Partnerships - Research and Education

Modal • San Francisco, CA

4d • $150,000 - $190,000 • Onsite

About The Position

Modal is the cloud platform built for AI, used by leading AI labs, startups, and researchers for compute-intensive workloads like training, inference, and sandboxed code execution. This role focuses on owning and growing Modal's presence in academia and research through the 'Modal for Academics' program. The goal is to sponsor courses and labs with compute credits, build relationships with professors and researchers at top institutions, and establish Modal as the preferred choice for GPU needs in academic research. The ideal candidate will have a deep understanding of academic research cycles, lab structures, and the conference publishing process, combined with experience in organizing events, community building, or cross-institutional collaboration.

Requirements

• A PhD or research Master's from a strong program in ML/CS or with a large computational component.
• Understanding of grant cycles, lab structures, and the conference publishing process.
• Evidence of operating beyond pure research, such as organizing a workshop, running a student group, working with a grants office, or industry internships.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including technical communication.
• Good judgment regarding the pursuit of opportunities.
• Organized and self-directed.
• Comfortable working in-person in a fast-paced startup environment.

Nice To Haves

• Experience as a conference organizer, area chair, workshop chair, or reviewer at a major ML conference.
• Existing relationships with professors and researchers at top universities.

Responsibilities

• Own and operate the Modal for Academics program end-to-end, including handling inbound inquiries, overseeing grant decisions, onboarding, and follow-through.
• Identify and pursue sponsorship opportunities with university courses, ML research labs, and academic conferences, prioritizing work likely to be widely read and cited.
• Build relationships with professors and researchers at top universities.
• Partner with leading AI research labs on compute grants and collaborative programs.
• Track outcomes such as papers, citations, talks, or downstream Modal adoption resulting from grants.
• Represent Modal at academic conferences (e.g., NeurIPS, ICLR, ICML) and research-adjacent events.
• Develop outreach templates, program documentation, and supporting content to scale inbound interest.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Education Level: Ph.D. or professional degree