Director of Machine Learning (Content)

Snap Inc.; Iowa; On-site; USD 250,000 - 350,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

401(k) plan with match

Comprehensive health coverage

Dental and Vision coverage

Well-being programs and mental health

Parental leave up to 28 weeks

Flexible Spending Accounts

Gym perks and discounts

Job summary

Snap Inc. is seeking a Director of ML to lead the Content Machine Learning Engineering team. You will set multi-year ML strategy for recommendation/ranking, content understanding, and experimentation, while managing managers and connecting model investments to business outcomes.

You will oversee Content ML teams across Seattle, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Palo Alto, and New York, collaborating with executives and cross-functional partners to deliver high-quality experiences for millions of users.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in CS or related field or equivalent experience.
• Strong understanding of machine learning, deep learning approaches and algorithms.
• Experience with ML, AI, and ranking systems.
• Demonstrated experience leading and developing engineers with diverse backgrounds.
• 5+ years of experience leading a large team at scale.

Responsibilities

• Set multi-year ML strategy for recommendation/ranking, content understanding, production reliability, and experimentation.
• Build and scale high-performing teams of software and ML engineers and leaders.
• Collaborate with executives, Finance, Product, and Engineering to deliver high-quality product.
• Oversee day-to-day operations of Content ML teams across distributed offices.
• Mentor engineering managers, directors, and senior contributors to drive excellence.

Skills

Machine Learning

Leadership

Ranking Systems

Cross-functional Collaboration

Education

Bachelor’s Degree in CS or related field

Job description

• The Content Machine Learning Engineering organization is responsible for building all of the systems responsible for personalized candidate retrieval and ranking as well as content understanding, quality, freshness, and relevance for Stories and Spotlight
• The team focuses on enhancing user experience, driving innovation across Spotlight, supporting content creators, and making content creation effortless
• Our team tackles multi-modal content understanding, using advanced graph representation learning and content ranking to surface the best experiences for our users
• We optimize machine learning models through human review and leverage state-of-the-art personalization techniques, placing us at the forefront of short form video content innovation
• We’re looking for a Director of ML to lead our Content Machine Learning Engineering team
• This role is responsible for setting multi-year ML strategy for recommendation/ranking, content understanding, production reliability, and experimentation, as well as managing and developing managers and connecting model investments to business outcomes
• Support our teams solving interesting technical challenges, building world-class experiences in Snapchat and maintaining software and a platform used by over 450 million people every day
• Oversee day to day operations of the Content ML teams across multiple offices in Seattle, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Palo Alto, and New York
• Develop organizational-level goals and drive the technical and organizational roadmap for the engineering team
• Collaborate with Executives, Finance, Product, and Engineering teams to deliver the highest quality for our product
• Influence key decisions on architecture and implementation of scalable, reliable, and cost-effective engineering solutions
• Build and scale high-performing teams of software engineers, machine learning engineers, and technical leaders, while mentoring and developing engineering managers, directors, and senior independent contributors to achieve excellence and impact
• Iterate quickly without compromising quality and raise the bar on operational excellence

Benefits

• Up to 28 weeks of parental leave and return-to-work program
• Adoption, surrogacy, infertility, and fertility preservation benefits
• Backup child care coverage, center-based care support, & caregiver assistance
• Dependent Daycare Flexible Spending Account
• Short-term disability, long-term disability, basic life insurance, and AD&D insurance
• Services to support your path to parenthood & beyond - fertility support & family planning via Carrot, SNOO, Hinge Health
• For Snap, employees taking care of loved ones with complex, chronic, or ongoing care needs (i.e. parent with Dementia, spouse with Cancer, child with Autism), your family can save time, money, & stress with Wellthy
• Lactation rooms (based on office location) and breastmilk shipping coverage
• Comprehensive medical coverage, including PPO, HDHP with HSA, and HMO options
• Dental coverage, including orthodontia benefits
• Vision coverage, including frame and contact allowance and LASIK benefits
• Free membership to One Medical for primary and urgent healthcare services
• Business Travel Insurance
• Gym perks and discounts
• Team fitness classes and races
• Sports leagues
• Cooking and nutritional workshops
• Well-being reimbursement
• Unlimited access to virtual physical therapy with Anthem
• 15 sessions per year of mental health for you + dependents through Lyra
• Generous time off and leave programs. In the US, this includes the following:
• Up to 3 weeks (120 hours) of vacation time and 1 floating holiday for non-exempt team members
• 12 paid holidays per year
• 15 sick and safe days per year
• Meditation and yoga classes
• Speaker series, classes, and subscriptions to educational programs
• Social gatherings, team outings, and volunteering programs
• Snap Inc. provides a 401(k) plan that allows you to save on a pre-tax, Roth, and after-tax basis for your retirement (yes, we even have the Mega backdoor option!) Snap will also match 100% up to 3% of your contribution and then 50% on your 4th and 5th%
• Flexible Spending Accounts for healthcare, daycare and commuter
• Health Savings Account with employer contributions
• Rocket Lawyer memberships
• Financial education programs
• Snap exclusive discounts and perks
• Compensation packages that let you share in Snap’s long-term success!

Bachelor’s Degree in a relevant technical field such as computer science or equivalent years of practical work experienceStrong understanding of machine learning, deep learning approaches, and algorithmsExperience working with ML, AI, and ranking systemsAbility to partner with cross-functional executives and management across a geographically distributed organizationDemonstrated experience leading and developing engineers with diverse backgrounds, skill sets, and perspectives5+ years of experience leading a large team at scale and managing engineering with an eye to driving efficiency10+ years of software engineering experience post-Bachelor’s; or a Master’s degree in a technical field + 9+ years of post-grad software development experience; or a PhD in a related technical field + 6+ years of post-grad software development experienceExperience with Machine Learning and Generative RecommendationsTrack record of delivery in rapidly changing, highly collaborative, multi-site, multi-stakeholder environmentsExperience with high-scale ranking and recommendation systems