At Qualtrics, we create software the world’s best brands use to deliver exceptional frontline experiences, build high-performing teams, and design products people love. But we are more than a platform—we are the creators and stewards of the Experience Management category serving over 18K clients globally. Building a category takes grit, determination, and a disdain for convention—but most of all it requires close-knit, high-functioning teams with an unwavering dedication to serving our customers. When you join one of our teams, you’ll be part of a nimble group that’s empowered to set aggressive goals and move fast to achieve them. Strategic risks are encouraged and complex problems are solved together, by passing the mic and iterating until the best solution comes to light. You won’t have to look to find growth opportunities—ready or not, they’ll find you. From retail to government to healthcare, we’re on a mission to bring humanity, connection, and empathy back to business. Join over 5,000 people across the globe who think that’s work worth doing.   Manager, Applied Science

Why We Have This Role

The mission of the AI/ML Science team is to advance the Qualtrics platform and products by applying state-of-the-art AI technologies. We develop AI-powered features for the Experience Management (XM) Platform™, enabling automated analysis of large-scale structured and unstructured data and transforming insights into action through advanced agentic technologies.

We are currently looking for a talented and innovative Applied Science leader to bring our Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence R&D capabilities to the next level.

How You’ll Find Success

• Identify research direction, build translational research programs and communicate them to senior leadership, and work closely with other stakeholders to bring research to production.
• Work with a talented team of applied scientists and machine learning engineers covering a broad spectrum of modeling needs for AI products.
• Develop multilingual text analytics and information retrieval systems, building customized large language models (LLMs), and creating conversational analytical agents.
• Ability to navigate high levels of ambiguity and work collaboratively across diverse disciplines.
• Use effective communication skills to articulate technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders and gather requirements for GenAI application development.

How You’ll Grow

• Commitment to developing GenAI applications that adhere to ethical standards and promote positive societal impact while minimizing potential risks.
• Drive to push the boundaries of what's possible with AI, and to contribute to the advancement of the field through research, experimentation, and collaboration.
• Willingness to stay updated with the latest advancements in AI research and technology, and to continuously learn and adapt to new methodologies and best practices.
• Establish short-term and long-term career goals for your team and develop a roadmap to achieve them.

Things You’ll Do

• Drive adoption of scientific and engineering best practices for the entire model life cycle management (MLCM), including research, model design, experiment design, model testing, coding standards/reviews, model monitoring, and launch processes
• Develop science and engineering roadmaps, run sprints, and drive quarterly/annual planning exercises
• Collaborate with Product Management, Program Management, UX Design, engineering, and other stakeholder teams to collect requirements, describe features, build technical designs, and execution strategies
• Hire and develop scientists at various experience levels by providing technical and career development guidance
• Drive operational perfection by investigating production issues, driving root cause analysis, and follow-up actions for continuous improvement
• Communicate research findings to a technical audience and executive management
• Represent Qualtrics in academic and industrial conferences

What We’re Looking For On Your Resume

• Ph.D. degree with 4+ years of applied research experience or a Master's degree and 6+ years of applied research experience
• 2+ years of people management experience
• Proven ability to hire, develop and manage high-performing applied science teams
• Track record of conducting independent research and model development, implementation, and optimization to drive eventual product outcomes
• Solid understanding of machine learning and AI engineering fundamentals and tool ecosystem with deep and demonstrable expertise in at least one topic or application of machine learning.
• Solid understanding of elements of machine learning life cycle management.
• Familiarity with relevant technology stacks such as deep learning frameworks (TensorFlow, PyTorch, etc) and ML platforms such as SageMaker, VertexAI etc
• Comfortable with dealing with multiple priorities and ambiguity in a fast-paced, dynamic environment
• Excellent command of at least one modern programming language (preferably Python)
• Excellent oral and written communication skills, with the ability to communicate complex technical concepts and solutions to both technical and non-technical teams at all levels of the organization
• Technical depth in machine learning systems (e.g. SageMaker, MLFlow), and deep learning frameworks  (e.g. TensorFlow, PyTorch, MXNet etc)
• Research experience in one or more of the following areas: large language models (LLMs), natural language understanding/processing, speech processing, dialog understanding, text summarization, question answering, time series analysis, event sequence analysis, or information retrieval.
• Strong publication record in top-tier ML and NLP conferences (e.g. ACL, NAACL, EMNLP, NeurIPS, ICML, AAAI, ICLR, SIGIR etc.)
• Experience with Big Data technologies such as AWS, Hadoop, Spark, Hive, Lucene/SOLR, or Kafka

What You Should Know About This Team

• The Data Intelligence Center of Excellence (DICE) organization provides AI/ML research and development services for all product lines.
• We partner with application teams to deliver ML algorithms and models that drive efficiency, innovation, and growth.
• We identify business needs and define strategies where Qualtrics can most benefit from AI technologies.
• We stay on top of the latest AI technologies and apply the state of the art to customer business problems.
• We conduct ML modeling with deep expertise and rigor, including model selection, training, fine-tuning, customization, explainability, and evaluation. 

Our Team’s Favorite Perks and Benefits

• Wellness Reimbursement for $300 per quarter for wellness activities including gym memberships, spa massages, workout equipment, meditation apps, and much more.
• $1800 Experience bonus to be used for an “Experience” of your choosing
• Amazing QGroup Communities; MOSAIQ, Green Team, Qualtrics Pride, Q&Able, Qualtrics Salute, and Women’s Leadership Development, which exist as places for support, allyship, and advocacy.

The Qualtrics Hybrid Work Model: Our hybrid work model is elegantly simple: we all gather in the office three days a week; Mondays and Thursdays, plus one day selected by your organizational leader. These purposeful in-person days in thoughtfully designed offices help us do our best work and harness the power of collaboration and innovation. For the rest of the week, work where you want, owning the integration of work and life.   Qualtrics is an equal opportunity employer meaning that all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, status as a protected veteran, or any other protected characteristic.   ​​​​​​​Applicants in the United States of America have rights under Federal Employment Laws:Family & Medical Leave Act, Equal Opportunity Employment, Employee Polygraph Protection Act   Qualtrics is committed to the inclusion of all qualified individuals. As part of this commitment, Qualtrics will ensure that persons with disabilities are provided with reasonable accommodations. If reasonable accommodation is needed to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and/or to receive other benefits and privileges of employment, please let your Qualtrics contact/recruiter know.   Not finding a role that’s the right fit for now? Qualtrics Insiders is the one-stop shop for all things Qualtrics Life. Sign up for exclusive access to content created with you in mind and get the scoop on what we have going on at Qualtrics - upcoming events, behind the scenes stories from the team, interview tips, hot jobs, and more. No spam - we promise! You'll hear from us two times a month max with fresh, totally tailored info - so be sure to stay connected as you explore your best role and company fit.  

For full-time positions, this pay range is for base per year; however, base pay offered may vary depending on location, job-related knowledge, education, skills, and experience. A sign-on bonus and restricted stock units may be included in an employment offer, in addition to a range of medical, financial, and other benefits, based on eligibility criteria.

Washington State Annual Pay Transparency Range$205,000—$354,000 USD