Staff Applied Machine Learning Engineer

zaimler

• $150K — $180K *
Enterprise Technology
8 - 10 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • PhD preferred; Master's with significant experience considered
  • 8-10 years of ML or AI engineering experience, particularly in platform or lab settings
  • Proven ability to build and manage AI/ML infrastructure from start to finish
  • Extensive experience with training pipelines, evaluation frameworks, and feature store architecture
  • Hands-on optimization of complex, multi-step LLM workflows in production
  • Demonstrated leadership as a lead or Head of AI in a startup or high-autonomy team
  • Strong strategic skills for setting direction, making trade-offs, and effective communication

Responsibilities

  • Bridge the gap between research and applied engineering for seamless production
  • Own and manage training and evaluation infrastructure, including tuning and modeling pipelines
  • Develop and maintain feature stores to support model development and production needs
  • Optimize end-to-end workflows for maximum performance, reliability, and scalability
  • Set the strategic direction for model training, evaluation, and deployment
  • Collaborate with leadership to define the ML roadmap and make key architectural decisions

Benefits

  • Unique opportunity to shape the strategic direction of AI within the company
  • Hands-on role that balances technical expertise with strategic vision
  • Collaboration with seasoned professionals in a fast-paced, high-autonomy environment
  • Potential for significant influence on the evolution of AI systems at scale
  • Encouragement of innovative thinking and building over traditional resumes
Full Job Description
About the Role

This is a staff-level role for a seasoned AI/ML engineer who can operate at the intersection of research and production. You'll serve as the technical bridge between our research and applied engineering teams - translating cutting-edge ideas into robust, scalable systems while setting the strategic direction for how we train, evaluate, and deploy models. Deeply hands-on, but able to zoom out and set the agenda.

We're looking for someone who has been here before. Built the infra, shaped the strategy, and knows what good looks like at every layer of the ML stack.

What You Will be Doing

  • Bridge research and applied engineering, ensuring ideas move from concept to production with rigor and speed
  • Own training and evaluation infrastructure, including tuning, modeling pipelines, and evaluation frameworks
  • Build and evolve feature stores that serve both model development and production workloads
  • Optimize agentic workflows end-to-end for performance, reliability, and scale
  • Set technical strategy for how zaimler trains, evaluates, and deploys models as the platform grows
  • Partner closely with leadership to define the ML roadmap and make key architectural decisions


Prior Experience

  • PhD preferred; Master's with exceptional experience considered
  • 8-10 years of experience in ML or AI engineering, with meaningful time in platform or lab environments
  • Track record of building and owning AI/ML infrastructure end-to-end, not just contributing to it
  • Deep experience with training pipelines, evaluation frameworks, and feature store design
  • Hands-on experience optimizing agentic or multi-step LLM workflows in production
  • Has operated as a lead or Head of AI at a startup or within a high-autonomy team
  • Strong strategic instincts; able to set direction, make tradeoffs, and communicate them clearly


Nice to Have

  • Experience on both the AI infra and applied research sides of an organization
  • Familiarity with Knowledge Extraction, NLP, or semantic graph systems
  • Experience with GPU optimization, vLLM, Ray, or similar serving and training tools
  • Background working with or alongside research teams (lab, academic, or industry)


We value builders over re9sume9s. If this role excites you but you don't check every box, we still want to hear from you.

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