Who are we?
Our mission is to scale intelligence to serve humanity. We’re training and deploying frontier models for developers and enterprises who are building AI systems to power magical experiences like content generation, semantic search, RAG, and agents. We believe that our work is instrumental to the widespread adoption of AI.
We obsess over what we build. Each one of us is responsible for contributing to increasing the capabilities of our models and the value they drive for our customers. We like to work hard and move fast to do what’s best for our customers.
Cohere is a team of researchers, engineers, designers, and more, who are passionate about their craft. Each person is one of the best in the world at what they do. We believe that a diverse range of perspectives is a requirement for building great products.
Join us on our mission and shape the future!
We seek a Director of Applied ML to lead our world-class team, driving the development and deployment of cutting-edge AI solutions for enterprise customers. This role involves strategic leadership, team management, product innovation, and customer engagement, with a focus on delivering impactful, scalable ML solutions. The ideal candidate will have deep technical expertise in AI/ML, a proven track record of leading large-scale teams, and the ability to translate complex technical concepts into business value.
Key responsibilities
Strategic Leadership:
Define the long-term vision and strategy for our Applied AI team, aligning it with Cohere's overall goals and market needs.
Determine the strategic direction for custom model development, fine-tuning approaches, and complex implementations that address unique enterprise needs.
Work closely with the executive team to prioritize strategic customer engagements and align technical initiatives with business goals.
Team Management:
Lead and mentor a diverse team of ML engineers, software engineers and applied scientists, fostering a culture of innovation, collaboration, and continuous learning.
Build and manage a world-class Applied AI team through hiring, mentoring, and developing top talent.
Continuously evaluate and improve processes to enhance team efficiency and productivity.
Product Innovation:
Work closely with the product team to define and deliver cutting-edge ML solutions, ensuring Cohere remains at the forefront of the industry.
Oversee the development of scalable abstractions and frameworks that accelerate our ability to deliver high-quality solutions across all enterprise engagements.
Lead the team in evaluating and improving the performance of our models across various enterprise use cases (reasoning, code, RAG, tool use, agents) and modalities.
Customer Engagement:
Act as a trusted advisor to customers, understanding their needs and translating them into actionable product requirements.
Establish deep relationships with C-suite executives at Fortune 500 companies to understand their business challenges and technical requirements in detail.
Drive the end-to-end delivery of AI solutions from initial concept through proof-of-concept to full production deployment on customer infrastructure.
Technical Expertise:
Collaborate with technical leads and experts to design and implement ML solutions, ensuring the team's technical excellence.
Drive the development and deployment of custom AI solutions for our most strategic enterprise customers, translating abstract ideas into production applications.
Collaborate with our core Research, Engineering, and Product teams to ensure customer feedback drives our model and product roadmap.
Industry Leadership:
Represent Cohere at conferences, speaking engagements, and executive forums to showcase our technical capabilities and thought leadership.
Stay at the forefront of industry trends and developments to inform strategic direction and product innovation.
Ideal Candidate
Experience:
Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Machine Learning, or a related field. Advanced degree preferred.
Deep experience in AI/ML with a breadth of experience in a senior management role leading technical teams.
A proven track record of leading large-scale ML teams, with a successful history of delivering impactful products.
Demonstrated experience successfully delivering complex AI solutions for enterprise customers, with experience in custom model development, fine-tuning, and production deployment.
Technical Proficiency:
Deep understanding of ML concepts, machine learning, and API development.
Strong technical understanding of Large Language Models (LLMs), their capabilities, limitations, and implementation approaches.
Experience with advanced AI techniques including RAG systems, agentic frameworks, multi-modal applications, and enterprise-scale deployments.
Proficiency with modern AI development frameworks including PyTorch, TensorFlow, or similar frameworks for building, training, and deploying language models.
Experience with cloud computing platforms like AWS, Google Cloud, and Azure.
Strategic Thinking:
Ability to think strategically, set clear goals, and drive alignment across the organization.
Experience translating business requirements into technical roadmaps and solutions.
Track record of innovation and product leadership in the AI/ML space.
Communication Skills:
Excellent verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to explain complex technical concepts to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
Outstanding ability to translate complex technical concepts into business value for executive audiences.
Leadership and Mentorship:
Passionate about recruiting, growing, and mentoring team members, fostering a positive and collaborative work environment.
Strong leadership capabilities with experience building and scaling high-performing technical teams.
Adaptability:
Comfortable with a dynamic work environment, able to adapt strategies and processes as needed.
Willingness to travel up to 30% to work on-site with strategic customers.
If some of the above doesn’t line up perfectly with your experience, we still encourage you to apply! If you want to work really hard on a glorious mission with teammates that want the same thing, Cohere is the place for you.
We value and celebrate diversity and strive to create an inclusive work environment for all. We welcome applicants from all backgrounds and are committed to providing equal opportunities. Should you require any accommodations during the recruitment process, please submit an Accommodations Request Form, and we will work together to meet your needs.
Full-Time Employees at Cohere enjoy these Perks:
🤝 An open and inclusive culture and work environment
🧑💻 Work closely with a team on the cutting edge of AI research
🍽 Weekly lunch stipend, in-office lunches & snacks
🦷 Full health and dental benefits, including a separate budget to take care of your mental health
🐣 100% Parental Leave top-up for 6 months for employees based in Canada, the US, and the UK
🎨 Personal enrichment benefits towards arts and culture, fitness and well-being, quality time, and workspace improvement
🏙 Remote-flexible, offices in Toronto, New York, San Francisco and London and co-working stipend
✈️ 6 weeks of vacation
Note: This post is co-authored by both Cohere humans and Cohere technology.
