Machine Learning Engineer

Programa; Melbourne; Hybrid; AUD 140,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid working (Melbourne)

Global ESOP

Flexible work arrangements

Job summary

Programa is building the operating system for the global interior design industry. We’re hiring an ML/Software engineer to own end-to-end ML systems, from problem definition to production. You’ll help integrate AI into everyday workflows—search, copilots and retrieval—while owning APIs, pipelines and deployment.

You’ll collaborate with data scientists and engineers on productionised features. You’ll be working in a Data & AI team reporting to the Head of Data & AI, focusing on observability,

Qualifications

• 4+ years in software/ML engineering or a similar role with production AI/ML systems.
• Strong coding in Python and SQL with good system design and testing practices.
• Hands-on experience with modern LLM APIs, embeddings and retrieval.
• Operational ownership; experience deploying and maintaining services in production.

Responsibilities

• Own ML systems end to end, from problem framing to production delivery.
• Build AI features for search, copilots and retrieval to aid designers.
• Own infrastructure including APIs, pipelines and deployment workflows.
• Monitor production, run A/B tests and improve system quality and outcomes.
• Collaborate with data scientists and engineers to turn ideas into reliable features.
• Contribute through code reviews, design, mentoring and hiring.

Skills

ML engineering

Python

SQL

Production ownership

Product judgement

Tools

OpenSearch/Elasticsearch

Snowflake

dbt

Dagster

LangChain/OpenAI Agents

Job description

Programa is building the operating system for the global interior design industry. Thousands of architects and interior designers across more than 90 countries use our platform to manage their projects, products and purchasing.

We’re building the AI features that help them do more: find the right products, make better decisions and automate everyday workflows. You'll help bring these features into the product, from search and retrieval to copilots and recommendations.

Working in our Data & AI team and reporting to the Head of Data & AI, you'll own systems from problem definition through to deployment and ongoing operation. There's substantial engineering work underneath every feature: APIs, data pipelines, evaluation, infrastructure and monitoring. You'll help shape those foundations and the products they support.

What You'll Do

• Own ML systems end to end. Work with Product, Engineering and CX to understand customer problems, test approaches, and take features from prototype to production.
• Build AI into everyday workflows. Develop search and retrieval, copilots and features that help designers decide what to do next. Help define where these capabilities can make the biggest difference.
• Own the infrastructure. Build and maintain APIs, pipelines and deployment workflows. Take responsibility for observability, performance, reliability and operating your systems in production.
• Measure what works. Build evaluation datasets and offline benchmarks, monitor performance in production, and run A/B tests. Use the results to improve both system quality and customer outcomes.
• Help shape technical and product decisions. Bring ideas, make trade-offs clear, and work with data scientists and engineers to turn promising approaches into reliable features.
• Raise the engineering standard. Contribute through code reviews, technical design, mentoring and hiring. Use AI coding tools such as Claude Code or Cursor to support prototyping and delivery.

About You

• Production experience. You have 4+ years in software engineering, ML engineering or a similar role, with a track record of shipping AI or ML systems used by real customers.
• Strong engineering fundamentals. You're confident in Python and SQL, and bring sound practices in system design, testing, code quality and review.
• Practical ML knowledge. You've built ML systems and understand the choices behind them: how to frame a problem, evaluate an approach and judge whether it's solving the right problem. You're comfortable working with modern LLM APIs, embeddings and retrieval.
• Operational ownership. You've deployed and maintained services in production. You're comfortable investigating logs, tuning queries, managing infrastructure and taking on-call responsibility.
• Initiative and product judgement. You can move forward when a problem is still taking shape. You ask useful questions, communicate clearly, and help decide what should be built and why.

Nice to Have

• Experience with OpenSearch or Elasticsearch, vector databases, or hybrid retrieval at scale.
• Experience building data pipelines and warehouses, particularly with Snowflake, dbt, Dagster, Fivetran or Segment.
• Experience with agent frameworks such as LangChain or the OpenAI Agents SDK, and systems involving multiple LLM steps.
• Experience building search, recommendation or document-processing systems.
• A background in B2B SaaS or a growing startup.

Our Stack

Python, FastAPI, OpenSearch and AWS, alongside Snowflake, dbt, Dagster, Fivetran and Segment. Our core product runs on Rails, and we work with models from OpenAI, Anthropic and Cohere.

Salary & Benefits

• Company wide ESOP
• Hybrid working for our Melbourne team, fully remote for everyone else
• Join a company at an exciting inflection point with genuine global scale ahead

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