Principal Scientist, Machine Learning

Our Company

Changing the world through digital experiences is what Adobe’s all about. We give everyone—from emerging artists to global brands—everything they need to design and deliver exceptional digital experiences! We’re passionate about empowering people to create beautiful and powerful images, videos, and apps, and transform how companies interact with customers across every screen. 

We’re on a mission to hire the very best and are committed to creating exceptional employee experiences where everyone is respected and has access to equal opportunity. We realize that new ideas can come from everywhere in the organization, and we know the next big idea could be yours!

 

The Opportunity

The next generation of enterprise AI demands more than generative capabilities—it requires deep contextual understanding, dynamic reasoning over evolving business logic, and rapid adaptation. We are building a living, reasoning intelligence that embodies the DNA of each business it serves.

We are seeking a visionary and hands-on Principal Scientist, Machine Learning to lead this transformation. This foundational role offers the chance to invent and own a new class of enterprise AI, leveraging your expertise in multi-agent systems, large-scale ML architecture, and cutting-edge research.

What You’ll Do

Architect and Own the Vision

• Serve as the principal architect for a novel AI platform, fusing multi-agent frameworks with an evolving, multimodal knowledge core.
• Design end-to-end architecture: from scalable data ingestion and distributed knowledge graph construction to agentic reasoning and generative output layers.

Lead and Execute

• Direct the execution and delivery of core ML systems, making critical decisions on technologies, models, and protocols.
• Oversee the development lifecycle, ensuring alignment with the architectural vision and rapid iteration.

Be Hands-On with Core Components

• Remain deeply involved in coding and technical problem-solving, especially for the most challenging system components.
• Architect the knowledge core, agent-to-agent communication protocols, and human-in-the-loop feedback mechanisms.

Drive the Research Roadmap

• Stay at the forefront of academic and industry research, integrating state-of-the-art techniques in active learning, preference learning, multimodal reasoning, and agentic workflows.
• Pioneer new approaches in LLM post-training, generative AI, and distributed ML systems.

Build and Mentor

• Build and mentor a world-class team of engineers and researchers, fostering a culture of technical excellence, innovation, and collaboration.

Who You Are

• A seasoned technical leader with 15+ years of experience in software engineering and machine learning, including architecting and shipping complex, large-scale AI systems.
• Expert in Natural Language Processing (NLP), Large Language Models (LLMs), and agentic AI systems, with hands-on experience in building and deploying LLM-based applications.
• Deeply skilled in Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), knowledge graph integration, and advanced reranking techniques.
• Proven experience designing systems for multimodal data (text, images, structured data), unified representations, and scalable retrieval strategies.
• Strong understanding of knowledge graphs, vector databases, and trade-offs for different enterprise use cases.
• Demonstrated experience with learning from human feedback, including preference learning and RLHF.
• Proficient in Python, C++, Java, and ML frameworks such as PyTorch, TensorFlow, and Hugging Face Transformers.
• Holder of a Ph.D. in Computer Science, with a strong publication and patent record in AI, ML, and data-driven systems.
• Track record of technical leadership, team building, and mentoring in high-growth environments.

Bonus Points

• Experience designing and building multi-agent AI systems and agentic workflows for enterprise applications.
• Background in computer vision, including object detection, segmentation, and compliance checking.
• History of building model-agnostic plugin architectures for AI platforms.
• Experience as a founder, technical lead, or founding engineer at an AI-focused startup.

Our compensation reflects the cost of labor across several  U.S. geographic markets, and we pay differently based on those defined markets. The U.S. pay range for this position is $206,400 -- $379,100 annually. Pay within this range varies by work location and may also depend on job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. Your recruiter can share more about the specific salary range for the job location during the hiring process.

At Adobe, for sales roles starting salaries are expressed as total target compensation (TTC = base + commission), and short-term incentives are in the form of sales commission plans.  Non-sales roles starting salaries are expressed as base salary and short-term incentives are in the form of the Annual Incentive Plan (AIP).

In addition, certain roles may be eligible for long-term incentives in the form of a new hire equity award.

State-Specific Notices:

California:

Fair Chance Ordinances

Adobe will consider qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records for employment in accordance with state and local laws and “fair chance” ordinances.

Colorado:

Application Window Notice

If this role is open to hiring in Colorado (as listed on the job posting), the application window will remain open until at least the date and time stated above in Pacific Time, in compliance with Colorado pay transparency regulations. If this role does not have Colorado listed as a hiring location, no specific application window applies, and the posting may close at any time based on hiring needs.

Massachusetts:

Massachusetts Legal Notice

It is unlawful in Massachusetts to require or administer a lie detector test as a condition of employment or continued employment. An employer who violates this law shall be subject to criminal penalties and civil liability.

Adobe is proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity employer. We do not discriminate based on gender, race or color, ethnicity or national origin, age, disability, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, veteran status, or any other applicable characteristics protected by law. Learn more.

 

Adobe aims to make Adobe.com accessible to any and all users. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation to navigate our website or complete the application process, email accommodations@adobe.com or call (408) 536-3015.