Principal Reliability Scientist

Data scientists at Thoughtworks are strategic leaders who spearhead data-driven initiatives, tackle complex business challenges and uncover transformative insights. They possess a deep understanding of a client's business ecosystem and partner with executives to align technology strategies with business objectives. By contextualizing emerging trends and Thoughtworks' exploration, they expand the impact of data science within the client organization. Drawing upon their profound expertise in statistics, modeling, machine learning algorithms and data mining methodologies, our data scientists integrate this knowledge with a comprehensive understanding of related domains to deliver tangible business value. They devise strategies, execute plans, operationalize solutions and articulate the business outcomes achieved. Effective collaboration is paramount, as they adeptly convey their discoveries to both technical and non-technical stakeholders. They stay abreast of industry advancements, ensure data quality and security, and provide mentorship to junior team members. As a data scientist at Thoughtworks, you'll leverage your deep technical knowledge to solve complex business problems, making a significant impact on client success. JOB RESPONSIBILITIES * You will establish a clear vision and direction for the AI paradigm/practices, aligning it with the overall business strategy. * You will collaborate with executive level stakeholders to understand their strategic objectives and identify opportunities to leverage data and data quality for enabling AI and machine learning. * You will be responsible for the overall AI system design, problem framing and governance, identifying and managing risks and issues. * You will identify and prioritize data science projects that align with business objectives and ensure that projects are completed on time and within budget. * You will design experiments for the team to rapidly test ideas and assumptions, and identify future courses of action. * You will get involved with data science delivery whenever needed. * You will communicate technical findings and insights to stakeholders in a clear, easy and concise way, keeping the stakeholders in mind. * You will build and drive the growth of the data science community along with promoting a culture of data literacy within the organization. * You will address ethical concerns and adhere to ethical guidelines using FATTER AI (fairness, accountability, transparency, trustworthiness, explainability, responsibility). * You will work with CD4ML practices and data versioning tools. JOB QUALIFICATIONS TECHNICAL SKILLS * You have experience in the Retail and Customer Analytics industry. * You have experience with defining strategy/vision for the data science function, aligning it with the overall business strategy. * You have experience in leading the analysis and modeling of different datasets and overseeing an inception to deploying and productionizing the models. * You have experience with statistical modeling, machine learning, deep learning, optimization and other data science techniques to implement end-to-end data science projects. * You understand the specialized areas of AI and possess a speciality with at least one of them (i.e.: NLP/computer vision/Generative AI, etc)tc). * You have experience with R, Python or equivalent statistical/data analysis tools and can write production-ready code that is easy to evolve and test. * You gather and preprocess large volumes of structured and unstructured data from various sources, ensuring data quality and integrity. * You develop and implement machine learning models, algorithms and predictive analytics to solve specific business problems or improve existing processes. * You evaluate model performance using appropriate metrics and validate models to ensure robustness and reliability. * You interpret and effectively communicate findings and insights to non-technical stakeholders through reports, presentations and visualizations. PROFESSIONAL SKILLS * You understand the importance of stakeholder management and can easily liaise between clients and other key stakeholders throughout projects, ensuring buy-in and gaining trust along the way. * You are resilient in ambiguous situations and can adapt your role to approach challenges from multiple perspectives. * You don’t shy away from risks or conflicts, instead you take them on and skillfully manage them. * You are eager to coach, mentor and motivate others and you aspire to influence teammates to take positive action and accountability for their work. * You enjoy influencing others and always advocate for technical excellence while being open to change when needed. * You are a proven leader with a track record of encouraging teammates in their professional development and relationships. * Cultivating strong partnerships comes naturally to you; You understand the importance of relationship building and how it can bring new opportunities to our business. OTHER THINGS TO KNOW LEARNING & DEVELOPMENT There is no one-size-fits-all career path at Thoughtworks: however you want to develop your career is entirely up to you. But we also balance autonomy with the strength of our cultivation culture. This means your career is supported by interactive tools, numerous development programs and teammates who want to help you grow. We see value in helping each other be our best and that extends to empowering our employees in their career journeys. RESPONSIBLE USE OF AI IN RECRUITMENT At Thoughtworks, we use AI tools to support our recruitment team with administrative tasks such as drafting communications, scheduling interviews and writing job descriptions. Crucially, our AI tools do not screen, assess, rank or make hiring decisions. Every application is reviewed by our