AIML Site Lead & Lead Researcher, Foundation Models

Apple Inc

Confirmed live 2 days ago High trust

Quick summary

Work type: On-site
Location: Seattle, WA
Salary: $205,400–$374,300 / yr
Posted: 149 days ago
Freshness: Confirmed live 2 days ago
Nearby: 99+ roles within 25 mi

Market check

Salary context

Above market

How this pay compares to similar roles

Similar $241k

This role $290k

$162k most similar roles pay here $397k

This role pays more than 86% of similar roles. Most pay $210,775–$270,500 — the shaded band above. At the midpoint, this role pays about $290k versus about $241k for comparable roles.

Based on 239 similar postings.

Employer

About Apple Inc

Apple Inc. is a multinational technology company known for designing and manufacturing consumer electronics, software, and online services, including the iPhone, Mac, iPad, and App Store. Industry: Consumer Electronics & Software

Apple Inc currently has 1984 open roles on FindRole.

Listed pay typically runs $175,000–$277,600 across 1590 roles with salary data.

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At a glance

TL;DR · AIML Site Lead & Lead Researcher, Foundation Models

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AIML - Site Lead & Lead Researcher, Foundation Models joins the Apple Foundation Models organization to lead a strategic hub of engineers and scientists. This role involves overseeing the full training lifecycle of frontier foundation models, including pre-training and mid-training approaches for text, images, speech, and video. The individual will manage infrastructure development, dataset creation, and research initiatives from formulation through publication and product integration. Key responsibilities include mentoring team members, defining research roadmaps, and collaborating with hardware designers to integrate multi-modal capabilities into products. Candidates must possess expert proficiency in Python and deep learning toolkits like JAX, PyTorch, or TensorFlow. The role addresses complex problems such as reward modeling, sparse rewards in agentic settings, and aligning models for both creative tasks and precise workflows while ensuring privacy and optimization for specific hardware.

Skills

Foundation Models Deep Learning Python PyTorch JAX TensorFlow Natural Language Processing Multi-modal Understanding Information Retrieval On-device Intelligence Reward Modeling Software Engineering

What you'll do

Lead and mentor a team of engineers and scientists developing foundation models and multi-modal understanding.
Define the research vision, roadmap, and success metrics aligned with Apple's product goals.
Execute end-to-end research initiatives from initial problem formulation through publication and product integration.
Conduct hands-on research on complex problems in deep learning and natural language processing.
Translate technical research into customer-facing features by collaborating with hardware and product teams.
Publish research findings in top-tier venues to establish Apple's leadership in the AI field.
Drive recruitment, retention, and career development for high-performing research talent.

What we're looking for

Demonstrated success leading technical teams or research groups with a focus on talent growth and results.
Strong publication record in top-tier conferences like NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, CVPR, ICCV, ECCV, KDD, ACL, ICASSP, or InterSpeech.
Expert-level proficiency in Python and deep learning toolkits such as JAX, PyTorch, or TensorFlow.
PhD in Computer Science, a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience demonstrating research leadership.
Ability to communicate complex research concepts clearly to both technical and non-technical audiences.
Experience with web-scale information retrieval, search systems, and multi-modal perception.
Background in on-device intelligence, privacy protections, and responsible AI practices.
Track record of mentoring researchers into senior technical or leadership roles.