Sr. Director, Data Science - 11572

The Impact of a Sr. Director, Data Science at Coupa: 

We are seeking a strategic and hands-on Director of AI Data Science to lead the development, deployment, and governance of advanced AI systems across Coupa’s platform. This role sits at the intersection of machine learning, data strategy, and product innovation.

You will define how AI models are built, evaluated, and scaled—driving excellence in model performance, MLOps, and data quality. A key part of your mandate will be establishing robust “golden datasets,” advancing AI observability, and ensuring our systems are accurate, reliable, and responsibly deployed.

This leader will partner closely with Engineering, Product, and Platform teams to embed AI into core business workflows, while setting the standard for responsible and trustworthy AI.

•  Lead the strategy, design, and delivery of AI/ML models (including Generative AI use cases) across multiple product domains.
• Establish and scale MLOps practices to enable reliable, reproducible, and efficient model development and deployment.
• Define and operationalize golden datasets, including data curation, labeling standards, and evaluation frameworks.
• Own model performance: define KPIs, implement continuous evaluation, and drive ongoing improvements in accuracy, robustness, and latency.
• Build and advance AI observability, monitoring, and feedback loops to ensure model transparency and trust.
• Partner cross-functionally with Engineering, Product, Data, and Platform teams to integrate AI into production systems and user experiences.
• Establish and enforce Responsible AI practices, including fairness, bias mitigation, explainability, and compliance.
• Lead, mentor, and grow a high-performing global team of data scientists and ML engineers.
• Influence executive stakeholders by translating complex AI concepts into clear business impact and strategy.

• 10+ years of experience in Data Science, Machine Learning, or AI, with 3–5+ years in leadership roles managing high-performing teams.
• Strong expertise in machine learning, deep learning, and statistical modeling, with experience in production environments.
• Proven track record of delivering scalable, production-grade AI systems that drive measurable business impact.
• Hands-on experience with modern MLOps ecosystems (e.g., SageMaker, Vertex AI, Databricks, Kubeflow, MLflow).
• Deep experience with data strategy, including dataset creation, labeling, governance, and evaluation methodologies.
• Familiarity with Generative AI / LLMs, prompt engineering, fine-tuning, and evaluation techniques.
• Strong programming skills in Python and experience with frameworks such as TensorFlow, PyTorch, or similar.
• Excellent leadership, communication, and stakeholder management skills.
• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Data Science, or a related field (PhD preferred).

The estimated pay range for this role is $222,000 - $310,000

The starting salary for the successful candidate will be based on permissible, non-discriminatory factors such as skills, experience, and geographic location.