Staff Machine Learning Engineer

Scientific Games, LLC; Toronto; Hybrid; CAD 120,000 - 170,000; Full time

Job summary

Scientific Games, LLC seeks a Staff Machine Learning Engineer to define and build the organization’s ML platform, enabling data scientists to deploy and experiment with self-serve workflows. You will set architectural foundations, tooling standards, and a roadmap that scales with the Senior MLE team.

You will mentor engineers, collaborate with DS leadership, and establish production-grade frameworks for model lifecycle and deployment safety, supporting complex analytics across lottery tech

Qualifications

• 5+ years in ML engineering or platform engineering
• Experience designing scalable ML platform architecture
• Experience building self-service deployment workflows for DS
• Strong cross-functional collaboration with DS/data platform
• Mentorship of engineers and alignment with platform goals

Responsibilities

• Define target architecture and phased roadmap for the organization’s first ML platform
• Build self-service deployment frameworks enabling Data Scientists to productionize models independently
• Architect reusable capabilities for model registry, deployment orchestration, feature retrieval, inference routing, observability, and rollback
• Define golden paths for batch inference, real-time serving, shadow deployment, canary rollout, A/B testing, and full production release
• Establish platform engineering standards across SDKs, templates, CI/CD, testing, IaC, and developer workflows
• Design platform primitives to support recommendations, forecasting, optimization and experimentation
• Mentor Senior MLEs and raise software engineering quality and platform thinking
• Partner with DS leadership to accelerate velocity without friction

Skills

ML platform architecture

Self-service tooling

Python engineering

Mentorship

Education

Master’s degree in Computer Science or related field

Bachelor’s degree with platform depth

Tools

Docker

Kubernetes

MLFlow

CI/CD tooling

Cloud platforms

Job description

Scientific Games: Scientific Games is the global leader in lottery games, sports betting and technology, and the partner of choice for government lotteries. From cutting-edge backend systems to exciting entertainment experiences and trailblazing retail and digital solutions, we elevate play every day. We push game designs to the next level and are pioneers in data analytics and iLottery. Built on a foundation of trusted partnerships, Scientific Games combines relentless innovation, legendary performance, and unwavering security to responsibly propel the global lottery industry ever forward.

Position Summary

About the Role We are looking for a Staff Machine Learning Engineer to define and build the machine learning platform architecture for the organization. This team will create the enabling layer that allows Data Scientists to self-serve deployment, experimentation, batch scoring, online inference, monitoring, and safe rollout workflows. This is a platform creation role, not a platform operations gatekeeper role. The success metric is not how many deployments the team executes directly, but how effectively the platform allows domain Data Scientists to deploy independently through highly reliable self-service workflows. The initial Staff MLE hires will establish the architectural foundations, engineering standards, reusable tooling strategy, and platform roadmap that the Senior MLE team will scale. This position will start remotely and transition to a hybrid role. Candidates must be local to Toronto, ON.

Key Responsibilities

• Define the target architecture and phased roadmap for the organization’s first ML platform
• Build self-service deployment frameworks enabling Data Scientists to productionize models independently
• Architect reusable capabilities for model registry, deployment orchestration, feature retrieval, inference routing, observability, and rollback
• Define golden paths for batch inference, real-time serving, shadow deployment, canary rollout, A/B testing, and full production release
• Establish platform engineering standards across SDKs, templates, CI/CD, testing, infrastructure-as-code, and developer workflows
• Design platform primitives that support recommendation systems, forecasting, optimization, and experimentation use cases
• Mentor Senior MLEs and raise software engineering quality, architecture rigor, and platform thinking across the team
• Partner with Data Science leadership to ensure the platform accelerates DS velocity rather than introducing process friction

Required Qualifications

Education:

• Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Distributed Systems, Machine Learning, or another related STEM field
• Bachelor’s degree with exceptional relevant platform engineering depth is acceptable

Experience:

• 5+ years of hands‑on experience in ML engineering, platform engineering, or large‑scale production ML systems
• Proven experience designing platform architecture and reusable ML tooling standards
• Experience building self‑service internal platforms, developer tooling, or ML deployment frameworks
• Strong experience enabling applied Data Science teams through reusable infrastructure rather than centralized service models
• Experience leading architecture decisions and mentoring engineers

Technical Skills:

• Deep expertise in ML systems architecture across batch and low‑latency real‑time serving
• Strong hands‑on experience with Docker, Kubernetes, infrastructure automation, and cloud‑native ML workloads
• Strong expertise in model lifecycle tooling including MLFlow, registries, validation gates, and promotion workflows
• Advanced experience designing CI/CD, canary, rollback, and deployment safety systems for ML
• Experience with feature stores, online/offline feature parity, and low‑latency feature retrieval
• Strong Python engineering standards and ability to write production‑grade frameworks and SDKs

Leadership:

• Demonstrated ability to define technical direction for platform teams
• Strong mentorship track record for Senior and mid‑level MLEs
• Strong cross‑functional influence with DS, data platform, and product engineering teams
• Bias toward building self‑service systems that maximize organizational leverage

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience building greenfield ML platforms from zero to scaled enterprise adoption
• Experience supporting self‑service recommendation, ranking, forecasting, and optimization systems
• Familiarity with Databricks, Azure ML, SageMaker, Vertex AI, or equivalent ML platforms
• Experience building internal developer portals, CLIs, or workflow SDKs
• Strong platform product thinking focused on usability, adoption, and DS productivity

SG is an Equal Opportunity Employer and does not discriminate against applicants due to race, color, sex, age, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, status as a veteran, and basis of disability or any other federal, state or local protected class. If you’d like more information about your equal employment opportunity rights as an applicant under the law, please click here for EEOC Poster.

Relentless innovation. Legendary performance. And unwavering security. All built on a foundation of trusted partnerships. This is what it takes to be a global leader in lottery games, sports betting and technology. And to propel the industry ever forward. At Scientific Games, we elevate play every day. From cutting-edge backend systems to exciting entertainment experiences and trailblazing retail and digital solutions, we care about the details that drive profits for lottery beneficiary programs. We know what people like to play today. And with the power of data analytics, we can predict what they'll want to play tomorrow. We're always thinking about the player experience. Because it's not just a game. It's an instant of optimistic fun. But the best part? We're just getting started. iLottery and sports betting are the new frontier in play. And Scientific Games is the partner of choice for these growing markets. Because when it comes to digital, trust is everything. The lottery experience is always one of excitement. But we're endlessly innovating, always evolving and firmly committed to responsible gaming. So that the future of lottery funding shines bright. It's a future of stability and inspiration. The strength of security paired with the thrill of the new. It's the future of Scientific Games. The driver of today's favorite lottery games and most advanced technologies, and sustainability for tomorrow. And it all starts now.