I think research is the key word here. If you are developing fundamentally new ML techniques (like the folks at Google), you'll probably need some serious technical chops.
> Usually it is a rinse-test-repeat kind of job. It needs people with patience and who can interpret data and who can be comfortable with uncertainty and then can make their bosses comfortable with uncertainty on timelines.
That sounds less like research and more like applying established tools (Tensor Flow or Keras or whatever).