Applied Machine Learning Engineer

Zof AI, Inc.; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 84,000 - 167,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

MacBook Pro

Premium AI development tools

High ownership

Direct product impact

Close collaboration with leadership

Job summary

Zof AI, Inc. is seeking a Senior Applied Machine Learning Engineer in San Francisco to own the full model lifecycle—from data preparation to production monitoring.

You will train, fine-tune, and evaluate models for real-world deployment, building robust data pipelines and scalable training infrastructure. Candidate must demonstrate hands-on experience with ML fundamentals, evaluation methodologies, and strong software engineering discipline, plus collaborative work with engineers to ship models

Qualifications

• Hands-on experience training and fine-tuning models.
• Strong grounding in ML fundamentals and evaluation methodology.
• Experience with Python and the modern ML stack.
• Experience building datasets and data pipelines.
• Strong software engineering discipline.
• Clear written and verbal communication.
• Comfort operating in a fast-moving environment.
• Evidence of models shipped to production or rigorous applied work.

Responsibilities

• Train, fine-tune, and evaluate models for production use.
• Build and maintain datasets, labeling pipelines, and data quality checks.
• Own training infrastructure and experiment tracking.
• Develop applied models that power verification and quality features.
• Establish rigorous evaluation and regression testing for models.
• Decide when to train, when to fine-tune, and when to call an API.
• Collaborate with AI and product engineers to ship models into features.
• Own the model lifecycle from data through production monitoring.

Skills

Model training

Fine-tuning

Python

ML evaluation

Data pipelines

Software engineering

Communication

Production ML

Model lifecycle

Tools

PyTorch

JAX

Job description

Compensation

Competitive salary
Plus meaningful equity

Location

San Francisco, CA

Role

Applied Machine Learning Engineer (Senior) - Full-time - On-site - Mid to Senior level

About this Role

Zof AI is seeking a Senior Machine Learning Engineer for the traditional ML discipline: training, fine-tuning, and evaluating models rather than only building on top of them. This role owns datasets, training pipelines, and the applied models that power verification and quality systems inside our products. The ideal candidate is rigorous about evaluation, comfortable owning the full model lifecycle, and pragmatic about when a trained model beats an API call.

Responsibilities

• Train, fine-tune, and evaluate models for production use.
• Build and maintain datasets, labeling pipelines, and data quality checks.
• Own training infrastructure and experiment tracking.
• Develop applied models that power verification and quality features.
• Establish rigorous evaluation and regression testing for models.
• Decide when to train, when to fine-tune, and when to call an API.
• Collaborate with AI and product engineers to ship models into features.
• Own the model lifecycle from data through production monitoring.

Requirements

• Hands-on experience training and fine-tuning models.
• Strong grounding in ML fundamentals and evaluation methodology.
• Experience with Python and the modern ML stack.
• Experience building datasets and data pipelines.
• Strong software engineering discipline.
• Clear written and verbal communication.
• Comfort operating in a fast-moving environment.
• Evidence of models shipped to production or rigorous applied work.

Nice to have

• Experience fine-tuning LLMs or working with embeddings at scale.
• Experience with PyTorch, JAX, or similar frameworks.
• Experience with model serving and inference optimization.Published work, competition results, or strong open-source contributions.

Benefits

• MacBook Pro
• Premium AI development tools
• Cursor Ultra
• Claude Code Ultra
• OpenAI Codex Max or equivalent advanced AI tooling
• Access to a high-performance AI product environment
• Close collaboration with leadership, engineering, and customers
• Opportunity to work in the San Francisco AI ecosystem
• Wellness and productivity support where applicable
• Competitive startup environment
• High ownership
• Direct product impact

Salary

GHS 7,500-15,000 / month