Machine Learning Engineer

Sierra Ventures; Somerville (MA); Hybrid; USD 170,000 - 200,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary + equity

Full health, dental, and vision coverage

Flexible PTO

Weekly team lunches

Career development support

Work-from-anywhere policy

Inclusive culture

Job summary

Sierra Ventures is seeking a Senior Machine Learning Engineer to join Modulate's innovative team. In this role, you will design, train, evaluate, and deploy machine learning models that enhance conversational voice intelligence.

The ideal candidate will possess strong experience in Python and PyTorch, successfully navigating collaborative projects in production environments. