Lead Machine Learning Engineer

The Lead Machine Learning Engineer will help shape and operationalize personalization technology for Disney+ and Hulu. This role focuses on ideation through productionization of recommendation algorithms across the full recommendation stack, using modern AI and LLM techniques alongside rigorous offline and online evaluation.

Responsibilities

• Ideate, develop, iterate, and productionize personalization algorithms, including core ranking, content and user understanding models and graphs, candidate retrieval, and post-ranking systems.
• Apply modern AI and LLM techniques to recommendation systems, including generating and improving recommendations, strengthening system evaluation, and accelerating model development and improvement.
• Provide technical insight on recommendation approaches, evaluation methodology, and defining data, features, and objectives for models, while supporting other scientists in shaping and productionizing their ideas.
• Drive the technical vision and innovation agenda for personalization by identifying high-impact opportunities and influencing how the team executes.
• Design and run rigorous offline and online experiments, and contribute to improving evaluation systems and evaluation methodology.
• Collaborate within the team and across Engineering, Product, and Data partners by communicating methodologies clearly to technical and non-technical audiences and managing stakeholder expectations.
• Build production-worthy, maintainable systems that are easy to iterate on, and uphold strong standards for development, testing, and deployment, with readiness to support production issues when needed.

Requirements

• 7+ years of experience developing machine learning models and deploying them to production systems.
• Strong background in applied ML science, end-to-end ML engineering, or a blend of both, with experience in recommendation systems modeling.
• Hands-on experience with AI and LLM techniques and a solid understanding of the modern AI landscape.
• Proficiency with tools and frameworks such as PyTorch, TensorFlow, Databricks, Spark, and SQL.
• In-depth understanding of modern machine learning methods, models, and their mathematical foundations.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• A collaborative, personable working style that supports teamwork across organizations rather than working in isolation.

Preferred Qualifications

• PhD in computer science, statistics, math, or a related quantitative field.
• Publications or papers in machine learning or AI, particularly in recommender systems.
• Production experience developing content recommendation algorithms at scale.
• Experience with reinforcement learning or related sequential decision-making approaches.
• Experience with recommendation system evaluation methodology, including offline evaluation and A/B experimentation.

Technologies

• PyTorch
• TensorFlow
• Databricks
• Spark
• SQL
• AI
• LLM

Compensation and Benefits

Salary: USD 187,900 - 252,000 per yearly.

• A bonus and/or long-term incentive units may be provided as part of the compensation package.
• The full range of medical, financial, and/or other benefits (dependent on the level and position offered).

Location

San Francisco, CA (onsite).

Education

BS or MS in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field.