About the Director, AI at Headspace:

At Headspace, you’ll have the unique opportunity to shape the future of AI in mental healthcare, driving innovative, impactful solutions that touch the lives of millions around the globe. Our mission is to improve the health and happiness of people worldwide, and your leadership will be central to advancing cutting-edge AI-driven technologies that transform how individuals access and experience mental health support.

As the Director of AI, you will lead groundbreaking initiatives across diverse and dynamic business areas, from enhancing user engagement to delivering highly personalized care at scale. You’ll oversee the research, design, implementation, and optimization of advanced, responsible AI systems that are not only scalable and secure but also set the standard for innovation in the health tech industry. Your work will focus on ensuring our products remain at the forefront of technology, delivering measurable impact and aligning with our mission to transform mental healthcare.

In this role, you will collaborate closely with cross-functional teams, inspiring and empowering them to integrate AI seamlessly into our products to create transformative, data-driven experiences for our users. Whether it’s leveraging the latest machine learning models or exploring emerging AI trends, your vision and expertise will fuel the development of solutions that redefine how mental health services are delivered.

Join us on this exciting journey to revolutionize mental healthcare with AI and leave a lasting, global impact on health and well-being.

What you will do:

• Drive AI Vision & Strategy: Define and execute a strategic roadmap for AI/ML solutions while staying at the forefront of cutting-edge AI practices and developing publishable innovations.
• Build Scalable AI Infrastructure: Develop and maintain a high-performance, user-centric ML platform enabling scalable and flexible AI adoption across the organization.
• Ensure Responsible, Ethical AI: Develop and maintain robust safety and quality controls for AI use in a metal health domain, inclusive of both fully automated and human-in-the-loop mechanisms.
• Lead Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partner with clinicians, statisticians, and other experts to measure and enhance the impact of AI-driven solutions for mental healthcare.
• Ensure Operational Excellence: Optimize training data pipelines and feedback loops, ensuring our AI systems are scalable, secure, and robust, adhering to software development best practices.
• Promote Data-Driven Culture: Foster experimentation and measurement, empowering teams to integrate closely monitored AI/ML capabilities effectively and with confidence.
• Collaborate on Integration: Work closely with other tech teams to align AI infrastructure and operations with broader company systems and infrastructure.

What you will bring:

Required Skills:

• Proven Leadership: 10+ years of experience building, leading, and managing high-performing, innovative AI, machine learning, and/or data science teams, with a history of successfully delivering impactful, responsible AI-driven solutions at scale.
• Technical Expertise: Deep understanding of machine learning frameworks (e.g., TensorFlow, PyTorch), AI methodologies, and modern engineering tools, with hands-on experience deploying solutions in cloud environments (preferably AWS). A track record of publishing successful AI innovations is highly desirable.
• Preferred Domain Expertise: Experience working in consumer-facing health tech, mental health, or clinical settings, with a strong understanding of the challenges and opportunities in applying empathetic and responsible AI in healthcare, is highly desirable.
• Advanced AI Knowledge: Expertise in implementing multiple AI approaches at scale, including LLMs (productionizing LLM-driven solutions), recommendation systems, reinforcement learning, or advanced optimization techniques.
• Platform Development: Demonstrated ability to design, build, and scale machine learning platforms, architect robust data pipelines, and manage infrastructure and operations to support AI/ML production environments efficiently.
• Scalability & Performance: Experience designing evaluation systems, tests, and feedback loops to ensure AI/ML systems meet scalability, reliability, and performance standards while adhering to modern software development and engineering best practices.
• Business Strategy Alignment: Ability to translate complex AI/ML capabilities into actionable solutions that align with and drive strategic business objectives, ensuring high impact and measurable outcomes.
• Collaboration & Influence: Proven success in collaborating with cross-functional teams, including engineering, product, design, and non-technical stakeholders, to develop and deliver practical, real-world AI solutions.
• Team Building & Mentorship: Strong leadership and management experience, with a focus on recruiting, mentoring, and developing diverse, high-performing technical AI teams in fast-paced environments.

Pay & Benefits:

The base salary range for this role is determined by a number of factors, including but not limited to skills and scope required, relevant licensure and certifications, and unique relevant experience and job-related skills. The base salary range for this role is $198,450 - $270,113.

At Headspace, cash salary is but one component of our Total Rewards package. We’re proud of our robust package inclusive of: base salary, stock awards, comprehensive healthcare coverage, monthly wellness stipend, retirement savings match, lifetime Headspace membership, unlimited, free mental health coaching, generous parental leave, and much more. Paid performance incentives are also included for those in eligible roles. Additional details about our Total Rewards package will be provided during the recruitment process.

How we feel about Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging:

Headspace is committed to bringing together humans from different backgrounds and perspectives, providing employees with a safe and welcoming work environment free of discrimination and harassment. We strive to create a diverse & inclusive environment where everyone can thrive, feel a sense of belonging, and do impactful work together. 

As an equal opportunity employer, we prohibit any unlawful discrimination against a job applicant on the basis of their race, color, religion, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, national origin, family or parental status, disability*, age, veteran status, or any other status protected by the laws or regulations in the locations where we operate. We respect the laws enforced by the EEOC and are dedicated to going above and beyond in fostering diversity across our workplace. 

*Applicants with disabilities may be entitled to reasonable accommodation under the terms of the Americans with Disabilities Act and certain state or local laws. A reasonable accommodation is a change in the way things are normally done which will ensure an equal employment opportunity without imposing undue hardship on Headspace. Please inform our Talent team by filling out this form if you need any assistance completing any forms or to otherwise participate in the application or interview process.

Headspace participates in the E-Verify Program.

Privacy Statement

All member records are protected according to our Privacy Policy. Further, while employees of Headspace (formerly Ginger) cannot access Headspace products/services, they will be offered benefits according to the company's benefit plan. To ensure we are adhering to best practice and ethical guidelines in the field of mental health, we take care to avoid dual relationships. A dual relationship occurs when a mental health care provider has a second, significantly different relationship with their client in addition to the traditional client-therapist relationship—including, for example, a managerial relationship.  

As such, Headspace requests that individuals who have received coaching or clinical services at Headspace wait until their care with Headspace is complete before applying for a position. If someone with a Headspace account is hired for a position, please note their account will be deactivated and they will not be able to use Headspace services for the duration of their employment. 

Further, if Headspace cannot find a role that fails to resolve an ethical issue associated with a dual relationship, Headspace may need to take steps to ensure ethical obligations are being adhered to, including a delayed start date or a potential leave of absence. Such steps would be taken to protect both the former member, as well as any relevant individuals from their care team, from impairment, risk of exploitation, or harm.

For how how we will use the personal information you provide as part of the application process, please see: https://www.headspace.com/applicant-notice