Director of Research
Company
Orcrist builds the Orcrist Intelligence Platform (OIP), a Kubernetes-based data intelligence system delivered as SaaS or self-hosted/on-prem (including air-gapped deployments). We run streaming and batch pipelines that power search, ML enrichment, and investigative workflows for mission-critical customers.
Role
You will define the research agenda, build a high-calibre team, shape public research bids and industry consortia, and turn novel methods into validated assets that product and innovation teams can adopt. This is a player-coach role: early on you will stay technically hands-on while building the team and external network.
What you'll do
- Define and own the company research strategy aligned with product priorities and multi-team technical leverage.
- Build and lead a world-class research team of AI researchers, data scientists, and research engineers.
- Lead first-principles research in domains such as ASR, translation, information extraction, multimodal reasoning, visual pattern recognition, graph/temporal reasoning, and statistical analysis.
- Build the external R&D pipeline: identify opportunities, shape bids, build consortia, author work packages, and act as scientific/technical lead in awarded projects.
- Establish research operating discipline: reproducibility standards, benchmark suites, experiment tracking, model/data documentation, and portfolio reviews.
- Drive transfer into delivery teams by producing adoption-ready research packages, not just prototypes or papers.
- Represent Orcrist externally across customers, partners, universities, RTOs, industry associations, and public funding bodies.
- Shape IP and dissemination strategy for research outputs together with leadership and legal stakeholders.
- Partner closely with Innovation, Insights, Foundation, Platform, and customer-facing teams.
- Coach senior researchers and raise the bar for technical writing, scientific judgment, and cross-functional influence.
About You
- 8+ years in applied AI/ML research, data science, or equivalent deep-technical R&D roles.
- 3+ years leading research programmes, senior researchers, or cross-functional R&D initiatives.
- Deep expertise in machine learning / AI research with strong mathematical and statistical foundations.
- Expert Python; strong command of PyTorch and CUDA-backed model development.
- Experience with distributed training / research infrastructure (e.g. Ray, Horovod, multi-GPU workflows).
- Strong ground