Applied Scientist Jobs in San Jose, CA

The Opportunity

Firefly Foundry is Adobe’s enterprise managed-service offering for custom multi-modal generative AI — deep-tuned image, video, and 3D models built on each customer’s IP, paired with creative production workflows and a media-intelligence layer, and deployed across new and existing Adobe surfaces. The business has gained significant traction in Media & Entertainment, marketing, and consumer retail, and is expanding rapidly into adjacent verticals.

We are especially looking for candidates experienced in large-scale, industry-level pre-training and mid-training of multi-modality generative models with the focus on dynamic, physically accurate 3D worlds. This role has a direct impact on the quality of Adobe’s generation models, supporting next-generation creative workflows for millions of users.

As a Staff Applied Scientist at Adobe, you will join a world-class team of applied researchers and engineers building the future of digital experiences — innovating across the full training stack, collaborating across data, modeling, and product, and shipping your work to customers worldwide.

What You’ll Do
Build novel generative models and pipelines to support mesh generation, physically based material generation and texture generation, scene reconstruction, lighting estimation, animation, and simulation for mediate & entertainment use cases as well as high-fidelity product imagery,
Build agentic workflows that use AI systems to create, manipulate, repair, annotate, evaluate, and refine 3D and 4D content.
Develop large-scale synthetic data pipelines that involve game and rendering engines, digital environments, 3D geometry, physically-based materials, lighting, animation, and simulation.
Develop, implement, and rigorously evaluate advanced techniques for conditional generation and editing — with emphasis on improving instruction compliance, controllability, and visual quality in pre-trained models.
Collaborate cross-functionally with researchers, engineers, and product teams to translate multimodal innovations into scalable downstream applications within Adobe products.
Develop and maintain robust evaluation pipelines to assess generative models across quality, efficiency, robustness, and safety metrics.
Translate research concepts and published work into production-ready implementations using Python and modern ML frameworks.

Required Qualifications
Ph.D. or MS in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Computer Graphics or a related field, with 8+ years industry experience.
Extensive practical experience in large-scale generative AI training with a focus on image and video generation and editing.
Experience with diffusion models, transformers, or other state-of-the-art generative architectures.
Strong working knowledge of 3D content systems, including meshes, materials, textures, scene structure, cameras, lighting, coordinate systems, skeletal animation, and motion workflows.
Strong coding and prototyping skills in Python, PyTorch, and ML infrastructure tools.
Excellent communication skills and ability to collaborate across cross-functional teams.
Experience working with product teams on technology transfers.
Strong publication record in Computer Science, AI/ML, or related fields.

What You’ll Bring
Experience on large-scale generative model training
Experience on synthetic data generation
Experience of working with large-scale datasets
Experience of working with product teams on technology transfers
#FireflyGenAI

About Adobe
Adobe empowers everyone to create through innovative platforms and tools that unleash creativity, productivity and personalized customer experiences. Adobe’s industry-leading offerings including Adobe Acrobat Studio, Adobe Express, Adobe Firefly, Creative Cloud, Adobe Experience Platform, Adobe Experience Manager, and GenStudio enable people and businesses to turn ideas into impact, powered by AI and driven by human ingenuity.

Our 30,000+ employees worldwide are creating the future and raising the bar as we drive the next decade of growth. We’re on a mission to hire the very best and believe in creating a company culture where all employees are empowered to make an impact. At Adobe, we believe that great ideas can come from anywhere in the organization. The next big idea could be yours.

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 .

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 position is $164,000 -- $313,300 annually. Pay within this range varies by work location and 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 $216,400 - $313,300
In Washington, the pay range for this position is $204,800 - $296,600

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.