Director of Machine Learning & Artificial Intelligence

Responsibilities

• Technical Strategy and Innovation
• Shape and lead Thorn’s Machine Learning and AI strategy in partnership with
• Build leadership, Product, and cross-functional stakeholders, evolving technical direction as emerging technologies, research, customer needs, and the child safety landscape change.
• Identify promising ML and AI technologies and approaches, translating research and experimentation into recommendations about where Thorn should invest, partner, build, or evolve its product and technology strategies.
• Support Thorn’s Technical Innovation Roadmap through the exploration, prototyping, de-risking, and validation of new technical capabilities to advance mission impact and inform future product strategy.
• Ensure ML systems and practices meet Thorn’s expectations for privacy, security, responsible AI, regulatory compliance, reliability, and operational excellence, including appropriate oversight of sensitive datasets, external data annotation partners, and CSAM reporting processes.
• Partner closely with the Business Development and Strategic Impact (BDSI) team to inform Thorn’s technical research roadmap and enable exploration by connecting research questions, ML expertise, emerging opportunities, and product needs.
• Develop an Exceptional ML Team
• Build on the strengths of an established, highly skilled Machine Learning team while developing the people, leadership, and capabilities Thorn will need next.
• Recruit, develop, empower, and retain exceptional ML talent, maintaining a high bar for technical excellence, collaboration, curiosity, and mission alignment.

Languages