Director AI, Applied Research

Director of AI , Applied Research Location: Toronto Hybrid Compensation: $300,000 to $350,000 base salary performance bonus comprehensive benefits ($500,000 to $570,000 total) ABOUT THE COMPANY We’re partnered with a market-leading enterprise operating at the intersection of AI, compliance, and enterprise software. Their suite of corporate tax and trade products supports global organizations across industries like retail, technology, and pharma. With a strong focus on intelligent automation and applied AI, they have recently launched innovative tools such as AI assistants and product classification engines, paving the way for a new era of compliance decision-making. This role offers the chance to shape the direction of enterprise AI with tangible, global impact. THE ROLE As Director of Applied Research for Corporates Tax & Trade, you will lead a high-performing team of over 20 applied scientists and research engineers. You will oversee end-to-end delivery of AI solutions that power mission-critical compliance tools while continuously driving innovation across the product ecosystem. Key Responsibilities: Leadership and Team Development: Inspire, coach, and scale a top-tier applied research team. Set clear goals and foster a collaborative, high-performance culture. AI Product Innovation: Lead the development and deployment of advanced machine learning models powering AI assistants, product classification tools, and other intelligent features. Strategic Delivery: Oversee the model development lifecycle from discovery to production across multiple major enterprise product lines. Innovation Vision: Drive the strategic roadmap for the next generation of AI-powered compliance solutions, including proactive decision support tools. Cross-Functional Collaboration: Work closely with leaders in product, engineering, UX, editorial, and marketing to align research efforts with business priorities. Stakeholder Engagement: Represent the team’s work in internal and external forums, including customer sessions and industry events. Portfolio Oversight: Manage R&D budgets, staffing allocation, and project prioritization for maximum strategic impact. Mentorship: Develop technical leaders and foster a growth-oriented, mission-driven team environment. YOUR SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE We are looking for a visionary AI leader who combines deep technical expertise with exceptional leadership and delivery skills: 10 or more years of hands-on experience developing and deploying commercial AI/NLP systems 5 or more years of experience managing and scaling high-performing research teams PhD (preferred) or Master’s degree in Computer Science, AI, NLP, or a related field Extensive experience with LLMs, including agentic architectures and retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) Proven success bringing ML-based features into production within complex enterprise environments Deep knowledge of AWS-based ML infrastructure and end-to-end MLOps practices Strong record of customer-focused delivery and collaboration with cross-functional stakeholders Track record of applied innovation; publication history in top venues such as ACL, EMNLP, NeurIPS, ICML, or ICLR is a strong plus Exceptional communication, stakeholder management, and strategic planning skills THE BENEFITS Base salary of $220,000 to $260,000 plus performance bonus Drive enterprise AI innovation with real-world, global use cases Work from anywhere in the U.S. (Toronto office) Comprehensive benefits including health, dental, vision, 401(k), generous PTO, and more HOW TO APPLY To explore this opportunity, please submit your resume to Luc Simpson-Kent using the Apply link on this page.