Director, AI Forward Deployed Researcher

Das ist der Job

Forward Deployed Researchers, Directors are the bridge between possibility and production.

Darum lohnt es sich

This role is responsible for driving frontier AI research into production, setting the strategic technical direction for enterprise clients, and managing a team of Forward Deployed Researchers and Engineers.

This role operates at the critical intersection of cutting-edge research, software engineering, executive-level strategic consulting, and team management.

As a Forward Deployed Researcher, Director, you will embed directly within Fortune 500 and highly regulated customer organizations to advance frontier AI implementations, shape AI strategy, deliver bespoke production systems, and build world-class technical teams.

Unlike traditional research leaders who remain in labs or remote environments, you will be embedded within customer teams - walking the halls of banks, healthcare organizations, and tech companies - to understand their unique challenges, conduct applied research, and lead the delivery of transformative AI solutions grounded in both frontier techniques and practical enterprise constraints.

Strategic AI Research & Executive Consulting (Primary) Act as a trusted technical and research advisor to customer executive leadership (CTOs, Heads of AI, VPs of Engineering, Board Members) on overall AI strategy, roadmap, and competitive positioning Translate frontier AI research and complex technical concepts into actionable business strategies and implementation plans that justify premium engagement and drive measurable ROI Provide thought leadership on AI best practices, emerging technologies, research trends, and industry benchmarks Mentor customer AI leadership teams on research methodologies, experimentation, and validation practices Manage, mentor, and scale a team of Forward Deployed Researchers and Engineers embedded at high-value customer organizations Oversee the development and delivery of bespoke, research-backed production systems across multiple, concurrent customer engagements Establish best practices, technical frameworks, methodologies, and accelerators for the team that benefit multiple customers and scale across TELUS Digital Recruit, develop, and retain top-tier Forward Deployed talent; Serve as an internal thought leader, sharing research insights, lessons learned, and best practices across the Forward Deployed Engineer community Establish metrics, KPIs, and performance management systems for team success and customer impact Customer-Embedded Research & Production Delivery Lead high-impact, applied AI research initiatives to address the customer's most complex and ambiguous challenges during 3-6 month+ onsite engagements Design and implement advanced GenAI/LLM solutions (e.g., advanced RAG, multi-agent systems, custom fine-tuning, synthetic data generation, RLHF) tailored to customer's unique requirements and constraints Build production-ready AI systems addressing data quality, evaluation, governance, and deployment challenges in regulated environments Ensure all production systems meet stringent security, compliance, performance, and scalability requirements for Fortune 500 and highly regulated clients Integrate TELUS Digital capabilities with customer infrastructure, data platforms, and workflows Architect systems that customers can operate and evolve long-term with reduced dependency on external support Own end-to-end delivery from discovery, research, and validation through production deployment and optimization Partner with TELUS Digital Product, Engineering, and Research teams to leverage platform capabilities and inform product roadmap based on customer research insights Represent customer voice internally to drive product, service, and research improvements Work with other Forward Deployed Directors and Engineers to share learnings and establish organizational best practices maintain hands-on expertise in cutting-edge areas Build and maintain expertise in frontier areas (LLMs, multimodal AI, agentic systems, synthetic data, RLHF, evaluation frameworks, etc.) Document technical approaches, architectures, research methodologies, and lessons learned Contribute to open-source projects or TELUS Digital's technical community 10+ years of hands-on software engineering and AI/ML experience with production systems ~4+ years in senior leadership or management roles managing technical teams of at least 5+ professionals (e.g., managing Forward Deployed Engineers, Solution Engineers, or Research teams) ~ RAG systems and vector databases, Agentic AI and multi-agent systems, Fine-tuning, prompt engineering, and in-context learning, Evaluation frameworks and metrics for LLM systems, Production MLOps and deployment ~ Hands-on proficiency with cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP) and modern AI/ML frameworks (PyTorch, TensorFlow, LangChain, Hugging Face) ~ Excellent communication skills across technical, research, and executive audiences ~ Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, AI/ML, or related field Advanced degree (MS/PhD in Computer Science, AI/ML, or related field) Experience at AI platform/research companies (Anthropic, OpenAI, Palantir, Scale AI, Cohere, etc.) in research, Forward Deployed, or leadership roles Experience at top-tier consulting firms (McKinsey, Bain, Deloitte) in technical or engineering leadership roles Prior work in regulated industries (financial services, healthcare) with compliance requirements and enterprise complexity Computer vision and/or data annotation platform expertise Multilingual capabilities for global customer engagement Open-source contributions or active participation in AI research community Successfully embedded at assigned customer account(s) Built trust and credibility with customer technical and executive leadership Conducted discovery and scoped research initiatives aligned with customer strategy Delivered initial research insights, POC, or quick wins demonstrating value Established clear research roadmap and delivery milestones Delivered production AI system(s) informed by applied research, driving measurable customer business outcomes Customer views TELUS Digital as indispensable technical and research partner Identified and scoped additional research and implementation opportunities within customer organization(s) Mentored customer AI teams and Forward Deployed team members, building their research and production capabilities Contributed technical and research insights that influenced TELUS Digital product/service offerings Built reusable patterns, frameworks, or accelerators benefiting other customers and Forward Deployed Engineers Consistently delivers high-quality, production-ready, research-backed AI solutions across multiple customer engagements Maintains deep, trusted relationships with customer technical and executive leadership Serves as technical authority and thought leader in AI research and enterprise implementation Contributes to TELUS Digital's thought leadership through publications, presentations, or research initiatives Work Environment Embedded at customer locations (Fortune 500 enterprises, banks, healthcare organizations, AI-native companies) Work within customer facilities alongside their engineering and research teams Occasional travel to TELUS Digital offices for team collaboration, research initiatives, and knowledge sharing ~ AI-native companies and frontier AI research teams Organizations with mission-critical, research-intensive AI challenges Customers primarily in major US metro areas (Seattle, Bay Area, Boston, New York, etc.) Production software engineering (Python, TypeScript/JavaScript, SQL), Frontier GenAI/LLM systems (RAG, agentic AI, fine-tuning, evaluation, vector databases), Applied AI research methodologies and experimentation, Cloud platforms and MLOps (AWS, Azure, GCP, Kubernetes, CI/CD), Data engineering, integration, and synthetic data generation, System architecture, scalability, and performance optimization, Model evaluation frameworks and metrics Research & Innovation: Applied research in production environments, Frontier model evaluation and adaptation, Experimentation design and validation, Technical writing and documentation, Thought leadership and knowledge sharing, Emerging technology assessment and adoption Consulting & Strategy: AI strategy and roadmap development, Requirements gathering and technical discovery, Stakeholder management and executive communication, Problem-solving in ambiguous, research-intensive environments, Change management and adoption strategies, Business value articulation and ROI analysis Leadership & Management: Team leadership, recruitment, and development, Mentoring and coaching of technical professionals, Building trust and credibility quickly, Working effectively in customer cultures, Influencing without direct authority, Collaboration across organizational boundaries, Adaptability and resilience, Executive presence and communication, Performance management and KPI development In AI, the gap between research and production is where most organizations fail.

