Lead ML Engineer: Personalization & Recs

Disney Media & Entertainment Distribution; United States; Remote; USD 188,000 - 252,000; Full time

Job summary

Disney Media & Entertainment Distribution seeks a Lead Machine Learning Engineer to ideate, develop, and productionize personalization algorithms across the recommendation stack. You will work on core ranking, user understanding models, and candidate retrieval, bridging research and production.

You may bring deep expertise in RecSys and ML engineering, contributing to end-to-end systems at scale and collaborating with cross-functional teams to ship impactful features.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of experience developing machine learning models and deploying them to production systems.
• Strong background in applied ML science and end-to-end ML engineering, with experience in recommendation systems modeling.
• Hands-on experience with AI and LLM techniques and a solid understanding of the modern AI landscape.
• Proficiency with tools and frameworks such as PyTorch, TensorFlow, Databricks, Spark, and SQL.
• In-depth understanding of modern machine learning methods, models, and their mathematical underpinnings.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• A collaborative, personable working style; works well within the team and across teams.

Responsibilities

• Algorithm development: Ideate, develop, iterate on, and productionize personalization algorithms, including core ranking and user understanding models.
• AI and LLM innovation: Apply modern AI and LLM techniques to recommendation systems to improve evaluations and model construction.
• Applied science: Contribute ideas on recommendation approaches, evaluation, and data features to other scientists.
• Vision and roadmap: Drive technical vision and innovation for personalization.
• Experimentation and evaluation: Design and run offline and online experiments and improve evaluation systems.
• Collaboration: Work with Engineering, Product, and Data partners and manage stakeholder expectations.
• ML engineering: Build production-worthy, maintainable systems with strong development standards.

Skills

ML experience

Applied ML

AI/LLM techniques

PyTorch

Communication

Education

BS/MS in CS or related field

Tools

PyTorch

TensorFlow

Databricks

Spark

SQL

Job description

Disney Media & Entertainment Distribution seeks a Lead Machine Learning Engineer to ideate, develop, and productionize personalization algorithms across the recommendation stack. You will work on core ranking, user understanding models, and candidate retrieval, bridging research and production.

You may bring deep expertise in RecSys and ML engineering, contributing to end-to-end systems at scale and collaborating with cross-functional teams to ship impactful features.