Head Of Research

ScaleOps is redefining autonomous cloud and AI infrastructure. We're on a mission to free DevOps and platform engineers from manual resource management so they can focus on innovation, not tuning resources. The results: maximized performance and a reduction of cloud costs by up to 80%. As the category leader in Autonomous Cloud and AI Infrastructure Resource Management, we're trusted by leading enterprises including Adobe, Wiz, Epic Games, Northwestern Mutual, Coinbase, DocuSign, and Fortune 100 companies to autonomously manage their most critical production environments. Backed by Insight Partners, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and other leading VCs with over $210M in funding, ScaleOps is the leading player in a massive and growing market. We are building the autonomous infrastructure management platform that will power the next decade of enterprise compute. What You'll Be Doing We're looking for a Head of Research to establish and lead ScaleOps's research group — a strategic and hands-on leadership role for someone who thrives at the intersection of AI, infrastructure, and systems innovation. You'll identify high-impact research directions, validate cutting-edge technologies, and drive new approaches that translate into long-term competitive advantage for ScaleOps. This is not an academic position, but an opportunity to build a research function that directly shapes product and technology. • Define and lead the company's research agenda in AI, infrastructure, and distributed systems • Explore and evaluate new algorithms, architectures, and approaches relevant to large-scale AI workloads and cloud cost efficiency • Collaborate with product and engineering to translate research into real-world impact • Build and manage a small, high-caliber research team • Publish findings, represent ScaleOps in the AI/infrastructure research community, and establish partnerships with academia and industry • Act as a thought leader driving innovation across the company What You'll Bring • 7+ years of experience in R&D, with at least 3 years in applied research leadership roles • Proven track record of driving research projects that turned into impactful products or technologies • Deep expertise in one or more of: distributed systems, AI infrastructure, cloud computing, performance optimization • Strong technical foundation (e.g., algorithms, systems design, data-intensive computing) • Experience leading research teams or groups in fast-growing companies • Excellent communication skills and ability to bridge research with business impact • Passion for innovation, curiosity, and pushing the boundaries of what's possible