Director of Foundation AI
WHOOP
Software Engineering, Data Science
Boston, MA, USA
Posted on Sep 26, 2025
WHOOP is an advanced health and fitness wearable on a mission to unlock human performance and extend healthspan. By providing members with a deep understanding of their bodies, behaviors, and daily lives, WHOOP empowers healthier choices and peak performance.
We are seeking a Director of Foundation AI to lead the technical development and deployment of WHOOP’s multimodal foundation models. These models will integrate wearable sensor data, language, biomarkers, clinical information, and self-reported inputs to power next-generation health insights and member experiences.
In this role, you will serve as WHOOP’s senior leader for foundation model development. You will define architectural approaches, guide training and scaling decisions, and ensure our models translate into production-grade systems that deliver measurable member value. You will collaborate closely with executive leadership, product, and engineering to align technical direction with WHOOP’s broader AI strategy. You will lead a team dedicated to bringing these models into production, with success defined by their ability to power impactful product features and deliver meaningful value to WHOOP members.
The ideal candidate brings deep expertise in large-scale AI/ML, proven success in deploying foundation models, and strong leadership experience building high-performing teams. They combine technical excellence with organizational leadership, enabling WHOOP to responsibly scale cutting-edge AI that advances human health and performance.
RESPONSIBILITIES:
- Lead the development and deployment of large foundation models across multimodal data sources (wearable sensor data, language, blood biomarkers, clinical datasets, and self-reported inputs), ensuring research translates into member-facing value
- Help define and drive WHOOP’s long-term AI strategy, aligning technical innovation with company goals in health, performance, and longevity
- Build, grow, and mentor a high-performing AI team, fostering an inclusive, collaborative, and high-accountability culture while enabling career development
- Partner with MLOps, data engineering, and software engineering to scale and serve foundation models in high-throughput, production environments
- Partner cross-functionally with product, strategy, and business leaders to translate foundation model capabilities into features that drive tangible member value
- Own and optimize WHOOP’s AI compute and infrastructure budget, balancing cutting-edge research with cost efficiency and scalability.
- Ensure the ethical, transparent, and privacy-preserving use of AI across all applications, proactively addressing bias, fairness, and explainability in model development and deployment
- Communicate vision, milestones, and progress to executives and cross-functional stakeholders, ensuring alignment and organizational buy-in
QUALIFICATIONS:
- Demonstrated expertise in AI/ML through an advanced degree (Ph.D. or Master’s) or equivalent professional experience delivering large-scale AI systems
- 10+ years of experience in AI/ML, including 5+ years leading and scaling high-performing technical organizations
- Successful track record building and deploying large foundation models that generalize across diverse downstream tasks and drive measurable business or product impact
- Experience translating cutting-edge AI research into products with meaningful real-world impact for end users
- Deep knowledge of modern deep learning architectures, multimodal data integration, and large language model fine-tuning
- Experience with lifecycle management of large foundational models in a production environment, including versioning, monitoring, and evaluation
- Familiarity with MLOps best practices, distributed systems, and model serving in high-throughput environments
- Proven ability to set AI strategy, manage substantial compute budgets, and align cross-functional teams around ambitious goals
- Exceptional communication and influence skills, with experience engaging executives, external partners, and technical/non-technical audiences
This role is based in the WHOOP office located in Boston, MA. The successful candidate must be prepared to relocate if necessary to work out of the Boston, MA office.
Interested in the role, but don’t meet every qualification? We encourage you to still apply! At WHOOP, we believe there is much more to a candidate than what is written on paper, and we value character as much as experience. As we continue to build a diverse and inclusive environment, we encourage anyone who is interested in this role to apply.
WHOOP is an Equal Opportunity Employer and participates in E-verify to determine employment eligibility. It is unlawful in Massachusetts to require or administer a lie detector test as a condition of employment or continued employment. An employer who violates this law shall be subject to criminal penalties and civil liability.