By embedding with customers and leading high-performing teams, they ensure TELUS Digital's AI solutions don't just impress in research papers or demos - they deliver transformative, research-backed results in the real world.

This role is for technical leaders who want to: Conduct applied AI research with real-world impact at enterprise scale, See their research and code drive tangible business outcomes, Work on diverse, frontier AI challenges across industries, Build and mentor high-performing technical teams, Operate at the intersection of cutting-edge AI research and enterprise reality, Shape how organizations adopt and scale AI, Contribute to the advancement of AI in production environments, Grow into executive leadership within a high-growth AI company Executive leadership role overseeing cutting-edge AI research and implementations with Fortune 500 enterprises Collaboration with world-class AI researchers, engineers, and thought leaders Professional development in AI research, consulting, and executive leadership Competitive compensation with performance bonuses Comprehensive benefits package Remote flexibility with meaningful customer engagement Our diverse team weaves data, technology, and human ingenuity to deliver differentiated customer journeys, drive operational effectiveness, and scale AI solutions with meaningful value and positive impact.

Director, AI Forward-Deployed Researcher Location: Remote (USA) TELUS Digital is a leading digital customer experience innovator that designs, builds, and delivers next-generation solutions, including the Fuel iX generative AI platform - an enterprise-scale platform proven with over 50,000 users that enables organisations to safely manage their AI applications, foundation models, and data sources.

The Forward Deployed Researcher, Director is a strategic leader, advanced AI research specialist, and manager who directly oversees and engages in the highest-value customer implementations.

While many companies can demonstrate AI capabilities or conduct research in isolation, few can successfully bridge cutting-edge research with complex enterprise implementations - combining frontier techniques with real data, real constraints, and real business impact.

They also elevate TELUS Digital's market position from services vendor to trusted AI research and implementation partner, while building the next generation of technical leaders.

Enabled by our global reach - spanning 78,000 experts in 33 countries - and deep industry expertise, we help over 600 organizations make the customer experience feel effortless. Our solutions span Data & AI, Digital Experience & IT, CX Management and Trust & Safety.