Staff Research Engineer, Data Agents

About Databricks

Databricks is the Data + AI company. More than 10,000 organizations worldwide — including Comcast, Condé Nast, Grammarly, and over 60% of the Fortune 500 — rely on the Databricks Lakehouse Platform to unify their data, analytics, and AI. Databricks is headquartered in San Francisco, with offices around the globe.

About the Team

The Databricks AI Research organization is pushing the frontier of next-generation enterprise AI. We believe a company's data is its greatest competitive advantage, and we're building the models and agents that unlock it. Our work spans the full stack, from model training to advanced multi-agent systems. 

The Data Agent team within AI Research is dedicated to pioneering frontier enterprise data agents. Our research focuses on developing agents capable of autonomous planning, code generation, and multi-step workflow execution within intricate enterprise settings. The team's primary technical pillars include post-training enhancements, harness design, agentic reinforcement learning (RL), and the construction of specialized RL environments. As a member of this team, you will bridge the gap between cutting-edge AI research and product development by shipping direct improvements to Genie, Databricks' agent product that provides significant value to our user base.

The impact you will have

• Develop the best post-training recipes to train enterprise Data agents, that are capable of autonomous planning, code generation, and multi-step workflow execution within intricate enterprise settings.
• Partner closely with product teams to turn prototypes and research ideas into the best agentic experience for Databricks users.
• Build systems that help the agent discover and use relevant lakehouse context, including tables, notebooks, code, and cell outputs, to produce more accurate and useful results.
• Raise the technical bar for the team through strong design, execution, debugging, and mentorship, helping shape the long-term direction of agentic experiences at Databricks.

What we look for

• BS, MS, or PhD in Computer Science or a related field.
• 2+ years of experience in an applied research environment, with a track record of shipping research prototypes to production. 
• Experience in LLMs, agents, reinforcement learning, post-training workflows.
• Ability to work effectively in a fast-moving environment that blends research exploration with product and engineering rigor.
• Clear communication and strong cross-functional collaboration with researchers, engineers, and product stakeholders.