Staff Research Engineer, Data Agents

<h3><strong>About Databricks</strong></h3> <p>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.</p> <h3><strong>About the Team</strong></h3> <p>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.&nbsp;</p> <p>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.</p> <h2><strong>The impact you will have</strong></h2> <ul> <li>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.</li> <li>Partner closely with product teams to turn prototypes and research ideas into the best agentic experience for Databricks users.</li> <li>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.</li> <li>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.</li> </ul> <h2><strong>What we look for</strong></h2> <ul> <li>BS, MS, or PhD in Computer Science or a related field.</li> <li>2+ years of experience in an applied research environment, with a track record of shipping research prototypes to production.&nbsp;</li> <li>Experience in LLMs, agents, reinforcement learning, post-training workflows.</li> <li>Ability to work effectively in a fast-moving environment that blends research exploration with product and engineering rigor.</li> <li>Clear communication and strong cross-functional collaboration with re