Staff Machine Learning Engineer - Search

SafetyCulture; Sydney; Hybrid; AUD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity with growth potential

Flexible working arrangements

Training & development opportunities

Hackathons & workshops

Culinary crew serving breakfast and Sn

Barista coffee & beverages

Wellbeing initiatives

Job summary

Mitti by SafetyCulture is hiring a Staff ML Engineer to shape data-driven search and embeddings strategy. You will own the roadmap, build embeddings and data foundations, and lead semantic search initiatives across the platform with a focus on scalable, secure, and user-relevant results.

You’ll mentor teammates, collaborate with data and software engineers, and help balance build vs buy decisions while delivering customer-facing ML features in a hybrid environment at our Sydney HQ.

Qualifications

• Experience building embeddings and using them in production with cost, speed, and accuracy tradeoffs.
• Experience with large, live datasets (hundreds of TBs or billions of records) and data lakes or Parquet/Iceberg formats.
• Background in ML or data engineering, with a path from software engineering.
• Experience building systems that learn from feedback and measure result quality.
• Deliver data or ML products to customers end to end, not only internal stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• Shape the roadmap for search across the platform and decide what to solve first.
• Build embeddings and datasets powering search; collaborate with data engineers at scale.
• Add semantic search on top of embeddings, combining with keyword search where appropriate.
• Create a feedback loop to measure search quality and improve embeddings and results.
• Ensure results reach the right user, respecting access controls and relevance.
• Deliver customer-facing features end to end from problem to shipping.
• Act as technical lead for ML in a small team and mentor others.
• Build relationships across data and engineering teams; influence without formal authority.
• Weigh build vs buy decisions and balance tradeoffs.
• Work with Databricks, Kafka, Golang, PostgreSQL, and OpenSearch on AWS; adapt as needed.
• Operate in a hybrid environment, including at HQ in Surry Hills, Sydney.

Skills

Embeddings in production

Large datasets

ML engineering

Feedback-driven systems

End-to-end ML

Technical leadership

Cross-team collaboration

Tools

Databricks

Kafka

Golang

PostgreSQL

OpenSearch

AWS

Job description

Why join us?

Mitti by SafetyCulture is a global tech company, just not the kind you're picturing. Our almost 1,000-person team builds tools that make work better for the three billion frontline workers who keep the world moving. We've got big tech scale, without the sign-off layers or corporate theatre. This next chapter is about scaling smart, powered by AI, a clear vision and real ownership.

Big tech impact, without the big tech ick.

About the role

Our mission is to help solve the challenges of an increasingly distributed workforce. As a Staff ML Engineer in the Data team, you’ll shape how we use our data to help customers find what matters and improve. You’ll help set the roadmap for search, build the embeddings and data foundations behind it, and put search on top. We’re at an early stage, with plenty of room to shape how it’s done. The team has the foundations in place and is ready for you to lead the next phase.

In this role, you can expect to:

• Work out what to solve first, and shape the roadmap for how we apply and grow search across the platform

• Build and improve the embeddings and datasets that power search, working with data engineers to deliver them at scale

• Put semantic search on top of those embeddings, combining it with keyword search where it makes sense

• Build a feedback loop that measures whether search is giving people the right answers, and use it to improve the embeddings and results

• Make sure the right results reach the right person, respecting access controls and relevance to who is searching and what they do

• Deliver customer-facing features end to end, from understanding the problem to shipping

• Act as technical lead for ML in a small team, mentoring others and setting the standard for how we build

• Build strong relationships across data and engineering teams, and influence how they work without relying on formal authority

• Weigh effort against impact, including build vs buy decisions

• Work with our current stack (Databricks, Kafka, Golang, PostgreSQL and OpenSearch on AWS), with room to choose what’s best as the problem becomes clearer

• Work in a hybrid environment, including at our HQ in Surry Hills, Sydney

• Demonstrate Mitti values (Think Customer, Open Honest Always, Better as a Team, Be Bold Bring Action)

You may be a great fit if you have:

• Experience building embeddings and using them in production, including choosing between approaches and weighing cost, speed, accuracy and keeping data in house

• Experience working with large, live datasets (hundreds of terabytes or billions of records), such as data lakes or formats like Parquet or Iceberg

• A background in machine learning or data engineering, including moving from software engineering

• Experience building systems that learn from feedback, and measuring whether results are good

• Experience delivering data or ML products to customers end to end, not only internal stakeholders

• Experience working technical leadership, guiding a team and influencing across teams

• Strong relationship building and communication skills, including working across data and software engineering

• Experience working with data engineers to build datasets at scale

Nice to have:

• Experience building a search engine, even as a proof of concept

• Experience with OpenSearch, Elasticsearch or vector search tools

• Experience with permission-aware search or personalised results

• A backend language such as Golang or Node.js

More than a job

• Equity with high growth potential, and a competitive salary

• Flexible working arrangements

• Access to professional and personal training and development opportunities

• Hackathons, Workshops, Lunch & Learns

• In-house Culinary Crew serving up daily breakfast, lunch and snacks

• Barista coffee machine, craft beer on tap, boutique wines and a range of non-alcoholic beverages

• Wellbeing initiatives such as EAP services and generous parental leave policy

• Quarterly celebrations and team events

• On-site gym, table tennis, board games, books library, and pet-friendly offices

We’re committed to building inclusive teams and cultivating a sense of belonging so our people can bring their whole authentic selves to work each day. We seek to make reasonable adjustments throughout our recruitment process to create an even playing field for all candidates. Thanks to the tireless efforts of the entire Mitti team we’ve built an incredible culture which has seen us recognised as a Best Place to Work in Australia , the US and the UK .

You can find out more about life at Mitti via Youtube , Twitter , Instagram and LinkedIn.