Research Scientist - Salesforce AI Research

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Salesforce Research advances state-of-the-art AI techniques, developing models and prototypes that pave the path for innovative products at Salesforce. We tackle real-world problems in areas such as image recognition and natural language processing from Salesforce's enterprise customers by harnessing the latest deep learning techniques. As part of our team you’ll learn unique skills, work with talented people and help us shape the future of AI in Palo Alto and our recently announced new hub, Salesforce Research Asia in Singapore!

Job Category

Software Engineering

Job Details

About Salesforce

Salesforce is the #1 AI CRM, where humans with agents drive customer success together. Here, ambition meets action. Tech meets trust. And innovation isn’t a buzzword — it’s a way of life. The world of work as we know it is changing and we're looking for Trailblazers who are passionate about bettering business and the world through AI, driving innovation, and keeping Salesforce's core values at the heart of it all.

Ready to level-up your career at the company leading workforce transformation in the agentic era? You’re in the right place! Agentforce is the future of AI, and you are the future of Salesforce.

The Experience
Salesforce AI Research is a global leader in Enterprise AI, driving innovations that advance the state of AI while powering enterprise products at worldwide scale.

Our research has helped shape multiple generations of modern AI: we helped pioneer prompt engineering through DecaNLP; introduced BLIP, a foundational breakthrough in multimodal AI; trained state-of-the-art large language models including CodeGen; and pioneered foundation models for time series with Moirai. Today, we continue to advance the frontier of enterprise AI through innovations in AI simulation environments like eVerse, our simulation and agent-training environment; the Atlas Reasoning Engine, which powers Agentforce reasoning capabilities; and other AI systems that are redefining how enterprises reason, plan, and act.

What makes our team unique is our ability to take ideas from research to real-world impact at scale. We work closely with product teams and enterprise customers to translate cutting-edge research into production AI capabilities used by millions of users. Our innovations continue to shape the future of Salesforce products and the broader enterprise AI ecosystem. We also continue to publish at the world's top AI conferences, open source influential research, and collaborate with leading academic institutions. Learn more at Salesforce AI Research.

We are looking for entrepreneurial Research Scientists who want to build, ship, and scale the next generation of Enterprise AI. This is not a traditional research role — you work like a founder within Salesforce, identifying high-impact research directions, prototyping cutting-edge AI capabilities, validating ideas directly with customers, and turning the strongest concepts into production-ready solutions. You have the freedom to propose and incubate new research ideas, access Salesforce's global customer and product ecosystem, and quickly validate new innovations with external and internal customers and stakeholders. We are looking for people who are comfortable with ambiguity, move with urgency, and care as much about customer adoption as technical innovation. If you want the pace and ownership of a startup, combined with the reach and resources of Salesforce, this role offers a unique opportunity to build Enterprise AI with global impact.

What You'll Actually Be Doing

• Identify research directions with the potential to transform Enterprise AI.

• Turn promising ideas into zero-to-one AI product prototypes.

• Work directly with customers to validate needs, test solutions, and refine product direction.

• Build robust models, agents, and AI systems for real-world enterprise use.

• Partner with product, engineering, and go-to-market teams to bring solutions to market.

You're Our Person If...

• You have a strong publication record at top AI venues (e.g., NeurIPS, ICLR, ICML, CVPR, ICCV, ACL, EMNLP) and/or a proven track record of shipping AI research into real-world products.

• You have experience with Python and deep learning frameworks such as PyTorch, JAX, or DeepSpeed.

• You are motivated by real-world impact — you care about seeing your research leave the lab and reach users at scale.

• You bring demonstrated expertise in one or more core focus areas:

  • Agentic AI and Reasoning: LLM-powered agents, reinforcement learning (RL), reasoning and planning, autonomous workflows, computer use agents, deep research agents, and coding agents.

  • Multimodal and Computer Vision: Vision-language models, video understanding, and multimodal AI agents.

  • Speech Intelligence: Voice intelligence, text-to-speech/automatic speech recognition, and low-latency audio processing.

  • Core Modeling and Post-Training: Pre-training and post-training techniques including RLHF and direct preference optimization, model distillation, evaluation, and time series modeling.

• You bring a demonstrated ability to conduct independent research and translate ideas into impactful systems.

Even Better If...

• You have a Ph.D. in Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, or a related technical field — or equivalent full-time industry experience in deep learning research or product.

• Experience building and scaling ML models for real-world business applications.

• Experience mentoring and advising other researchers.

• Strong programming skills (competitive programming, e.g. ACM-ICPC, or open source experience).

• Thoughtful about responsible AI, trust, and the real-world impact of the systems you build.

• Fantastic problem solver — ability to tackle challenges the world hasn't solved before.

• Excellent written and spoken communication skills.

• Demonstrated track record of cultivating strong working relationships and driving cross-functional collaboration.

Unleash Your Potential

When you join Salesforce, you’ll be limitless in all areas of your life. Our benefits and resources support you to find balance and be your best , and our AI agents accelerate your impact so you can do your best . Together, we’ll bring the power of Agentforce to organizations of all sizes and deliver amazing experiences that customers love. Apply today to not only shape the future — but to redefine what’s possible — for yourself, for AI, and the world.

Accommodations

If you need a reasonable accommodation during the application or the recruiting process, please submit a request via this Accommodations Request Form .

Please note that Salesforce uses artificial intelligence (AI) tools to help our recruiters assess and evaluate candidates’ resumes and qualifications throughout the recruiting process. Humans will always make any candidate selection and hiring decisions. Please see our Candidate Privacy Statement for more information about how we use your personal data and your rights, including with regard to use of AI tools and opt out options.

Posting Statement

Salesforce is an equal opportunity employer and maintains a policy of non-discrimination with all employees and applicants for employment. What does that mean exactly? It means that at Salesforce, we believe in equality for all. And we believe we can lead the path to equality in part by creating a workplace that’s inclusive, and free from discrimination. Know your rights: workplace discrimination is illegal. Any employee or potential employee will be assessed on the basis of merit, competence and qualifications – without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender expression or identity, transgender status, age, disability, veteran or marital status, political viewpoint, or other classifications protected by law. This policy applies to current and prospective employees, no matter where they are in their Salesforce employment journey. It also applies to recruiting, hiring, job assignment, compensation, promotion, benefits, training, assessment of job performance, discipline, termination, and everything in between. Recruiting, hiring, and promotion decisions at Salesforce are fair and based on merit. The same goes for compensation, benefits, promotions, transfers, reduction in workforce, recall, training, and education.

In the United States, compensation offered will be determined by factors such as location, job level, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. Certain roles may be eligible for incentive compensation, equity, and benefits. Salesforce offers a variety of benefits to help you live well including: time off programs, medical, dental, vision, mental health support, paid parental leave, life and disability insurance, 401(k), and an employee stock purchasing program. More details about company benefits can be found at the following link: to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance and the Los Angeles Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring, Salesforce will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.At Salesforce, we believe in equitable compensation practices that reflect the dynamic nature of labor markets across various regions. The typical base salary range for this position is $117,200 - $313,700 annually. In select cities within the San Francisco and New York City metropolitan area, the base salary range for this role is $141,200 - $344,700 annually. The range represents base salary only, and does not include company bonus, incentive for sales roles, equity or benefits, as applicable.