Applied AI Research Director

Senior Director – Applied AI Research (LLMs / NLP for Enterprise Solutions)

Company: Global AI & Compliance Software Leader

Total Comp up to $570K

Mission:

We’re partnering with a global leader in AI-driven SaaS solutions to find a Senior Director of Applied Research. This is a mission-critical leadership role overseeing the AI/ML research strategy for complex enterprise applications in the corporate Tax & Trade domain.

You will be responsible for driving innovation at scale: leading teams, shaping strategy, and owning delivery of AI features powered by NLP, LLMs, and Intelligent Agent frameworks. You’ll work cross-functionally to transform AI concepts into real-world features integrated into enterprise platforms used by Fortune 500 clients.

This role combines hands-on technical leadership with strategic product influence, and is ideal for someone with deep experience in turning advanced research into commercial impact, especially in regulated, content-rich environments.

Key Missions:

• Lead a large team of scientists and engineers through the full ML lifecycle
• Build scalable AI/NLP features for intelligent assistants and classification tools
• Champion innovation using LLMs, RAG, and AI agent frameworks
• Align with product and executive stakeholders to define strategic priorities
• Represent the AI vision internally and externally (including client conversations)
• Create a high-performance team culture rooted in curiosity and delivery

Ideal Background:

• 10+ years in AI/NLP system development; 5+ years in leadership roles
• Enterprise experience with AWS-based ML systems in production
• Deep understanding of LLM integration and agentic architecture design
• Excellent communicator and stakeholder manager
• Strong academic grounding (PhD or similar) and bonus: research publications