SalesforcePrincipal Architect, AI Labs
Salesforce is hiring a Principal Architect, AI Labs for a remote role open to applicants in United States. It pays $197k-$365k a year and Level rates it ; you can apply on Level.
Level's read on this job
- Builds AI ●●●● is how Level rates this role: the job is building AI systems.
- This is listed as a remote role.
- The posting mentions LLMs, Asics and AI agents among its tools and skills.
- Salesforce has 1,500+ other open roles on Level.
- This posting went up in the last few days.
AI in this role
Lead technical AI diligence for acquisitions and strategic investments while scaling shared AI labs infrastructure.
To get the best candidate experience, please consider applying for a maximum of 3 roles within 12 months to ensure you are not duplicating efforts.
Job Category
Software EngineeringJob Details
About Salesforce
Salesforce is the #1 AI CRM, where humans with agents drive customer success together. Here, ambition meets action. Tech meets trust. And innovation isn’t a buzzword — it’s a way of life. The world of work as we know it is changing and we're looking for Trailblazers who are passionate about bettering business and the world through AI, driving innovation, and keeping Salesforce's core values at the heart of it all.
Ready to level-up your career at the company leading workforce transformation in the agentic era? You’re in the right place! Agentforce is the future of AI, and you are the future of Salesforce.
AI Labs aims to grow Salesforce into America’s next $1.5T AI mainstay, from ASICs to Agents. We’re looking for deeply technical, product-savvy AI architects who can operate across two critical moments in the deal lifecycle: evaluating AI technology before it is acquired, licensed, or invested in by a larger firm, and accelerating that company after acquisition.
These leaders will provide independent, in-IDE technical depth during M&A or investment diligence, while helping build common DeepTech capabilities, models, and infrastructure that portfolio companies can leverage after joining AI Labs.
What You'll Do
- Lead technical and AI diligence for potential acquisitions and strategic investments. (Formal diligence experience is not required.)
- Critically evaluate (by testing, studying, using, and remixing) architecture, models, data strategy, infrastructure, security, scalability, technical differentiation, and technical debt.
- Interview and score DeepTech talent.
- Assess build-vs-buy questions and the defensibility of a company's underlying technology, team, and IP.
- Partner directly with founders, CTOs, and engineering leaders during diligence.
- Identify material technical risks and opportunities and translate them into clear recommendations for AI Labs leadership.
- Identify opportunities for portfolio companies to adopt shared AI technologies, evaluation frameworks, infrastructure, standards, and services, only where doing so creates material leverage.
- Identify capabilities that should be built once across AI Labs, rather than repeatedly by individual companies, and the technical and nontechnical tradeoffs.
- Serve as a senior technical advisor across the AI Labs portfolio without becoming a centralized bottleneck.
What We're Looking For
- Principal/Distinguished-level engineering or architecture experience in AI (both basic and applied), ML, and production-scale AI products.
- Deep understanding of modern AI architectures, models, training/post-training and inference, data, evaluation, infrastructure, production systems, and how technical choices shape product outcomes.
- Ability to rapidly understand unfamiliar technical stacks and distinguish true technical differentiation from implementation detail.
- Experience working with startup/founder-led engineering teams.
- Strong technical judgment combined with deep product taste and pragmatic business thinking.
- Experience with technical diligence, DeepTech investing, acquisitions, or startup evaluation is nice to have. (Having shipped differentiated AI/ML products matters more.)
Team Values
- Distill
- Always be learning
- Invest in relationships
- Bravery without bravado
Unleash Your Potential
When you join Salesforce, you’ll be limitless in all areas of your life. Our benefits and resources support you to find balance and be your best, and our AI agents accelerate your impact so you can do your best. Together, we’ll bring the power of Agentforce to organizations of all sizes and deliver amazing experiences that customers love. Apply today to not only shape the future — but to redefine what’s possible — for yourself, for AI, and the world.
Accommodations
If you need a reasonable accommodation during the application or the recruiting process, please submit a request via this Accommodations Request Form.
Please note that Salesforce uses artificial intelligence (AI) tools to help our recruiters assess and evaluate candidates’ resumes and qualifications throughout the recruiting process. Humans will always make any candidate selection and hiring decisions. Please see our Candidate Privacy Statement for more information about how we use your personal data and your rights, including with regard to use of AI tools and opt out options.
Posting Statement
Salesforce is an equal opportunity employer and maintains a policy of non-discrimination with all employees and applicants for employment. What does that mean exactly? It means that at Salesforce, we believe in equality for all. And we believe we can lead the path to equality in part by creating a workplace that’s inclusive, and free from discrimination. Know your rights: workplace discrimination is illegal. Any employee or potential employee will be assessed on the basis of merit, competence and qualifications – without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender expression or identity, transgender status, age, disability, veteran or marital status, political viewpoint, or other classifications protected by law. This policy applies to current and prospective employees, no matter where they are in their Salesforce employment journey. It also applies to recruiting, hiring, job assignment, compensation, promotion, benefits, training, assessment of job performance, discipline, termination, and everything in between. Recruiting, hiring, and promotion decisions at Salesforce are fair and based on merit. The same goes for compensation, benefits, promotions, transfers, reduction in workforce, recall, training, and education.
In the United States, compensation offered will be determined by factors such as location, job level, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. Certain roles may be eligible for incentive compensation, equity, and benefits. Salesforce offers a variety of benefits to help you live well including: time off programs, medical, dental, vision, mental health support, paid parental leave, life and disability insurance, 401(k), and an employee stock purchasing program. More details about company benefits can be found at the following link: https://www.salesforcebenefits.com.Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance and the Los Angeles Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring, Salesforce will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.At Salesforce, we believe in equitable compensation practices that reflect the dynamic nature of labor markets across various regions. The typical base salary range for this position is $197,300 - $365,200 annually. In select cities within the San Francisco and New York City metropolitan area, the base salary range for this role is $237,700 - $401,400 annually. The range represents base salary only, and does not include company bonus, incentive for sales roles, equity or benefits, as applicable.How we rate this
Principal Architect, AI Labs at Salesforce rates 95 out of 100 for how much of the daily work is AI. That makes it Builds AI (AI Level 4 of 4). The level is about AI in the job, not seniority.
Builds AI. The job is building AI systems.
- ●●●● Builds AI80 to 100
- ●●●○ Works on AI60 to 79
- ●●○○ Uses AI40 to 59
- ●○○○ Little AI0 to 39
Levels come from how often the tools, models and workflows of the role are named in the posting itself. Open the description and count.
Prepare for this job
Built from this posting and from similar jobs on Level.
Skills and AI tools this role asks for
Questions you could be asked
- How do you decide when an AI agent can act on its own versus asking for approval first?
- Tell me about a project where architecture was part of your work. What did you do?
- Tell me about a project where m a diligence was part of your work. What did you do?
- Tell me about a project where deep tech was part of your work. What did you do?
- Tell me about a project where technical evaluation was part of your work. What did you do?
Adapt your resume
- List these exact terms on your resume: AI agents, Architecture, M A Diligence, Deep Tech, and Technical Evaluation. An applicant tracking system matches the wording, not the idea.
- Attach one line of real, concrete experience to at least one of them. A tool named with nothing behind it rarely survives a human read.
- Lead with what you built, trained or shipped. This role is judged on the AI system itself, not the tools around it.
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