Managing Director, AI Research

Your Opportunity

At Schwab, you’re empowered to make an impact on your career. Here, innovative thought meets creative problem solving, helping us “challenge the status quo” and transform the finance industry together.

We believe in the importance of in-office collaboration and fully intend for the selected candidate for this role to work on site in the specified location.

Schwab’s AI Strategy & Transformation team, known as AI.x, is the central hub for Artificial Intelligence at Schwab. We are an integrated product, engineering, research, risk, and enablement team focused on advancing AI responsibly across the enterprise. We help shape the enterprise vision for AI, invest in the most promising opportunities, accelerate delivery across the company, and build the core platform that powers AI at scale.

The MD for AI Research will lead Schwab’s enterprise AI Research function by setting the research agenda and establishing the technical standards, methodologies, and reusable capabilities required to develop and scale Generative AI responsibly. This leader translates rapid advances in AI into actionable direction for Schwab, determines how emerging models and techniques should be evaluated and applied, and provides specialized expertise that informs enterprise AI strategy and product development.

You will partner with product and engineering teams to define evaluation criteria and benchmark models for specific use cases, while also creating shared capabilities, including enterprise guardrails, common evaluation frameworks, and approaches for using open-weight models. These capabilities enable business units to accelerate delivery, apply consistent standards, and avoid duplicating highly specialized work. The AI research team’s mandate and impact are enterprise-wide, requiring accountability for decisions that affect the quality, scalability, and responsible use of AI across Schwab.

What you have

To ensure that we have fulfilled our promise of "challenging the status quo," this role has specific qualifications that successful candidates should have.

Required Qualifications:

• PHD. in Computer Science, Mathematics, Physics, or a related field or equivalent industry experience.
• 10+ years of experience in AI/ML/NLP research and development, including 7+ years in leadership positions.
• 7+ years of experience mentoring engineers and data scientists at all levels to grow their technical and non-technical competencies.
• 5+ years of experience supporting AI implementations in financial services.
• 5+ years of experience bringing complex research from an initial concept into production.

Preferred Qualifications

• Advanced expertise in working with Large Language Models to deliver real business value.
• Proven ability to influence senior leaders and build alignment across technology, product, legal and risk teams.
• Demonstrated ability to build and scale technical teams while maintaining a high bar for quality.
• Deep understanding and knowledge of the financial services industry.
• Curiosity about new technologies and processes – you constantly seek to improve yourself and everyone around you and proactively seek and share knowledge with others outside of your organization.

In addition to the salary range, this role is also eligible for bonus or incentive opportunities