Senior Manager, Forward Deployed Research (AI)

TL;DR

Senior Manager, Forward Deployed Research (AI): Leading a team to solve complex data problems for frontier AI labs, including scoping training data and designing RL environments, with an accent on technical leadership and strategic account management. Focus on translating research objectives into actionable technical plans and building scalable playbooks for the forward deployed research function.

Location: Must be based in the United States. Hybrid options available in New York City, Redwood City, and San Francisco, or full remote within the US.

Salary: $185,000–$321,600 USD

Company

Snorkel AI helps enterprises transform expert knowledge into specialized AI at scale using a data-centric approach to achieve high performance and production-ready systems.

What you will do

• Recruit, hire, and develop the forward deployed research team, coaching them on technical quality and customer engagement.
• Set and maintain the technical bar for specifications, evaluation frameworks, and customer deliverables.
• Manage SE capacity planning and partner with AE leadership on deal strategy and pipeline forecasting.
• Lead technical conversations and solution design for select strategic accounts.
• Establish team processes and playbooks for discovery, spec development, and knowledge sharing.
• Act as an escalation point for technically complex or high-stakes customer situations.

Requirements

• 8+ years of experience in applied ML, AI solutions engineering, technical presales, or research-intensive customer-facing roles.
• 5+ years of experience managing or leading technical individual contributors.
• Expertise in LLMs, training data pipelines, evaluation methodologies, and post-training techniques (RLHF, DPO, RLAIF).
• Experience operating against revenue or pipeline goals within a GTM organization.
• B.S. in Computer Science, Machine Learning, or a related field.
• Must be based in the United States.

Culture & Benefits

• Opportunity to work at a rapidly scaling company with robust funding and market-proven solutions.
• Ability to shape priorities, influence strategic decisions, and directly impact company success.
• Support for career growth and learning across multiple functions.
• Eligible for variable compensation and stock grants.
• Commitment to diversity and equal employment opportunities.