Sr Director, ML (Foundry) at Adobe

San Jose, California, United States

Adobe Logo
Not SpecifiedCompensation
Senior (5 to 8 years), Expert & Leadership (9+ years)Experience Level
Full TimeJob Type
UnknownVisa
Technology, Media, EntertainmentIndustries

Requirements

  • 10+ years of experience in applied machine learning, including 4+ years leading senior ML/engineering teams building real products at scale
  • Deep hands-on expertise with modern generative models (diffusion, transformers, VAEs, latent video models, or similar) and experience taking at least one such system into production
  • Strong background in large-scale training and inference: distributed training, GPU/accelerator stacks (e.g., CUDA, NCCL), model optimization/quantization, and performance debugging
  • Proven ability to design and ship ML systems end-to-end: data pipelines, training, eval, deployment, monitoring, and continuous improvement
  • Experience working with high-resolution media (4K+ video, high bit-depth pipelines) or adjacent domains where bandwidth and latency constraints matter
  • Excellent leadership and communication skills; able to work directly with creative, production, and business stakeholders and turn ambiguous problems into clear technical plans
  • Strong software engineering fundamentals (Python, modern ML frameworks such as PyTorch/JAX, production code quality, CI/CD, observability)
  • Bachelor’s/Master’s/PhD in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience

Responsibilities

  • Own the end-to-end ML strategy for Foundry engineering and science across Generative Media models, from applied research to production deployment
  • Lead and grow a high-performing team of applied scientists and ML engineers; set clear goals, coach senior talent, and create a culture of experimentation, rigor, and delivery
  • Design and evolve the multi-tier model stack: foundation models, franchise models, on-set integration, and social/short-form extensions, and workflows
  • Partner closely with studio, production, and product teams to translate creative and business requirements into concrete ML roadmaps, milestones, and success metrics
  • Drive the technical architecture for training and inference at scale: data pipelines, evaluation frameworks, model lifecycle, and GPU/accelerator utilization across a multi-year horizon
  • Establish and own quality bars for generative output (visual fidelity, temporal consistency, editability, safety) and build the evaluation tools, benchmarks, and human-in-the-loop processes to enforce them
  • Collaborate with infrastructure and platform teams to design scalable, cost-efficient serving for real-time on-set use cases and high-volume social content generation
  • Stay on top of the GenAI research ecosystem and selectively bring in new techniques (e.g., diffusion, video transformers, latent video models, control/adapters) when they materially improve capability, cost, or speed

Skills

Key technologies and capabilities for this role

Machine LearningAIGenerative AIML EngineeringApplied ResearchModel DeploymentFoundation ModelsTechnical ArchitectureTeam Leadership

Questions & Answers

Common questions about this position

What experience is required for the Sr Director, ML role?

Candidates need 10+ years of experience in applied machine learning, including 4+ years leading senior ML/engineering teams building real products at scale, plus deep hands-on expertise with modern generative models like diffusion, transformers, and VAEs.

Is this a remote position or does it require office work?

This information is not specified in the job description.

What is the salary or compensation for this role?

This information is not specified in the job description.

What will I be leading in this role?

You will lead and grow a high-performing team of applied scientists and ML engineers, setting clear goals, coaching senior talent, and creating a culture of experimentation, rigor, and delivery.

What makes a strong candidate for this position?

A strong candidate has extensive experience leading ML teams at scale, deep expertise in generative models, and the ability to own end-to-end ML strategy from research to production while partnering across teams.

Adobe

Software solutions for content creation and marketing

About Adobe

Adobe provides a range of software solutions focused on digital experiences, catering to creative professionals, businesses, and educational institutions. Its main offerings include Adobe Creative Cloud, which contains tools for photography, graphic design, video editing, illustration, UI/UX design, 3D and augmented reality, and social media content creation. Adobe also offers marketing solutions through Adobe Experience Cloud and document management services via Adobe Document Cloud. The company operates on a subscription-based model, allowing users to access its software through monthly or annual plans, with special pricing available for students, teachers, and businesses. Adobe differentiates itself from competitors by providing a comprehensive suite of tools that cover various aspects of content creation and marketing, all integrated into one platform. The goal of Adobe is to empower users to create, manage, and optimize their digital content effectively.

San Jose, CaliforniaHeadquarters
1994Year Founded
$668.9MTotal Funding
IPOCompany Stage
Consumer Software, Enterprise Software, DesignIndustries
10,001+Employees

Benefits

Company Equity
401(k) Company Match

Risks

Emerging AI-driven design tools offer similar functionalities at lower costs.
Open-source alternatives may attract users away from Adobe's subscription model.
Data privacy concerns could affect trust in Adobe's cloud services.

Differentiation

Adobe offers a comprehensive suite for content creation, marketing, and document management.
Adobe's subscription model includes special pricing for students, teachers, and businesses.
Adobe integrates advanced analytics with Experience Cloud for data-driven marketing.

Upsides

Generative AI tools enhance Adobe's content creation and editing efficiency.
Remote work boosts demand for Adobe's cloud-based document management solutions.
AR's popularity in marketing benefits Adobe's 3D and AR tools.

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