Director of AI, Foundation Models

Cambridge Mobile Telematics (CMT) is the world’s largest telematics service provider. Its mission is to make the world’s roads and drivers safer. The company’s AI-driven platform, DriveWell Fusion®, gathers sensor data from millions of IoT devices — including smartphones, proprietary Tags, connected vehicles, dashcams, and third-party devices — and fuses them with contextual data to create a unified view of vehicle and driver behavior. Auto insurers, automakers, commercial mobility companies, and the public sector use insights from CMT’s platform to power risk assessment, safety, claims, and driver improvement programs. Headquartered in Cambridge, MA, with offices in Budapest, Chennai, Seattle, Tokyo, and Zagreb, CMT measures and protects tens of millions of drivers across the world every day.

CMT is looking for a collaborative, customer-committed, and creative Director of ML Engineering, Foundation Models to lead development of our Telematics Foundation Model and related model variants. This leader will oversee sub-teams spanning AI Modeling and AI Ops, balancing near-term customer delivery with longer-term R&D, and turning advances in machine learning into practical capabilities across our platform, products, and customer solutions.

Responsibilities:

• Use independent judgment and discretion to lead the Foundation Models function, including Modeling and AI Ops, setting direction, supporting execution, and developing team members

• Own the strategy, roadmap, and execution for CMT’s Telematics Foundation Model and related variants, delivering across customer work, product initiatives, and internal R&D

• Lead end-to-end model development, including data strategy, pretraining, fine-tuning, evaluation, deployment, monitoring, and continuous improvement

• Build, grow, and retain a high-performing team, including mentoring senior contributors and technical leaders across applied machine learning, model development, evaluation, infrastructure, and AI Ops

• Develop and scale machine learning systems for telematics, translating research and new techniques into production-ready solutions with clear business impact

• Balance current customer commitments with forward-looking R&D, setting realistic goals and managing scope, pace, and quality across multiple initiatives

• Stay current on relevant research, tools, and techniques, applying them where they materially improve model performance, efficiency, robustness, or cost

• Partner cross-functionally to identify and prioritize new use cases, and expand the impact of the foundation model across the business and external opportunities

• Establish and maintain evaluation frameworks for model performance, quality, reliability, and business value

• Own large-scale compute strategy and spend, including planning, efficiency, infrastructure tradeoffs, and budget stewardship

• Lead cross-functional initiatives from early prototyping through production rollout, and serve as a senior technical advisor to stakeholders on tradeoffs, timelines, and risks

• Complete any additional tasks as they arise

Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent years of experience and/or certification in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Statistics, Mathematics, Engineering, or a related technical field required; equivalent advanced industry experience may be considered for exceptional candidates

• 9+ years of relevant experience in machine learning, data science, applied research, software engineering, or a related technical field

• 5+ years of experience in a management role leading high-performing technical teams

• Strong foundation in machine learning principles, algorithms, and practices, including deep learning, representation learning, supervised and self-supervised learning, and model evaluation

• Experience leading teams that build and operate production-grade ML systems at scale

• Strong understanding of modern deep learning frameworks and tooling, such as PyTorch, TensorFlow, JAX, and related ecosystems

• Proven coding skills using Python and other relevant tools for machine learning and data-intensive development

• Experience with AI Ops / MLOps practices, including experiment tracking, deployment pipelines, monitoring, reproducibility, incident response, and production support

• Experience with large-scale compute and data infrastructure, including distributed training, GPU-based workloads, cloud or cluster environments, and cost/performance optimization

• Demonstrated ability to balance research innovation with pragmatic delivery for product and customer needs

• Strong customer focus and presentation skills, with the ability to obtain requirements, influence outcomes, and communicate technical strategy clearly to technical and non-technical audiences

• Proven ability to lead cross-functional teams and collaborative problem-solving, incorporating feedback from partners, customers, and internal stakeholders into effective solutions

• Experience recruiting, mentoring, and retaining strong technical talent

Nice to Haves:

• Masters or PhD in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Statistics, Mathematics, Engineering, or a related technical field

• Experience with telematics, mobility, automotive, IoT, geospatial, multimodal, or other high-volume time-series data

• Experience building reusable model platforms or foundation models that support multiple downstream use cases

• Experience managing substantial compute budgets and infrastructure decisions at scale

• Experience supporting enterprise or customer-specific SOWs while also advancing a longer-term R&D roadmap

• Familiarity with responsible AI, privacy, security, and model governance considerations in production environments

Compensation and Benefits:

• Fair and competitive salary based on skills and experience, and annual performance bonus

• Equity may be awarded in the form of Restricted Stock Units (RSUs)

• Medical, Dental, Vision and Life Insurance, matching 401k, short-term & long-term disability and parental leave

• Unlimited Paid Time Off including vacation, sick days & public holidays

• Flexible scheduling and work from home policy depending on role and responsibilities

Base Salary Range

• The base salary range for this position is: $229,500 to $286,900. This range is specifically for Cambridge, MA

Additional Perks:

• Feel great working to improve road safety around the world!

• Join one of our many employee resource groups including Black, AAPI, LGBTQIA+, Women, Book Club and Health & Wellness

• Extensive wellness, education and employee assistance programs

• CMT will do all that is possible to support our employees and create a positive and inclusive work environment for all!

Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion:

At CMT, we believe the best ideas come from a mix of backgrounds and perspectives.

We are an equal-opportunity employer committed to creating a workplace and culture where everyone feels valued, respected, and empowered to bring their unique talents and perspectives. Diversity is essential to our success, and we actively seek candidates from all backgrounds to join our growing team.

We do not discriminate based on race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status or disability state. CMT is headquartered in Cambridge, MA. To learn more, visit www.cmtelematics.com and follow us on X @cmtelematics.