[Hiring] Principal Applied Scientist @Parloa

Role Description

As a Principal Applied Scientist at Parloa, you will define and drive our applied AI strategy across AI agents and Generative AI. This is a highly hands-on and high-impact role at the intersection of research and production. You will explore, validate, and scale approaches that directly shape our product, from model evaluation and routing to agent behavior, memory, and context engineering, while defining how these systems should be measured, benchmarked, and improved across the industry.

Beyond execution, you will act as a technical leader: identifying opportunities, setting direction, and building the foundations of applied science at Parloa.

Areas of ownership:

• Define and lead applied AI initiatives across agent systems, LLM evaluation, and model optimization.
• Own ambiguous problem spaces end-to-end: from framing and experimentation to production impact.
• Design and implement evaluation & benchmarking frameworks, leveraging and challenging industry standards — and where needed, defining new ones.
• Drive innovation in agentic systems, including topics like routing, memory, and context engineering.
• Prototype and validate new approaches (e.g., model combinations, fine-tuning strategies, or open-weight models).
• Translate research into production-ready solutions, working closely with engineering teams.
• Act as a technical authority and multiplier, mentoring others and shaping best practices.
• Establish and lead the Applied Science guild, fostering knowledge sharing and raising the bar across teams.
• Influence product and technical strategy, identifying where applied science can unlock the most value.

Qualifications

• 12+ years of experience in Applied Machine Learning, Applied Science, or a related field, with a proven track record of delivering ML/AI systems in production.
• Experience with agent-based systems or multi-step LLM workflows.
• Strong recent experience working with LLMs and Generative AI systems, ideally in production environments.
• Demonstrated ability to own and drive ambiguous problem spaces end-to-end — from problem framing to measurable impact.
• Deep understanding of evaluation methodologies, benchmarking, and model performance analysis, including human-in-the-loop approaches.
• Hands-on technical skills, with the ability to prototype, experiment, and ship solutions in collaboration with engineering teams.
• Experience working on production systems, balancing speed, quality, and scalability.
• Proven technical leadership and influence, with experience shaping direction, mentoring others, or driving cross-team initiatives.
• Ability to operate at both strategic and execution levels, connecting long-term vision with day-to-day decisions.
• Strong communication skills, with the ability to clearly articulate ideas and influence technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Evidence of broader impact (e.g., published work, open-source contributions, internal initiatives, or industry influence) is a plus.

Requirements

• Familiarity with model routing, fine-tuning, or open-weight models.
• Background in human-in-the-loop evaluation or annotation systems.
• Contributions to public research, blogs, or open-source projects.

Benefits

• Ownership of outcomes, not just tasks.
• Fast execution and direct feedback.
• Strong expectation to contribute meaningfully from day one.

Company Description

Parloa’s mission is to make every customer conversation feel effortless for both customers and the companies serving them. Parloa has powered over ONE BILLION interactions between global enterprise brands and their customers, with companies like IKEA and Booking.com already deploying Parloa at scale.

We’re building agentic AI that enterprises trust with their most important customer moments: complex questions, high volumes, real stakes. We’re here to raise the standard: making every conversation seamless, intelligent, and genuinely helpful.

Parloa is committed to upholding the highest data protection standards for our clients' and employees' data. All our employees are instrumental in ensuring the utmost care, GDPR, and ISO compliance, including ISO 27001, in handling sensitive information.

Parloa is an e-verify employer in the USA.