Job Overview
Location
Hybrid - San Francisco
Job Type
Full-time
Category
Software Engineering
Date Posted
May 28, 2026
Full Job Description
đź“‹ Description
- • As a Senior Applied Research Engineer at Drata, you will drive the quality and effectiveness of AI systems through rigorous experimentation and applied research, ensuring the company’s compliance platform delivers trustworthy, high-performance information retrieval and reasoning.
- • You will design and evaluate information access and reasoning strategies across RAG, agents, and classic ML; prototype GenAI workflows for compliance objects; build evaluation frameworks; implement ranking/reranking systems; run experiments to validate hypotheses; debug failure modes; and collaborate with AI and Software Engineers to transition research into production.
- • You will join a mission-driven, high-velocity team of 600+ people at Drata, where values like Trust, Integrity, Customer-Obsessed mindset, Competitive Fire, Diversity, and Automation First shape a culture of ownership, speed, and impact in a hybrid work model (in-office Tue–Thu in San Francisco).
- • You will deepen your expertise in applied NLP, information retrieval, and AI evaluation, contribute to product-ready innovations, and grow your influence by translating research into tangible improvements in Drata’s AI-powered compliance solutions.
🎯 Requirements
- • 5+ years of experience in applied research, data science, or ML with a focus on NLP, information retrieval, or knowledge systems
- • 2+ years of hands-on experience building or contributing to production AI/ML systems
- • Strong foundation in information retrieval: dense and sparse retrieval, embedding models, search relevance
- • Experience with RAG systems: chunking strategies, vector databases, retrieval optimization
- • Proficiency in evaluation methodology: metrics design, golden dataset creation, A/B testing, statistical significance
- • Strong Python skills and comfort with notebook-driven research workflows
🏖️ Benefits
- • Shared Success: Stock equity (RSUs) to share in company growth and success
- • Health & Wellness: Up to 100% employer-paid premiums for medical, dental, and vision coverage for employees and dependents, plus wellness benefits and healthcare concierge services
- • Financial Well-being: 401(k) plan, company-paid life and disability insurance, tax-advantaged spending accounts, and discounted voluntary offerings
- • Family Support: Paid Parental Leave after six months, Kindbody fertility and family-building benefits, and dedicated leave specialists
- • Growth & Development: Generous annual stipends for professional and personal development, plus internal learning opportunities
- • Time Off & Flexibility: Flexible vacation policy, paid holidays, and autonomy for focused work on Mondays and Fridays
Skills & Technologies
About Drata, Inc.
Drata is a compliance automation platform that continuously monitors and collects evidence for security frameworks such as SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA, and PCI DSS. It integrates with cloud services, identity providers, and SaaS tools to track controls, manage risks, and generate audit-ready documentation. The company serves technology startups and enterprises seeking to streamline security compliance workflows and maintain continuous monitoring without manual spreadsheets.
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