Overview

Director, Forward Deployed AI Architecture position at Adobe. Lead and scale a best-in-class Forward Deployed AI Architect team, recruiting exceptional talent, defining architectural standards, and aligning with Product and Engineering. Translate innovative AI research into real-world use cases to unlock the capabilities of both first-party and third-party models, Adobe Firefly, GenStudio for Performance Marketing, and future products.

We are looking for someone who thrives in entrepreneurial environments, owning both technical vision and customer outcomes.

What You’ll Do

• Build & Develop a High-Performing Architect Team: Recruit, onboard, and mentor Forward Deployed Architects with diverse technical backgrounds, including software engineering, machine learning, and systems architecture.
• Set Technical Vision & Standards: Define modular patterns, reusable frameworks, and architecture playbooks that drive consistency, scalability, and speed across all engagements.
• Define the Creative & Product CI/CD Vision: Chart the vision of a fully automated CI/CD pipeline for creative automation for our customers and a continuous product feedback loop.
• Collaborate with Senior FDAs on Team Vision & Product Roadmap: Partner with senior Forward Deployed Architects to shape the team’s strategic vision, product roadmap, and delivery methodology—ensuring alignment with business goals and scalable execution.
• Oversee Solution Delivery: Guide FDAs in designing, prototyping, and deploying enterprise-grade GenAI applications—balancing innovation with reusable assets and scalable patterns.
• Champion Executive Engagement: Serve as executive sponsor on strategic accounts, ensuring our solutions solve the right problems and deliver measurable business value.
• Collaboration with Core Teams: Partner with Adobe Product, Engineering, and Research to define the collaboration model of how the Forward Deployed organization will influence roadmaps, co-develop integrations, and deploy new features.
• Measure & Optimize Impact: Track team KPIs—time-to-value, technical reusability, and customer success metrics—and iterate on processes for continuous improvement.

What You Bring

• Proven AI & Architecture Leader – 15+ years in enterprise AI and solution architecture, with 10+ years building and scaling high-performing technical teams, and driving measurable business impact in creative/marketing automation and content supply chain solutions.
• Senior People Developer – Lead and grow a senior forward-deployed architecture team through mentorship, feedback, and performance management, ensuring future leaders are developed via structured coaching, career planning, and succession preparation.
• Strategic Vision & Delivery Excellence – Define and execute long-term technical roadmaps that improve scalability, reduce risk, and ensure operational sustainability, overseeing complex cross-team engineering from requirements through launch to deliver quality, speed, and business value.
• Innovation & Collaboration Driver – Foster a culture of experimentation and rapid prototyping to bring emerging AI capabilities into customer solutions, aligning closely with engineering, product, business, and security teams to execute at scale.
• Generative AI Expertise – Guide teams in delivering solutions leveraging LLMs and related AI technologies, including OpenAI GPT, Anthropic Claude, Meta Llama, Mistral, Adobe Firefly, Stable Diffusion, DALL·E, Midjourney; RAG & Search tooling like Pinecone, Weaviate, FAISS; AI Agent Frameworks: AutoGen, LangChain, LlamaIndex; Multimodal AI: text, image, video, and audio.
• Adobe Platform Leadership – Enable teams to leverage Adobe Experience Cloud, Adobe Creative Cloud, GenStudio for Performance Marketing, Custom Models, Object Composite, 3D, and third-party AI integrations.
• Cloud & DevOps Leadership – Oversee enterprise AI deployments on AWS and Azure, guiding DevOps best practices (containerization, CI/CD, infrastructure automation, monitoring) for scalability and resilience.
• Customer-Centricity – Champion a culture of empathy, accountability, and customer-centric decision-making to keep customer outcomes central.
• Academic Credentials – Bachelor’s in Computer Science, Engineering, AI, or related field; advanced degree preferred.

Compensation & Notices

Our compensation reflects the cost of labor across several U.S. geographic markets. The U.S. pay range for this position is $179,300 – $354,600 annually. Pay within this range varies by work location and may also depend on job-related knowledge, skills, and experience.

For sales roles, starting salaries are expressed as total target compensation (TTC = base + commission) with short-term incentives as sales commissions. For non-sales roles, starting salaries are expressed as base salary with short-term incentives via the Annual Incentive Plan (AIP). Some roles may be eligible for long-term incentives (new hire equity).

State-Specific Notices

California: Fair Chance Ordinances – Adobe will consider qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records in accordance with state and local laws and fair chance ordinances.

Colorado: Application Window Notice – If this role is open to Colorado, the application window remains open until the stated date/time in Pacific Time, per Colorado pay transparency regulations. If not listed for Colorado, the posting may close at any time.

Massachusetts: Massachusetts Legal Notice – It is unlawful to require or administer a lie detector test as a condition of employment. Violations may result in penalties.

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. If you need accessibility accommodations, email accommodations@adobe.com or call (408) 536-3015.

Seniority level

• Director

Employment type

• Full-time

Job function

• Engineering and Information Technology

Industries

• Advertising Services, IT Services and IT Consulting, and Software Development

We’re not able to display all job postings here. Referrals increase your chances of interviewing at Adobe, and you can get notified about new Director of Artificial Intelligence roles in San Jose, CA.