Vice President, Artificial Intelligence Research & Development (AI)

Location: Chicago, United States; hybrid work with in-person attendance at an assigned hirify.global office at least two days per week

Salary: $193,500–$353,250 annually

Company

hirify.global provides data, analytics, identity, fraud, and information services while developing next-generation AI capabilities for customer-facing products and business solutions.

What you will do

• Define and execute the enterprise AI R&D strategy, combining classical and generative AI into cohesive architectures.
• Lead the design and production deployment of agentic systems, cognitive architectures, planning frameworks, reasoning engines, and orchestration layers.
• Translate research in automated planning, knowledge graphs, reinforcement learning, optimization, and LLM orchestration into scalable platforms and reusable components.
• Build and scale an organization of applied scientists, machine learning engineers, and research engineers.
• Establish practices for experimentation, evaluation, reproducibility, benchmarking, explainability, governance, and responsible AI.
• Partner with Product, Engineering, Solutions, Innovation, and business leaders to embed AI capabilities into customer-facing products.

Requirements

• 15+ years of progressive experience in artificial intelligence, machine learning, or related technical fields, including leadership of large-scale AI R&D organizations.
• Experience building and deploying production AI products that combine generative and classical AI techniques.
• Deep knowledge of hybrid AI design, symbolic reasoning, deterministic and probabilistic methods, learning-based systems, knowledge graphs, reinforcement learning, optimization, and ML evaluation.
• Executive-level communication and cross-functional leadership experience, including guiding complex AI systems from research through commercialization.
• PhD in AI, computer science, or a related discipline focused on classical AI, or equivalent advanced research and industry expertise.
• Regular in-person work at a hirify.global office in Chicago is required at least two days per week.

Nice to have

• Experience creating reusable enterprise AI platforms, reasoning engines, orchestration layers, or agent frameworks.
• Experience converting advanced research into scalable, revenue-generating products or customer solutions.
• External research partnerships with universities, laboratories, or industry consortia.
• Experience with regulated data, financial services, credit, identity, fraud, or information-services environments.
• Experience leading globally distributed technical teams while operating strategically and hands-on.

Culture & Benefits

• Medical, dental, and vision coverage from day one, with HSA and FSA options.
• Company-paid life and disability insurance, plus optional legal, pet, and travel accident coverage.
• Parental leave, adoption assistance, fertility planning coverage, caregiver support, and dependent care benefits.
• 401(k) with employer match, employee stock purchase plan, tuition reimbursement, career coaching, and financial wellness resources.
• Flexible time off, paid holidays, commuter benefits, volunteer time off, and 24/7 emotional wellness support.