Senior Director, Applied Research - AI Physics

Location: US, CA, Santa Clara

Time Type: Full time

Job Description

At NVIDIA, we’re solving the world’s most exciting problems with our unique approach to accelerated computing. We’re looking for passionate technologists with deep expertise in AI physics to build and lead a team working on AI surrogate modeling and digital twin development for engineering applications. As an Applied Research leader you'll lead our technical path-finding efforts in this area, working with cross functional teams in Product, Engineering and Research to develop innovative technologies that intercept NVIDIA products and advance the state of industrial and computational engineering across domains from automotive and aerospace to semi-conductor and manufacturing for fluids, structures and multi-physics problems.

We are looking for individuals who are comfortable sitting between fundamental research and engineering. A proven, creative, and independent leader with exceptional technical skills. Do you have the rare blend of both technical and product skills with a passion for groundbreaking technology? If so, we would love to learn more about you!

What you'll be doing:

• Lead the design and development of new ML models and architectures as well as optimize existing ones specifically tailored for domains such as CFD, FEA, EDA/Semi.

• Lead the design and development of robust digital twins for computational engineering applications.

• Work with academic and industrial partners to curate new and existing datasets to aid model development.

• Research and implement robust methods for validation & verification (V&V), benchmarking and uncertainty quantification (UQ), to ensure models are trusted for critical industrial engineering tasks.

• Collaborate with external partners (ISVs, startups and academic institution) and where appropriate, publish work at top conferences (NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR), journals (Nature, JFM, Computers & Fluids) and third-party conferences and workshops.

• Lead technology transfer, turning research into robust products.

What We Need To See:

• Ph.D. in Physics, Computer Science, Chemistry, Applied Mathematics, or related engineering field (or equivalent experience).

• 15+ overall years of experience in Computational Engineering with significant research and development experience at the intersection of AI and Computational Engineering.

• 7+ years' experience growing and leading product development teams in large enterprise organizations.

• Strong software engineering skills, with expertise in large scale high-performance computing (HPC) environments for engineering simulation and AI training.

• World-class communication skills with a demonstrated ability to articulate a value proposition to technical and non-technical audiences.

Ways To Stand Out From The Crowd:

• Experience with NVIDIA PhysicsNeMo and with NVIDIA Omniverse.

• Experience working with industrial CFD/FEA data formats (STL, HDF5, VTK) and building complex data pipelines.

• A strong portfolio of open-source contributions or effective technical communication (blogs, tutorials).

Your base salary will be determined based on your location, experience, and the pay of employees in similar positions. The base salary range is 384,000 USD - 575,000 USD.Applications for this job will be accepted at least until February 16, 2026.

This posting is for an existing vacancy. 

NVIDIA uses AI tools in its recruiting processes.

NVIDIA is committed to fostering a diverse work environment and proud to be an equal opportunity employer. As we highly value diversity in our current and future employees, we do not discriminate (including in our hiring and promotion practices) on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, gender expression, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, disability status or any other characteristic protected by law.