---
title: 'VP, Research at Scale AI'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/vp-research-scale-ai-san-francisco-0dj2wv8sxt09'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-10-14'
---

# VP, Research at Scale AI

- **Company:** Scale AI
- **Location:** San Francisco, CA / New York, NY
- **Compensation:** $397k–$496k
- **Posted:** 2026-08-01
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-10-14
- **Apply:** https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/scaleai/jobs/4611448005

## Job description

As the leading data and evaluation partner for frontier AI companies, Scale is dedicated to advancing the progress of generative AI, with a focus around frontier evaluations, the science of data around posttraining, agentic applications, trustworthy agents oversight framework and beyond. Our Research teams work with the industry’s leading AI labs to provide high quality data and accelerate progress in GenAI research. Additionally, Scale plays an integral role in understanding the capabilities and safeguarding of LLMs. [Scale Labs](https://labs.scale.com/) is Scale's frontier research effort dedicated to tackling the challenging research problems in evaluation, agents, post-training, reasoning, safety and alignment of advanced AI systems. The SPRL team is a new effort focused on safety and policy research to bridge the gap between AI research and global policymakers to make informed, scientific decisions about AI risks and capabilities.

We’re looking for a VP of Research to lead this charge. This is a critical leadership role where you will blend cutting-edge research with real-world applied ML impact and build a world-class research organization that expands that capabilities of frontier AI systems and develops safeguards to deploy them responsibly.

You will shape the technical direction of Scale’s ML research, translate science into production-ready solutions, and partner with go-to-market, delivery, engineering, and customers to ensure our work defines the next era of AI. You’ll lead with vision and clarity, execute with urgency, and grow with intention.

What you'll do:

- Lead the ML Research function, responsible for delivery, quality, performance, and roadmap execution
- Build and scale a global high-performing team, with an emphasis on initiative ownership and ML excellence
- Partner directly with Fortune 100 customers and the GTM team to translate business needs into scalable technical solutions
- Collaborate with engineering, product, and delivery teams across Scale to drive cutting edge research
- Shape the long-term vision and org design of the ML Research team, aligned with business growth and product evolution
- Manage and mentor senior ML Research leaders and instill a culture of accountability, speed, and results
- Make rigorous tradeoffs across technical and business dimensions, backed by financial insight and operational understanding
- Represent ML Research in cross-functional planning cycles, including headcount, budget, and strategic initiatives

We're looking for someone who:

- Has a strong track record of leading ML Research teams in high-growth environments, ideally in ML, infrastructure, or complex systems
- Has scaled research organizations across geographies and understands how to structure and evolve teams effectively
- Operates with urgency and clarity—able to distill priorities and move teams from ambiguity to execution
- Has experience partnering deeply with sales, delivery, and customer success teams
- Is equally comfortable in the weeds and at the executive level; knows when to lead from the front and when to empower others
- Brings credibility and curiosity in core technical areas—especially product engineering, infrastructure, or AI agent systems

Compensation packages at Scale for eligible roles include base salary, equity, and benefits. The range displayed on each job posting reflects the minimum and maximum target for new hire salaries for the position and may be inclusive of several career levels at Scale; it will be determined during the interview process based on work location and additional factors, including job-related skills, experience, qualifications, interview performance, and relevant education or training. Scale employees in eligible roles are also granted equity based compensation, subject to Board of Director approval. Your recruiter can share more about the specific salary range for your preferred location during the hiring process, and confirm whether the hired role will be eligible for equity grant. You'll also receive benefits including, but not limited to: comprehensive health, dental and vision coverage, retirement benefits, a learning and development stipend, and generous PTO. Additionally, this role may be eligible for additional benefits such as a commuter stipend.

Please reference the job posting's subtitle for where this position will be located. For pay transparency purposes, the base salary range for this full-time position in the locations of San Francisco, New York, Seattle is: $396,800—$496,000 USD

PLEASE NOTE: Our policy requires a 90-day waiting period before reconsidering candidates for the same role. This allows us to ensure a fair and thorough evaluation of all applicants.