team and all selection decisions are made exclusively by our interviewers and hiring managers. We are committed to fairness and responsible AI. We actively manage our AI systems by testing, monitoring for biased outcomes and implementing mitigation measures. We hold our third-party vendors to these same high standards through a rigorous governance process. For additional information, please see our full Thoughtworks AI Policy for Recruitment. ACCOMMODATIONS Thoughtworks is committed to providing reasonable accommodations to qualified applicants with disabilities or sincerely held religious beliefs, practices, or observances, in accordance with applicable law. If you need a reasonable accommodation to complete any part of the application process, participate in interviews, or otherwise engage in the hiring process, you may request an accommodation by completing this form or speaking with your recruiter. Requests may be made at any stage of the application or interview process. Once a request is received, Thoughtworks will engage in an interactive process with the applicant to determine an appropriate accommodation. Applicants are not required to disclose medical diagnoses or detailed personal information in order to request an accommodation. All accommodation requests will be handled in a timely, confidential, and respectful manner, consistent with applicable legal requirements. Requesting an accommodation will not negatively affect your consideration for employment. Company prohibits retaliation against any applicant for requesting an accommodation or participating in the accommodation process. Accommodations made during the recruitment process are not a guarantee of future or continued accommodations once hired. If you are hired by Thoughtworks, and require an accommodation to perform the essential functions of your role, you may be asked to engage in our reasonable accommodation process. CANCELLATIONS As a technology consultancy, the projects we undertake are subject to change based on client needs and agreements. While we strive for consistency, please be aware that project scope or availability may shift, or projects may even be cancelled, during the recruitment and selection process, which is often outside of our direct control. Should the project related to this vacancy be significantly altered or cancelled, all impacted candidates will be promptly and duly informed of the change ABOUT THOUGHTWORKS Thoughtworks is a dynamic and inclusive community of bright and supportive colleagues who are revolutionizing tech. As a leading technology consultancy, we’re pushing boundaries through our purposeful and impactful work. For 30+ years, we’ve delivered extraordinary impact together with our clients by helping them solve complex business problems with technology as the differentiator. Bring your brilliant expertise and commitment for continuous learning to Thoughtworks. Together, let’s be extraordinary. SALARY Benefits: https://www.thoughtworks.com/en-ca/careers/benefits Salary $159,000—$309,000 CAD See here our AI policy.

PRINCIPAL RESEARCH SCIENTIST – SCALING P-1227 ABOUT DATABRICKS AI At Databricks, we are obsessed with enabling data teams to solve the world’s toughest problems, from security threat detection to cancer drug development, by building and running the world’s best data and AI platform. The Databricks AI Research organization enables companies to develop AI models and agents using their own data, with technologies ranging from post-training open source LLMs to developing advanced multi-agent architectures. Databricks AI is committed to the belief that a company’s AI models and agents are just as valuable as any other core IP, and that high-quality AI should be available to all. ABOUT THE SCALING RESEARCH TEAM The Databricks AI Scaling team focuses on pushing the boundaries of large language model (LLM) training and inference efficiency beyond what is required to support existing models. The team explores novel avenues for scaling and efficiency improvements across algorithms, systems, and infrastructure, requiring researchers who can both drive independent research agendas and dive deep into low‑level implementation details with engineering partners. ROLE SUMMARY As a Principal Research Scientist – Scaling, you will lead a team of world‑class researchers and engineers to advance the state of the art in large‑scale machine learning, focusing on post-training, RL and inference efficiency, optimization, and scaling. You will define and execute a research roadmap that advances the Databricks AI platform and delivers tangible improvements to how customers train, serve, and adapt LLMs at scale, working closely with product, data, and engineering leaders to bring cutting‑edge methods into production. THE IMPACT YOU WILL HAVE * Lead and grow a multidisciplinary research team focused on foundational and applied AI problems, with a particular emphasis on LLM scaling, efficiency, and systems performance. * Define the scaling research roadmap in alignment with Databricks’ strategic objectives, prioritizing advances in foundation model efficiency and large‑scale training and inference. * Drive algorithmic innovations for large‑scale neural network training and inference, including novel optimizers, low‑precision techniques, and model adaptation methods, and guide your team in rigorous empirical validation against state‑of‑the‑art approaches. * Optimize end‑to‑end ML systems for distributed training and RL, memory efficiency, and compute efficiency through close collaboration with core systems and platform teams, ensuring that research ideas translate into performant, reliable infrastructure. * Partner with product and engineering to translate research breakthroughs, especially around scaling and efficiency, into customer‑impacting capabilities