# Machine Learning Research Manager

**Company:** [Rad AI](https://hotfix.jobs/companies/rad-ai)
**Location:** San Francisco, CA
**Role:** ML Engineering
**Salary:** $200k – $230k/yr
**Experience:** 7+ years
**Skills:** Machine Learning, NLP, Deep Learning, Transformers, LLMs, PyTorch, research management, People Management, healthcare ai, clinical ai
**Posted:** 2026-07-17

> Lead and mentor a team of applied and clinical researchers as a player-coach. Guide ML research in NLP, LLMs, and clinical applications for radiology, translating ideas into production systems while partnering with clinicians and engineers. Requires MS/PhD and 6+ years applied ML research experience.

## Job Description

## What You’ll Be Doing
- Directly manage and mentor a small team of applied and clinical researchers, helping them grow in scope, judgment, execution, and communication
- Drive research productivity by clarifying priorities, unblocking work, and creating a high-trust, high-accountability team environment
- Stay close to the technical work as a player-coach by guiding problem framing, experimental design, evaluation strategy, and tradeoff decisions across multiple research efforts
- Partner closely with radiologists, clinical experts, engineers, and product leaders to identify the highest-leverage research opportunities and translate them into production-scale systems
- Help the team build and evaluate advanced NLP and reasoning systems that work with clinical text, diagnostic criteria, reporting workflows, and other healthcare data
- Create strong cross-functional working rhythms with engineering, product, and clinical partners so research outputs are practical, trustworthy, and deployable
- Raise the bar on research quality, reproducibility, and communication across the team
- Stay current on relevant machine learning advances and help the team thoughtfully integrate new methods when they materially improve customer and clinical outcomes

## Who We’re Looking For
- MS or PhD in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Computational Linguistics, Biomedical Informatics, or a related quantitative field, or equivalent practical experience
- 6+ years of applied ML research experience, with a track record of taking work from idea to production impact
- Prior people management experience, or clear evidence of operating as a de facto team lead for multi-person research efforts, with strong coaching and prioritization skills
- Strong background in NLP and modern deep learning, especially transformer-based systems and large language models
- Experience applying ML to hard real-world problems where ambiguity, data quality, and operational constraints matter
- Strong hands-on experience with modern ML tooling such as PyTorch and common model development workflows
- Demonstrated ability to collaborate closely with domain experts and cross-functional stakeholders, especially in environments where trust, iteration speed, and communication quality matter
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to guide senior researchers while also aligning non-technical partners around research direction and tradeoffs

## Nice to Have
- Experience working in healthcare, clinical AI, biomedical ML, or other regulated, privacy-sensitive environments
- Experience with radiology, clinical documentation, medical terminology, or clinician-facing workflows
- Experience deploying LLM or NLP systems in production settings
- Experience contributing to research culture through mentorship, technical standards, or organizational leadership
- Familiarity with cloud-based ML workflows and modern research infrastructure
- Preferably eager to collaborate and work in our new San Francisco office and shape the culture and tone of that space

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