Senior Manager, Forward Deployed Research

Role Description

Snorkel AI is hiring a Senior Manager on the Forward Deployed Research team to own how we show what our data does. You own two related functions:

• Benchmarking the latest frontier models against our data series to expose where they fall short.
• Tuning customer and open-source models on our data to demonstrate the lift it produces.

This is a player-coach role. You own the system, the standards, and the output:

• The methodology, the quality bar, and the intelligence we produce.
• Hiring and developing a small team of engineers and researchers.
• Defining the tooling and automation the function needs and partnering with Engineering to build it.
• Staying hands-on in the technical work and growing the function as demand climbs.

You partner across GTM, where this work opens and advances deals, with Research as a research partner, and with Engineering to build the underlying tooling. The right person is a strong engineer with real evaluation depth, can hold their own on frontier AI, and wants to own a function and grow a team.

Main Responsibilities

• Own the system for measuring what our data does: define how we benchmark and tune models on our data, and the tooling and automation the function needs, partnering with Engineering to build it.
• Recruit, hire, and develop a small team of engineers and researchers; a player-coach role, hands-on technical work plus team leadership.
• Own the methodology and playbook for benchmarking and tuning: the model panels, the metrics we report, the tuning setups, and the quality bar, so results are consistent, repeatable, and defensible across accounts and data series.
• Turn benchmark results into gap intelligence: clear analyses of where models fall short that serve as the evidence behind our data pitch and a primary input to what we build next.
• Tune customer and open-source models on our data to demonstrate the lift it produces, and turn that into presales material and intelligence.
• Partner cross-functionally with the GTM team where this work opens and advances deals, with Research as a research partner, and with Engineering, who build the underlying platform and automation you direct.
• Serve as the technical authority on evaluation: escalation point for complex or high-stakes benchmarking, and the person ensuring our published pass rates and model comparisons are rigorous and credible.

Qualifications

• 8+ years in applied ML, model evaluation, or research-intensive engineering, with a track record of building technical systems.
• Strong software engineering skills, with experience building data or evaluation pipelines, automation, and tooling that scale.
• Deep understanding of model evaluation and benchmarking: designing evaluations, selecting model panels and metrics, and producing rigorous, defensible results.
• Strong fluency in frontier AI concepts including LLMs, evaluation methodologies, post-training techniques (RLHF, DPO, RLAIF), and domain areas such as coding agents, reasoning, multimodal models, or RL environments.
• Experience leading, hiring, and developing technical talent; comfortable as a player-coach who stays hands-on while growing a team.
• Ability to translate technical results into clear insights for technical and go-to-market audiences, and to partner effectively across research, engineering, and GTM.
• Ability to work in a fast-moving environment, comfortable with ambiguity and rapid iteration.
• M.S. in Computer Science, Machine Learning, or related field.

Benefits

• The base salary range for this position is $185,000–$321,600, depending on location, experience, and qualifications.
• This role is also eligible for variable compensation and stock grants.
• Actual compensation will be determined based on factors including skills, qualifications, experience, and geographic location.