in the Databricks AI platform. * Foster a culture of scientific excellence and openness, including high‑quality research practices, reproducible experimentation, and effective internal knowledge sharing across Databricks AI. * Represent Databricks AI research externally through top‑tier publications, conference talks, and collaborations with academia and the open‑source community, with a focus on optimization and efficiency for large‑scale models. * Mentor and develop talent, providing both technical guidance (research agendas, experimentation, implementation) and career development support for research scientists and engineers. WHAT YOU WILL DO * Define and lead independent research programs on foundation model efficiency, covering topics such as optimizer design, low‑precision training/inference, scalable model architectures, and efficient adaptation methods. * Oversee the design and execution of large‑scale experiments, including benchmarking against state‑of‑the‑art methods and evaluating trade‑offs in quality, latency, throughput, and cost. * Work hands‑on with your team on high‑quality, efficient code in Python and PyTorch for research implementation, rapid prototyping, and integration with Databricks’ production systems. * Collaborate with distributed systems and infra teams to push the limits of distributed training, parallelism strategies, memory management, and hardware utilization for LLMs and other large models. * Establish metrics, evaluation protocols, and best practices for scaling‑focused research (e.g., training efficiency, inference cost, energy usage) and drive their adoption across Databricks AI. * Champion responsible and robust deployment of scaling innovations, ensuring that model behavior, reliability, and safety remain first‑class considerations. WHAT WE LOOK FOR * Proven ability to lead a research team to develop novel techniques for foundation model efficiency and related topics, with a strong track record of industry impact.  * Deep expertise in at least one of: generative AI, LLMs, distributed ML systems, model optimization, or responsible AI, with a strong emphasis on scaling and efficiency for large‑scale neural networks. * Hands on leadership - strong programming skills and demonstrated ability to write high‑quality, efficient code in Python and PyTorch for research implementation and experimentation. * Demonstrated ability to translate research innovation into scalable product capabilities in partnership with product and engineering teams. * Excellent communication, leadership, and stakeholder management skills, with experience influencing cross‑functional roadmaps and aligning research with business impact. NICE TO HAVE * Prior work at the intersection of systems and ML, such as distributed training frameworks, compiler and kernel optimization for deep learning workloads, or memory‑/compute‑efficient model design. * Strong industry and academic network in large‑scale ML, with ongoing collaborations or service (e.g., PC/area chair) at top conferences in ML and systems. * A strong record of research impact—such as first‑author publications at top ML/systems conferences (e.g., ICLR, ICML, NeurIPS, MLSys), influential open‑source contributions, or widely used deployed systems—especially in optimization or efficiency.   Pay Range Transparency Databricks is committed to fair and equitable compensation practices. The pay range(s) for this role is listed below and represents the expected salary range for non-commissionable roles or on-target earnings for commissionable roles.  Actual compensation packages are based on several factors that are unique to each candidate, including but not limited to job-related skills, depth of experience, relevant certifications and training, and specific work location. Based on the factors above, Databricks anticipates utilizing the full width of the range. The total compensation package for this position may also include eligibility for annual performance bonus, equity, and the benefits listed above. For more information regarding which range your location is in visit our page here.   Local Pay Range $280,000—$350,000 USD About Databricks Databricks is the data and AI company. More than 10,000 organizations worldwide — including Comcast, Condé Nast, Grammarly, and over 50% of the Fortune 500 — rely on the Databricks Data Intelligence Platform to unify and democratize data, analytics and AI. Databricks is headquartered in San Francisco, with offices around the globe and was founded by the original creators of Lakehouse, Apache Spark™, Delta Lake and MLflow. To learn more, follow Databricks on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. Benefits At Databricks, we strive to provide comprehensive benefits and perks that meet the needs of all of our employees. For specific details on the benefits offered in your region click here. Our Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion At Databricks, we are committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive culture where everyone can excel. We take great care to ensure that our hiring practices are inclusive and meet equal employment opportunity standards. Individuals looking for employment at Databricks are considered without regard to age, color, disability, ethnicity, family or marital status, gender identity or expression, language, national origin, physical and mental ability, political affiliation, race, religion, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, veteran status, and other protected characteristics. Compliance If access to export-controlled technology or source code is required for performance of job duties, it is within Employer's discretion whether to apply for a U.S. government license for such positions, and Employer may decline to proceed with an applicant on this basis alone.