Most Loved Workplace® Certified JobPrincipal Research Scientist – Scaling
Most Loved Workplace® Certified JobAbout the Role
At Databricks, a Most Loved Workplace® certified employer in the Technology space, Democratizing data and AI for every organization worldwide.
<h1>Principal Research Scientist – Scaling</h1>
<h4>P-1227</h4>
<h2>About Databricks AI</h2>
<p>At Databricks, we are obsessed with enabling data teams to solve the world’s toughest problems, from security threat detection to cancer drug development, by building and running the world’s best data and AI platform. The Databricks AI Research organization enables companies to develop AI models and agents using their own data, with technologies ranging from post-training open source LLMs to developing advanced multi-agent architectures. Databricks AI is committed to the belief that a company’s AI models and agents are just as valuable as any other core IP, and that high-quality AI should be available to all.</p>
<h2>About the Scaling Research Team</h2>
<p>The Databricks AI Scaling team focuses on pushing the boundaries of large language model (LLM) training and inference efficiency beyond what is required to support existing models. The team explores novel avenues for scaling and efficiency improvements across algorithms, systems, and infrastructure, requiring researchers who can both drive independent research agendas and dive deep into low‑level implementation details with engineering partners.</p>
<h2>Role Summary</h2>
<p>As a Principal Research Scientist – Scaling, you will lead a team of world‑class researchers and engineers to advance the state of the art in large‑scale machine learning, focusing on post-training, RL and inference efficiency, optimization, and scaling. You will define and execute a research roadmap that advances the Databricks AI platform and delivers tangible improvements to how customers train, serve, and adapt LLMs at scale, working closely with product, data, and engineering leaders to bring cutting‑edge methods into production.</p>
<h2>The Impact You Will Have</h2>
<ul>
<li>Lead and grow a multidisciplinary research team focu
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View Original PostingWhy This Is a Most Loved Workplace® Certified Job
Systemic Collaboration
As Databricks continues our rapid growth, we strive to maintain a culture as open and transparent as it was in Databricks’s early days. Making sure employees have regular access to our CEO and co-founders to hear directly about our vision and priorities helps our employees forge a connection between Databricks priorities and their daily work.
Positive Vision for the Future
Databricks’ culture principles are derived from an internal study of the behaviors that have led to high impact work at Databricks. These values have a direct impact on company culture and play a large part in connecting teams across the organization. We believe in being customer-obsessed, truth-seeking, operating from first principles, having a bias for action, and putting Databricks first. Our co-founders are fully involved in day-to-day operations, including business and technical reviews, working alongside our team members to ensure that we are always aligned with our values.
Alignment of Values
Databricks’ CEO and Co-founder, Ali Ghodsi leads by example with a focus on truth-seeking and first principles thinking, two of Databricks’ core values that stay true to Databricks’s origins in academia. He champions the importance of data and reason to question biases and inform decisions. Ali remains hands-on with research and development and hosts company-wide weekly all hands, with a CEO “ask me anytime” session at the beginning of every agenda. His transparency and accessibility are core to the open and collaborative culture of Databricks.
Respect
At Databricks, we cultivate an environment where all employees can bring their unique selves and are empowered to do the best work of their careers. To ensure all voices are heard and ideas are valued, we conduct annual culture and pulse surveys and host all-hands Q&As to collect feedback from all employees. We then report back to Databricks on the specific changes implemented from the feedback collected to ensure employees feel heard and that their feedback is valued. In addition, we invest in our seven Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) that offer support and employee engagement events for individuals from underrepresented backgrounds and allies.
Killer Outcomes
Databricks prioritizes offering an exceptional employee experience by investing in tools, workspaces, and community-building. Our collaboration-first, hybrid model offers flexibility with in-person touchpoints like our annual employee kickoff, weekly CEO all-hands with happy hours, and monthly team building budgets. We are especially focused on maintaining a culture of transparency, honesty, and trust, with leaders actively engaging across channels like Slack and all hands while also championing inclusion efforts through ERG sponsorship. These initiatives help our team feel connected, valued, and empowered to do their best work.
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