Staff Machine Learning Engineer

Adobe

Staff Machine Learning Engineer

San Jose, CA
Full Time
Paid
  • Responsibilities

    JOB LEVEL
    P50
    EMPLOYEE ROLE
    Individual Contributor

    The Opportunity

    Join Adobe’s Brand AI Services team and help define the future of AI-powered creativity. We are building multimodal and agentic AI systems that enable marketers and creative professionals to ideate, create, understand, and transform content through intelligent AI-powered workflows.

    As a Staff Machine Learning Engineer , you will design and deliver production-grade generative and agentic AI systems that power Adobe Firefly AI Assistant and experiences across Creative Cloud, Adobe Express, GenStudio, and more.

    You’ll work at the intersection of computer vision, generative AI, multimodal learning, and agentic AI , building systems that understand creative intent, reason across multimodal content, use tools, and orchestrate complex creative workflows. This is a high-impact role focused on building the next generation of AI experiences for millions of creative professionals.

    Come create the future with us!

    What You’ll Do

    • Lead the design, development, and deployment of multimodal and generative AI systems spanning vision, language, and other modalities.
    • Build and productionize generative AI models and systems , including transformers, diffusion models, LLMs, and vision-language models (VLMs), for content creation, understanding, and transformation.
    • Develop and build agentic AI systems that can reason, use tools, interact with models and services, and complete complex multi-step creative workflows.
    • Build intelligent capabilities for Firefly AI Assistant and Creative Cloud workflows , helping creative professionals move from intent and ideas to high-quality creative outcomes.
    • Develop scalable services and APIs that integrate AI and machine learning capabilities into Adobe products.
    • Drive the end-to-end ML lifecycle, including problem formulation, modeling, experimentation, evaluation, deployment, monitoring, and iteration.
    • Partner with engineering, product, design, and research teams to translate customer needs into effective ML solutions.
    • Improve the performance, scalability, reliability, and quality of AI systems operating in high-traffic production environments.
    • Provide technical leadership, mentor engineers, and help raise the engineering and machine learning bar across the team.
    • Identify new opportunities to apply generative and agentic AI to real-world challenges for creative professionals and enterprise customers.

    What You Need to Succeed

    • MS or PhD in Computer Science, Machine Learning, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
    • 5+ years of experience building and deploying machine learning systems in production.
    • Hands-on experience designing and building agentic AI systems , including areas such as tool use, agent orchestration, multi-step workflows, planning and reasoning, retrieval, memory, or human-in-the-loop systems.
    • Experience with agent interoperability and tool integration , including Model Context Protocol (MCP) , function/tool calling, or similar frameworks and protocols.
    • Expertise in computer vision, generative AI, and/or multimodal machine learning , with hands-on experience using modern architectures such as transformers, diffusion models, LLMs, or VLMs.
    • Solid foundation in probability, statistics, machine learning, and model evaluation.
    • Proficiency in Python and experience with machine learning frameworks such as PyTorch.
    • Experience designing and building scalable APIs, distributed services, or production ML infrastructure.
    • Strong software engineering fundamentals, including data structures, algorithms, testing, code quality, and code reviews.
    • Experience with cloud platforms such as AWS or Azure and containerization and orchestration technologies such as Docker and Kubernetes.
    • Familiarity with modern AI-assisted development tools and workflows , including systems such as ChatGPT, Claude, Cursor, or similar tools, and experience using them for development, experimentation, or productivity.

    Nice to Have

    • Experience building production agentic AI platforms or multi-agent systems , including agent evaluation, observability, reliability, or safety.
    • Experience with multimodal learning across video, audio, or 3D data.
    • Background in video understanding or generation , temporal modeling, or streaming ML systems.
    • Experience fine-tuning, adapting, or optimizing large-scale foundation models.
    • Knowledge of AI evaluation, safety, and responsible AI practices.
    • Experience with agent frameworks, orchestration platforms, retrieval systems, or enterprise knowledge integration.
    • Experience building AI-powered tools or workflows for creative professionals, content creation, or creative applications.
    • Contributions to research, open-source projects, or applied machine learning innovation.

    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 positionis $172,500 -- $306,625 annually. Paywithin this range varies by work locationand 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 California, the pay range for this position is $211,800 - $306,625

    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.

    Internal Opportunities

    Creativity, curiosity, and constant learning are celebrated aspects of your career growth journey. We’re glad that you’re pursuing a new opportunity at Adobe!

    Put your best foot forward:

    1. Update your Resume/CV and Workday profile - don’t forget to include your uniquely ‘Adobe’ experiences and volunteer work.

    2. Visit the Internal Mobility page on Inside Adobe to learn more about the process and set up a job alert for roles you’re interested in.

    3. Check out these tips to help you prep for interviews.

    4. If you are applying for a role outside of your current country, ensure you review the International Resources for Relocating Employees on Inside Adobe, including the impacts to your Benefits, AIP, Equity & Payroll .

    Once you apply for a role via Workday, the Talent Team will reach out to you within 2 weeks. If you move into the official interview process with the hiring team, make sure you inform your manager so they can champion your career growth.

    At Adobe, you will be immersed in an exceptional work environment that is recognized around the world. You will also be surrounded by colleagues who are committed to helping each other grow through our unique Check-In approach where ongoing feedback flows freely. If you’re looking to make an impact, Adobe's the place for you. Discover what our employees are saying about their career experiences on the Adobe Life blog and explore the meaningful benefits we offer.

    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 accommodations@adobe.com .

    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 .