Lead ML Engineer: Architect Autonomous AI for Real Estate RPM

AppFolio Inc; California; On-site; USD 264,000 - 363,000; Full time

Job summary

AppFolio seeks a Principal Machine Learning Engineer to define and lead the next generation of Realm-X AI systems and autonomous RPM capabilities. You will own mission-critical AI features, shape long-term strategy, and advise across teams and leadership.

This role blends traditional ML, deep learning, and generative AI to enable execution, automation, and optimization in real estate tech. You will redefine how AI systems are built and deployed.

Qualifications

• Must have advanced degree in CS/ML or related field.
• 10+ years of software/ML experience with measurable impact.
• Combined academic and industry track record in ML/AI.
• Deep ML, DL, and Generative AI / LLMs expertise.
• LLM post-training (SFT, RLHF, DPO, RL) experience at scale.
• Full ML lifecycle knowledge: data extraction, training, evaluation, deployment.
• Core stack proficiency: Python, PyTorch, NumPy, AWS, Docker, SQL, embeddings, and RAG.
• Experience with agent tooling like LangChain, LangGraph, LangSmith.
• Production ML at scale: design and operate systems in production.
• Ontology/knowledge graphs experience for AI systems.
• AI-native engineering and tooling experience.

Responsibilities

• Define the technical vision and architecture for Realm-X AI systems with senior leadership.
• Scale AI agents combining reasoning, planning, and execution, across specialists.
• Improve platform primitives for context-aware, action-oriented AI and end-to-end ML pipelines.
• Architect scalable, multi-modal, real-time AI applications with strong deployment standards.
• Drive transitions toward autonomous property management with data collection and training.
• Build data/feedback loops for RL over agent policies in complex environments.

Skills

Systems thinker

Production builder

Ambiguity

Influence

Originality

Owner-operator

Pace

Education

Master's or Ph.D. in Computer Science, Machine Learning, or related field

Tools

Python

PyTorch

NumPy

AWS

Docker

SQL

Embeddings

RAG

LangChain

LangGraph

LangSmith

Job description

AppFolio seeks a Principal Machine Learning Engineer to define and lead the next generation of Realm-X AI systems and autonomous RPM capabilities. You will own mission-critical AI features, shape long-term strategy, and advise across teams and leadership.

This role blends traditional ML, deep learning, and generative AI to enable execution, automation, and optimization in real estate tech. You will redefine how AI systems are built and deployed.