NewsBreak

Senior Machine Learning Engineer, Recommendation & AI Applications

NewsBreak$195K — $230K *
Consumer Technology
Less than 5 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • 3+ years of industry experience building machine learning or recommendation systems in production
  • Strong understanding of recommendation system fundamentals (ranking, embeddings, user/item modeling, experimentation)
  • Strong coding skills in Python, Java, or Scala, with experience in PyTorch or TensorFlow
  • Experience working with large-scale data and ML systems (e.g., Spark, distributed training, real-time inference)
  • Ability to own features end-to-end and deliver measurable business impact

Responsibilities

  • Design, build, and iterate on high-throughput, low-latency recommendation systems for core feeds
  • Improve retrieval, ranking, and multi-objective optimization for user engagement and content quality
  • Own systems from offline training through online inference and A/B experimentation
  • Identify and resolve issues related to data quality and model performance in production
  • Apply LLMs and foundation models to enhance recommendation systems
  • Prototype quickly, validate ideas with experiments, and push successful concepts into production
  • Contribute to AI-powered innovation projects from early exploration to MVP

Benefits

  • 100% health, dental, and vision care coverage for employees
  • Top-tier 401(K) plan with company matching
  • Paid time off and holidays
  • Flexible spending accounts and commuter benefits
  • Budget allocation for team activities
Full Job Description
About the Role

We are looking for a Senior Machine Learning Engineer to help evolve our large-scale recommendation systems and apply AI / LLM technologies to real-world production problems. You will work on core feed, retrieval, and ranking systems serving tens of millions of users, while also participating in AI-driven innovation projects that explore new ways to improve content discovery, personalization, and developer productivity. This role is ideal for engineers who enjoy strong individual ownership, hands-on development, and translating ideas into reliable systems.

What You'll Work On

Large-Scale Recommendation Systems
  • Design, build, and iterate on high-throughput, low-latency recommendation systems powering NewsBreak's core feeds.
  • Improve retrieval, ranking, and multi-objective optimization to balance engagement, retention, content quality, and business metrics.
  • Own systems from offline training  online inference  A/B experimentation  metric analysis.
  • Identify and resolve issues related to data quality, model drift, and system performance in production.

AI & LLM Applications
  • Apply LLMs and foundation models to recommendation-related problems such as content understanding, user intent modeling, and feature generation.
  • Prototype quickly, validate with experiments, and push successful ideas into production.

AI-Driven Development
  • Embrace AI-assisted development workflows, including LLM-powered coding, debugging, and analysis.
  • Apply AI across feature ideation, prototyping, and experiment analysis.

0  1 Innovation
  • Contribute to 0-1 AI-powered projects, helping take ideas from early exploration to MVP and production.

What We're Looking For

Minimum Qualifications - 3+ years of industry experience building machine learning or recommendation systems in production. - Strong understanding of recommendation system fundamentals (ranking, embeddings, user/item modeling, experimentation). - Strong coding skills with Python / Java / Scala, and experience with PyTorch or TensorFlow. - Experience working with large-scale data and ML systems (e.g., Spark, distributed training, real-time inference). - Ability to own features end-to-end and deliver measurable business impact.

Bonus / Plus Qualifications - Production experience applying AI or LLMs to recommendation systems. - Experience contributing to 0  1 AI or ML-driven products. - Familiarity with AI-assisted development tools and workflows.

Benefits

We offer a competitive benefits package:
  • Health, dental, and vision care for you and your family (100% coverage for employee)
  • Top-tier 401(K) plan with company matching
  • Paid time off and paid holidays
  • FSA, HSA and commuter benefits programs
  • Team activity budget


The US base salary range for this full-time position is listed below. Pay may vary based on a number of factors including job-related skills, level, experience, geographic location and relevant education or training. At NewsBreak, we design our overall rewards package to attract top talents. Depending on the position, the role may also be eligible for discretionary bonus and options. Your recruiter can share more details during the hiring process.

Annual Base Pay Range

$195,000-$230,000 USD

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