Summary
Jayson Francis is a senior research engineering leader based in San Jose with 12 years of experience building ML-driven systems and leading engineering teams across aerospace and analytics domains. Currently Senior Director of Research Engineering at FICO, he focuses on foundation models and reinforcement learning, having progressed through principal and senior research scientist roles there. His background includes managing satellite payload software and RL projects at Viasat and performance simulation and HPC work at Hewlett Packard Enterprise, giving him a strong systems and infrastructure grounding alongside applied ML expertise. Jayson blends hands-on technical depth with people leadership, repeatedly moving from individual contributor roles into managerial and strategic positions. He holds computer engineering and computer science credentials from San José State, Sacramento State, and Georgia Tech, reflecting a continuous commitment to technical breadth. Less obvious: he bridges space-grade software constraints with cutting-edge research methods, making him adept at shipping robust, safety-conscious ML systems in production.
12 years of coding experience
11 years of employment as a software developer
Computer Engineering, Computer Engineering at San José State University
Computer Science, Computer Science at Georgia Institute of Technology
California State University, Sacramento
aramaic, English