About Us:

At Scale, our mission is to develop reliable AI systems for the world's most important decisions. Our products provide the high-quality data and full-stack technologies that power the world's leading models, and help enterprises and governments build, deploy, and oversee AI applications that deliver real impact. We work closely with industry leaders like Meta, Ernst & Young, Mayo Clinic, Time Inc., the Government of Qatar, and U.S. government agencies including the Army and Air Force. We are expanding our team to accelerate the development of AI applications.

We believe that everyone should be able to bring their whole selves to work, which is why we are proud to be an inclusive and equal opportunity workplace. We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability status, gender identity or Veteran status.

We are committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodations to applicants with physical and mental disabilities. If you need assistance and/or a reasonable accommodation in the application or recruiting process due to a disability, please contact us at accommodations@scale.com. Please see the United States Department of Labor's [Know Your Rights poster](https://www.eeoc.gov/sites/default/files/2023-06/22-088_EEOC_KnowYourRights6.12ScreenRdr.pdf) for additional information.

We comply with the United States Department of Labor's Pay Transparency provision.

PLEASE NOTE: We collect, retain and use personal data for our professional business purposes, including notifying you of job opportunities that may be of interest and sharing with our affiliates. We limit the personal data we collect to that which we believe is appropriate and necessary to manage applicants’ needs, provide our services, and comply with applicable laws. Any information we collect in connection with your application will be treated in accordance with our internal policies and programs designed to protect personal data. Please see our [privacy policy](https://scale.com/legal/privacy) for additional information.

## About Scale AI

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Scale AI provides high-quality data, RLHF, model evaluations, and full-stack AI infrastructure to help enterprises and governments build, deploy, and oversee reliable AI systems.
- **Entity Type**: Private (49% non‑voting stake owned by Meta Platforms as of June 2025; total funding $1.6B across eight rounds)
- **Headquarters**: San Francisco, California, United States
- **Founded**: 2016
- **Founders**: Alexandr Wang, Lucy Guo (Wang left in June 2025; current CEO is Jason Droege)

## Core Business
- **Primary industry**: AI infrastructure, data annotation, large language model (LLM) evaluation, enterprise AI deployment
- **Target customers**: B2B – Enterprise and government organizations; also serves leading AI labs (e.g., OpenAI, Google DeepMind, Meta, Microsoft, General Motors)
- **Mission**: “Develop reliable AI systems for the world's most important decisions.”

## Products & Services
- **Data at Scale**: High-quality training data, annotations, and RLHF for advanced AI models (SaaS + human-in-the-loop service)
- **Evaluations**: Rigorous model evaluations, benchmarking, and red‑teaming to measure and improve AI performance (service)
- **Applied AI**: Full‑stack AI systems that help enterprises and governments build, deploy, and oversee reliable AI (SaaS + consulting)
- **Safety, Evaluation and Alignment Lab**: Research arm focused on LLM alignment and safety (internal R&D; also co‑created the “Humanity's Last Exam” benchmark)
- **Subsidiaries**: Remotasks (computer vision and autonomous vehicle data labeling), Outlier (LLM data annotation)

## Market Standing
- **Valuation**: $29B (as of 2025 – cited on scale.com)
- **Key Metric**: Total Funding – $1.6B (including the $14B Meta investment that acquired a 49% non‑voting stake in June 2025)
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Meta Platforms (49% owner), with commercial customers including Google, Microsoft, Meta, General Motors, OpenAI, and Time. Also works with U.S. and Qatari governments.
- **Growth Signals**:
  - Headcount: Scale.com cites “1,000+” employees; LinkedIn reports 3,751 employees (+32.1% YoY).
  - 90% of the world’s leading generative AI model builders are powered by Scale.
  - 15 billion human decisions used to train AI models; $1 billion paid to contributors globally.
  - Active job postings: 284+ (as of July 2025), with strong hiring in enterprise engineering, AI agents, and solutions roles.

