·Research & Science