Head of AI (R&D) - (100% remote) in City of London

Join Tether and shape the future of digital finance. At Tether, we’re pioneering a global financial revolution. Our solutions enable businesses—from exchanges and wallets to payment processors and ATMs—to integrate reserve-backed tokens across blockchains. By harnessing blockchain technology, Tether enables you to store, send, and receive digital tokens instantly, securely, and globally, at a fraction of the cost. Transparency is the bedrock of everything we do, ensuring trust in every transaction.

Our team is a global talent powerhouse, working remotely from every corner of the world. If you’re passionate about making a mark in fintech, this is your opportunity to collaborate with some of the brightest minds, pushing boundaries and setting new standards. We have grown fast, stayed lean, and secured our place as a leader in the industry. If you have excellent English communication skills and are ready to contribute to the most innovative platform on the planet, Tether is the place for you.

As Head of AI (R&D), you will lead cross-functional teams to drive innovation in training multimodal large language models (LLMs), video foundation models, and other advanced AI systems. These models will be optimized for both cloud-based deployments and edge computing environments, ensuring scalability, efficiency, and real-world applicability. You will report directly to senior leadership and play a pivotal role in shaping the company's AI strategy, from research breakthroughs to production-ready solutions.

• Lead and mentor interdisciplinary teams of researchers, engineers, and data scientists to pioneer cutting-edge AI research and development.
• Innovate on model architectures, training methodologies, and optimization techniques for multimodal LLMs (text, image, audio, and video) and specialized video foundation models.
• Scale the R&D team by recruiting top talent, fostering a collaborative culture, and implementing processes for efficient growth and knowledge sharing.
• Oversee scalable training pipelines, including data curation, distributed computing strategies, and hyperparameter optimization to handle massive datasets.
• Deliver high-quality, general-purpose models tailored to specific applications and use cases, ensuring they meet performance benchmarks for accuracy, latency, and resource efficiency on cloud and edge devices.
• Collaborate with product, engineering, and deployment teams to transition research prototypes into production systems.
• Stay abreast of industry trends, publish research findings, and represent the company at conferences or in partnerships.
• Manage budgets, timelines, and resources for R&D projects, ensuring alignment with business objectives and pragmatic AI practices.

• Proven experience leading AI R&D teams (5+ years in a leadership role) with a track record of delivering production-grade models from concept to deployment.
• PhD in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, or a related field.
• Deep expertise in training foundation models, including multimodal LLMs and video models, with hands-on experience in frameworks like PyTorch, TensorFlow, or JAX.
• Strong understanding of scalable training techniques, such as data parallelism, model parallelism, and efficient inference on edge devices (e.g., mobile, IoT).
• Demonstrated ability to scale teams and projects in fast-paced environments.

• Publications in top-tier conferences/journals (e.g., NeurIPS, CVPR, ICML) on relevant topics.
• Experience with real-world deployments of AI models in datacentre and edge settings.
• Familiarity with ethical AI, bias mitigation, and regulatory compliance in model development.
• Strong programming skills in Python and experience with distributed systems (e.g., Kubernetes, Ray).

• Apply only through our official channels. We do not use third-party platforms or agencies for recruitment unless clearly stated.
• All open roles are listed on our official careers page: tether.recruitee.com
• Verify the recruiter’s identity. All our recruiters have verified LinkedIn profiles. If unsure, check their profile or contact us through our website.
• Be cautious of unusual communication methods. We do not conduct interviews over WhatsApp, Telegram, or SMS. All communication is through official company emails and platforms.
• Double-check email addresses. All communication from us will come from emails ending in @tether.to or @tether.io. We will never request payment or financial details. If someone asks for personal financial information during the hiring process, it is a scam. Please report it immediately.
• When in doubt, feel free to reach out through our official website.