Senior Applied Scientist

Job Description

Our Company

Changing the world through digital experiences is what Adobes all about. We give everyonefrom emerging artists to global brandseverything they need to design and deliver exceptional digital experiences Were passionate about empowering people to create beautiful and powerful images, videos, and apps, and transform how companies interact with customers across every screen.

Were 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 Adobe Firefly Applied Science & Machine Learning (ASML) group is seeking a GenAI Tech Lead (P50) to drive execution for our Multimodal LLM (MLLM) and Editing Foundation Models that power image and video creation/editing across Firefly and Adobes marketing and creative products. Youll be a hands-on leader who turns strategy into plans, leads a small cross-functional squad, and ships models and features to productionpartnering closely with architects, research, data, infra, and product.

What Youll Do

• Lead execution for MLLM-driven editing (image video): plan milestones, own sprints, unblock delivery, and ensure model quality and reliability.
• Translate high-level strategy into designs and roadmaps; partner with architects and senior leadership to align scope, success metrics, and timelines.
• Deliver hands-on contributions in modeling, training, and evaluation; debug performance/quality issues; drive experiment rigor and reproducibility.
• Coordinate cross-functional work with Research, Data, Infra, and Product; manage dependencies and on-call/triage for your scope.
• Raise the bar on engineering quality: code reviews, benchmarks, experiment tracking, documentation, and operational excellence.
• Mentor engineers/scientists on the team; help with hiring, onboarding, and best practices.

What Youll Need to Succeed

• Masters or Ph.D. in CS/AI/ML or equivalent experience.
• Strong grasp of multimodal learning (vision-language encoders, fusion/cross-attention), instruction tuning, and alignment/safety practices.
• Proficiency with Python and modern ML stacks (e.g., PyTorch), distributed training (FSDP/DeepSpeed), experiment management, and large-scale data pipelines.
• Demonstrated ability to lead a squad: plan, prioritize, and communicate clearly; drive decisions and deliver results in fast-moving environments.

Preferred Experience

• Shipped products and/or publications in generative AI, multimodal LLMs, or creative editing.
• Experience moving research to production with reliability, security, and compliance requirements.
• Familiarity with inference optimization (distillation, quantization, compilation, caching), evaluation design (human/automated, ELO-style, task metrics), and responsible AI.
• Background with enterprise creative/marketing workflows and customer-informed product development.

#Firefly GenAI

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 $162,000 -- $301,200 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.

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Locations - Location

San Francisco, California, United States of America

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