Research Manager | Production Inference

As Research Manager for the Production Inference team, you will own both people leadership and technical direction for a team of research scientists and ML engineers working on performance-critical model serving systems. You will lead the Production Inference team, the group responsible for the systems that serve DeepL's language AI models reliably and efficiently at scale.

Responsibilities

Lead and develop a high-performing team of research scientists and ML engineers; Build strong development plans, foster a candid and non-retaliatory feedback culture, and maintain high standards of technical rigour and delivery; Own the team's research and development roadmap for production inference systems; Act as the primary technical interface between the Production Inference team and adjacent functions; Drive the reliability, efficiency, and cost performance of DeepL's model serving stack; Operate with a high degree of autonomy; Play an active role in identifying, assessing, and recruiting research and engineering talent

Requirements

Proven experience leading a team of researchers or ML engineers; Track record of developing talent, maintaining delivery rigour, and balancing research quality with production reliability; Strong background in Computer Science, Mathematics, Physics, or a comparable quantitative discipline, or strong ML/systems background with equivalent research depth; Strong foundation in production ML systems, inference optimisation, or model serving at scale; Comfortable operating across the full model lifecycle from training handoff to production deployment, monitoring, and efficiency improvement; Excellent communication skills and ability to translate complex technical direction into clear goals for technical and non-technical stakeholders; Solution-oriented and decisive, able to define direction and drive outcomes without waiting for direction from above

Nice to have

Direct experience with LLM inference; Speculative decoding; Quantisation; Serving infrastructure

Benefits

Diverse and internationally distributed team; Open communication and regular feedback; Hybrid work and flexible hours; Virtual Shares; Regular in-person team events; Monthly full-day hacking sessions; 30 days of annual leave; Access to mental health resources; Competitive benefits