Principal Scientist, Foundation Model Understanding Data Architect

Location: Seattle

Time Type: Full time

Job Description

About the Role

We are seeking a Principal Scientist (P60) to define and lead the data and semantic architecture that enables Adobe Firefly’s next‑generation unified foundation models—models that natively combine understanding, reasoning, and generation within a single system.
This role sits within the Applied Science and Machine Learning (ASML) organization and operates at the highest level of technical leadership. You will shape how meaning, intent, and abstraction are represented and learned at foundation‑model scale, influencing multiple generations of models and products. This is a highly strategic individual contributor role with broad organizational impact.

What You’ll Do

Foundation Model Data Vision

• Define the multi‑year vision for understanding‑centric data that enables unified comprehension and generation.
• Establish core principles for semantic representation, supervision, and curriculum at foundation‑model scale.
• Identify limitations in existing data paradigms and drive the invention of new approaches.

Semantic Architecture & Alignment

• Design canonical semantic abstractions that bridge perception‑level signals with high‑level concepts such as intent, reasoning, and compositional structure.
• Lead the evolution of supervision schemas toward rich, model‑interpretable semantic signals.
• Guide the use of multimodal and vision‑language models to bootstrap scalable understanding data.

Data Curriculum & Model Behavior

• Define understanding‑focused data curricula across model scale and training phases.
• Lead ablations to quantify how semantic data choices affect generalization, controllability, and robustness.
• Balance organic, synthetic, and model‑generated data to optimize learning efficiency.

Organizational Leadership

• Serve as the technical authority for foundation‑model understanding data across Adobe.
• Influence research, infrastructure, and product roadmaps through principled, data‑driven guidance.
• Mentor senior scientists and architects; set standards for rigor and reproducibility.

What You Need to Succeed

• 10+ years of experience in ML, data systems, or AI research, including leadership on large‑scale or foundation models.
• Demonstrated impact shaping data, learning paradigms, or representations for LLMs or multimodal models.
• Deep expertise in semantic representation, reasoning, and abstraction.
• Strong intuition for interactions between data, model architecture, and training dynamics.
• Ability to influence senior technical and business leaders through clear technical judgment.

Education

• Ph.D. in Computer Science, Machine Learning, AI, or a related field strongly preferred.

About Adobe

Adobe empowers everyone to create through innovative platforms and tools that unleash creativity, productivity and personalized customer experiences. Adobe’s 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 30,000+ employees worldwide are creating the future and raising the bar as we drive the next decade of growth. We’re 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. 

Let’s 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 [email protected] or call +1 408-536-3015. 

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 it’s 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 position is $206,300 -- $388,000 annually. Pay within this range varies by work location and may also depend on job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. Your recruiter can share more about the specific salary range for the job location during the hiring process.

 

In Washington, the pay range for this position is $247,200 - $357,900

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.