WHOOP

Staff Software Engineer, Machine Learning (Health)

WHOOP$170K — $230K *
Healthcare
5 - 7 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Data Science, Applied Mathematics, or a related field (Master's preferred).
  • 7+ years of professional experience in software, machine learning, or platform engineering.
  • Proficiency in Python with a focus on clean, production-quality code.
  • Strong expertise in backend development, including distributed systems and APIs.
  • Experience deploying and operating ML inference systems at scale.
  • Familiarity with cloud platforms (AWS or GCP) and CI/CD practices.
  • Experience in regulated environments like SaMD or healthcare is a plus.

Responsibilities

  • Design, build, and maintain ML-driven production services in collaboration with ML Scientists and Engineers.
  • Lead architecture and development of scalable ML inference systems and backend services.
  • Improve ML data pipelines and feature delivery systems together with Data Platform teams.
  • Translate research prototypes into deployable production systems alongside Applied ML Scientists.
  • Collaborate with the Digital Health team on validation and verification of algorithms.
  • Ensure operational excellence through monitoring, observability, and incident response of ML services.
  • Align platform investments with health insights and user impact by working with various stakeholders.

Benefits

  • Generous equity package aligning employees with the company's long-term success.
  • Encouragement for diverse candidates to apply, valuing character as much as experience.
  • Opportunities to work collaboratively across teams in a cutting-edge healthcare technology environment.
  • On-call rotations and a culture supporting operational excellence to enhance technical skills.
Full Job Description
As a Staff Software Engineer on our Clinical Health team, you will design, build, and operate the production systems that deliver personalized health insights to millions of WHOOP members. You will work at the intersection of machine learning, backend engineering, cloud infrastructure, and software as a medical device (SaMD), building scalable, reliable, and observable services that power health features derived from physiological and behavioral data.

In this role, you will partner closely with Applied ML Scientists, ML Research Engineers, and Digital Health teams to translate novel algorithms and research prototypes into production-grade systems. You will provide technical leadership across ML infrastructure, inference services, data pipelines, and platform architecture, ensuring our health algorithms can be deployed, monitored, validated, and operated at scale within a quality-managed environment.

This role is ideal for engineers with deep experience building distributed systems and production platforms who are excited to apply those skills to machine learning-powered healthcare products.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

  • Design, build, and maintain production services that deliver health features, in close collaboration with Applied ML Scientists and ML Research Engineers.
  • Lead the architecture and development of scalable ML inference systems, APIs, and backend services optimized for reliability, latency, and cost efficiency.
  • Collaborate with Data Platform teams to improve ML data pipelines, tooling, feature delivery systems, and validation frameworks that support robust model performance.
  • Work alongside Applied ML Scientists to translate research prototypes into production systems that can be deployed, monitored, and operated at scale.
  • Partner with the Digital Health team on algorithmic performance specifications, validation and verification planning, and the design of SPA or algorithm validation studies.
  • Drive operational excellence through monitoring, observability, incident response, and reliability improvements for ML-powered services.
  • Collaborate with researchers, product teams, and engineering stakeholders to align platform investments with health insights and member impact.
  • Participate in on-call rotations for ML and data services, ensuring uptime, performance, and reliability in production environments.
  • Provide technical leadership through architecture reviews, engineering standards, mentorship, and cross-functional collaboration.


QUALIFICATIONS:

  • Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Data Science, Applied Mathematics, or a related field (Master's preferred).
  • 7+ years of professional experience as a Software Engineer, Machine Learning Engineer, Platform Engineer, or related role building large-scale distributed systems and/or production ML platforms.
  • Strong coding skills in Python with a track record of writing clean, well-tested, production-quality code.
  • Strong fundamentals in backend and service development, including APIs, distributed systems, reliability, monitoring, debugging, and performance optimization.
  • Experience designing, deploying, and operating ML inference systems at scale (real-time streaming and/or large-scale batch).
  • Experience building and maintaining distributed systems, event-driven architectures, or high-throughput data processing platforms.
  • Experience deploying and operating services on cloud platforms (AWS or GCP), including Kubernetes, CI/CD pipelines, infrastructure automation, and observability tooling.
  • Experience partnering with data science or machine learning teams to productionize models, algorithms, and data-driven features.
  • Familiarity with applied machine learning concepts, model evaluation, experimentation, and performance validation.
  • Experience processing time-series, streaming, sensor, wearable, physiological, or other high-volume data sources is preferred.
  • Experience developing software in a regulated or quality-managed environment (SaMD, medical device, healthcare, fintech, or similarly regulated domains) is a plus.
  • Demonstrated technical leadership through architecture and design ownership, setting engineering standards, and raising quality through reviews and mentorship.
  • Proven track record driving measurable improvements in system performance, reliability, scalability, and/or cost at scale, while influencing cross-functional technical direction.


This role is based in the WHOOP office located in Boston, MA. The successful candidate must be prepared to relocate if necessary to work out of the Boston, MA office.

Interested in the role, but don't meet every qualification? We encourage you to still apply! At WHOOP, we believe there is much more to a candidate than what is written on paper, and we value character as much as experience. As we continue to build a diverse and inclusive environment, we encourage anyone who is interested in this role to apply.

At WHOOP, we view total compensation as the combination of base salary, equity, and benefits, with equity serving as a key differentiator that aligns our employees with the long-term success of the company and allows every member of our corporate team to own part of WHOOP and share in the company's long-term growth and success.

The U.S. base salary range for this full-time position is $170,000-$230,000 Salary ranges are determined by role, level, and location. Within each range, individual pay is based on factors such as job-related skills, experience, performance, and relevant education or training.

In addition to the base salary, the successful candidate will also receive benefits and a generous equity package.

These ranges may be modified in the future to reflect evolving market conditions and organizational needs. While most offers will typically fall toward the starting point of the range, total compensation will depend on the candidate's specific qualifications, expertise, and alignment with the role's requirements.

Learn more about WHOOP.

About WHOOP

WHOOP is a wearable technology company that specializes in fitness tracking. The company was founded in 2012 and is based in Boston, Massachusetts. WHOOP's flagship product is a wristband that tracks various metrics related to fitness and health, such as heart rate variability, sleep quality, and recovery time. The company also offers a subscription service that provides personalized insights and recommendations based on the data collected by the wristband. WHOOP has raised over $200 million in funding and has partnerships with several professional sports leagues and teams.
Learn more about WHOOP
Size
500 employees
Industry
Founded
2011

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