## Competitive Advantages
- **Data moat**: Scale’s proprietary Data Engine and access to millions of human‑annotated decisions create high‑quality training data that competitors cannot easily replicate.
- **Trust & adoption**: Used by 90% of leading GenAI builders; runs private benchmarks for the most ambitious AI companies.
- **Government credibility**: Direct contracts with the U.S. Department of Defense and international governments (e.g., Qatar) – a high‑barrier entry point.
- **Full‑stack offering**: From raw data annotation to LLM evaluation and end‑to‑end applied AI deployment, Scale covers the entire AI lifecycle.
- **Research leadership**: In‑house Safety, Evaluation and Alignment Lab; co‑creator of the “Humanity's Last Exam” benchmark.

## Strategic Focus
- **Enterprise GenAI agents**: Ramping up “AgentOps” and “Frontier Agents” engineering teams (many open roles in SF, NY, London, Budapest).
- **Healthcare & life sciences**: Hiring dedicated GTM leaders and AI strategists for healthcare vertical.
- **International expansion**: Growing offices in London, Budapest, Mexico City, and Washington DC.
- **Safety and alignment**: Continued investment in red‑teaming, model evaluations, and government‑focused AI safety contracts.

## Why Work Here
- **Mission‑driven**: “Develop reliable AI systems for the world’s most important decisions” – directly shaping frontier AI capabilities.
- **Compensation & benefits**: Comprehensive health, dental, vision, mental health services; generous PTO; annual learning & development stipend; parental leave; ERGs; guest‑friendly offices with happy hours, game nights, book clubs.
- **Engineering culture**: Credos such as “Write the Market,” “Find the 20%,” “Earn Customer Love,” and “Quality is Our Cheat Code” emphasize impact over effort, customer obsession, and structured thinking.
- **Growth trajectory**: Rapid headcount growth (+32%), major Meta investment, and expansion into new verticals signal a company in high‑growth mode.
- **Flexible work**: Offices in SF, NY, London, Budapest, Mexico City, DC; the careers page highlights “flexible environment,” though specific remote/hybrid policy is not explicitly stated.

## Sources
1. [scale.com](https://scale.com/about)
2. [scale.com](https://scale.com/)
3. [scale.com/careers](https://scale.com/careers)
4. [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/scaleai)
5. [greenhouse.io](https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/scaleai)

## Other roles at Scale AI

- [Head of Strategic Partnerships, Labs](https://feeny.ai/job/head-of-strategic-partnerships-labs-scale-ai-san-francisco-vye4n623xfpv) — San Francisco, CA
- [Engagement Manager, Public Sector (Miami, FL)](https://feeny.ai/job/engagement-manager-public-sector-miami-fl-scale-ai-miami-3ndjz5cd9kra) — Miami, FL
- [Field Marketing & Events Manager, Frontier Data](https://feeny.ai/job/field-marketing-events-manager-frontier-data-scale-ai-san-francisco-nhcmhqcg1e92) — San Francisco, CA
- [Systems Engineering Integration & Test Lead, Public Sector](https://feeny.ai/job/systems-engineering-integration-test-lead-public-sector-scale-ai-washington-9zdy3d16gdp6) — Washington, DC
- [Enterprise AI Development Strategist](https://feeny.ai/job/enterprise-ai-development-strategist-scale-ai-new-york-kjesqme2drnw) — New York, NY / San Francisco, CA
- [Public Sector Lead, Central Government](https://feeny.ai/job/public-sector-lead-central-government-scale-ai-london-3x4txw5rm0ww) — London, United Kingdom
- [IT Support Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/it-support-engineer-scale-ai-mexico-city-4phnynxdj7pr) — Mexico City, Mexico
- [Product Operations Lead, Generative AI](https://feeny.ai/job/product-operations-lead-generative-ai-scale-ai-san-francisco-edrfs0c5fjsq) — San Francisco, CA / New York, NY
- [Revenue Operations Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/revenue-operations-manager-scale-ai-san-francisco-h22c8pyenzea) — San Francisco, CA
- [Account Based Marketing Lead](https://feeny.ai/job/account-based-marketing-lead-scale-ai-san-francisco-scbm74c8z3py) — San Francisco, CA / New York, NY