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Lead Applied Researcher

Adobe


Job Location:

San Jose, CA - USA

Yearly Salary: $ 182900 - 352350
Posted: 17 June 2026 (30+ days ago)
Application Deadline: 19 November 2026
Vacancies: 1 Vacancy

Job Summary

Lead Applied Researcher AI Foundations- Adobe Express
Location: San Jose CA / Seattle WA


The Opportunity
Adobe Express empowers users to seamlessly construct striking
designs whether they are novices or experienced engineers on a
user-friendly platform improved by groundbreaking AI capabilities.
The AI Foundations team sits at the core of this vision driving
innovation to make Adobe Express smarter faster and more adaptive!
By developing modular reusable AI systems and crafting a robust
Horizon AI Stack this team will play a pivotal role in transforming
creative workflows. Joining this team means crafting the future of
creativity solving complex engineering challenges and delivering
scalable AI solutions that redefine what is possible in design!

What Youll Do

  • Build innovative machine learning models that drive Agentic and
    other Generative AI scenarios for Adobe Express
  • Lead and mentor a small team of applied researchers providing
    technical direction and encouraging a strong culture of innovation
    and experimentation.
  • Contribute to foundational AI systems for intelligent assistance
    layout automation image generation and motion storytelling.
  • Design and build modular reusable components that integrate
    with the Horizon AI Stack and scale across multiple creative
    workflows.
  • Own the ML lifecyclefrom ideation and prototyping to evaluation
    and deployment.
  • Drive collaboration with Adobe Research product and platform
    teams to translate ideas into production-ready capabilities.
  • Define and implement evaluation strategies using a combination
    of automated metrics LLM based judges and user feedback

Basic Qualifications

  • Masters or PhD in Computer Science Computer Engineering
    Data Science Machine Learning or a related field with equivalent
    experience.
  • 7 years of industry experience in machine learning and product
    development related to AI.
  • Demonstrated experience mentoring or technically guiding other
    researchers or engineers.
  • Strong programming skills and proficiency in ML frameworks
    such as PyTorch TensorFlow or JAX.
  • Experience with modern ML architectures including transformers
    / visual transformers diffusion models or GANs.
  • Experience with cloud platforms MLOps and deploying ML
    systems in production at scale.
  • Be able to quickly read understand and prototype relevant
    research papers.

Preferred Qualifications

  • Experience with Large Language Models and model adaptation
    techniques (Ex: PEFT SFT RL etc.)
  • Familiarity with agent-based systems intelligent assistants or
    planner-based AI.
  • Experience in creative imaging or multimedia domains.
  • Publications in renowned ML/CV/AI conferences (e.g. NeurIPS
    CVPR ICML SIGGRAPH).

What You Need to Succeed

  • Be a leader with a point of view and a passion for creativity
    striving to improve solutions.
  • Be up to date with the latest and greatest in AI Research.
  • Comfortable working in a fast iterative and ambiguous
    environment.
  • Strong communication skills with the ability to explain technical
    ideas and experiment results clearly.
  • Collaborative spirit with a focus on product impact AI / ML
    innovation and engineering excellence.

About Adobe

Adobe empowers everyone to create through innovative platforms and tools that unleash creativity productivity and personalized customer experiences. Adobes industry-leading offerings including Adobe Acrobat Studio Adobe Express Adobe Firefly Creative Cloud Adobe Experience Platform Adobe Experience Manager and GenStudio enable people and businesses to turn ideas into impact powered by AI and driven by human ingenuity.

Our 30000 employees worldwide are creating the future and raising the bar as we drive the next decade of growth. Were on a mission to hire the very best and believe in creating a company culture where all employees are empowered to make an impact. At Adobe we believe that great ideas can come from anywhere in the organization. The next big idea could be yours.


Lets Adobe together

At Adobe we believe in creating a company culture where all employees are empowered to make an impact. Learn more about Adobe life including our values and culture focus on people purpose and community Adobe for All comprehensive benefits programs the stories we tell the customers we serve and how you can help us advance our mission of empowering everyone to create.

Adobe is proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity employer. We do not discriminate based on gender race or color ethnicity or national origin age disability religion sexual orientation gender identity or expression veteran status or any other protected characteristic. Learn more.

Adobe aims to make our Careers website and recruiting process accessible to any and all users. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation to navigate our website or complete the application process email or call 1 .

AI Use Guidelines for Interviews:
Our interviews are designed to reflect your own skills and thinking. The use of AI or recording tools during live interviews is not permitted unless explicitly invited by the interviewer or approved in advance as part of a reasonable accommodation. If these tools are used inappropriately or in a way that misrepresents your work your application may not move forward in the process.

At Adobe we empower employees to innovate with AI and we look for candidates eager to do the same. As part of the hiring experience we provide clear guidance on where AI is encouraged during the process and where its restricted during live interviews. See how we think about AI in the hiring experience.

Expected Pay Range:

Our compensation reflects the cost of labor across several U.S. geographic markets and we pay differently based on those defined markets. The U.S. pay range for this positionis $$352350 annually. Paywithin this range varies by work locationand may also depend on job-related knowledge skillsand experience. Your recruiter can share more about the specific salary range for the job location during the hiring process.

In California the pay range for this position is $243300 - $352350 In Washington the pay range for this position is $227900 - $330050

At Adobe for sales roles starting salaries are expressed as total target compensation (TTC base commission) and short-term incentives are in the form of sales commission plans. Non-sales roles starting salaries are expressed as base salary and short-term incentives are in the form of the Annual Incentive Plan (AIP).

In addition certain roles may be eligible for long-term incentives in the form of a new hire equity award.

State-Specific Notices:

California:

Fair Chance Ordinances

Adobe will consider qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records for employment in accordance with state and local laws and fair chance ordinances.

Colorado:

Application Window Notice

If this role is open to hiring in Colorado (as listed on the job posting) the application window will remain open until at least the date and time stated above in Pacific Time in compliance with Colorado pay transparency regulations. If this role does not have Colorado listed as a hiring location no specific application window applies and the posting may close at any time based on hiring needs.

Massachusetts:

Massachusetts Legal Notice

It is unlawful in Massachusetts to require or administer a lie detector test as a condition of employment or continued employment. An employer who violates this law shall be subject to criminal penalties and civil liability.


Required Experience:

IC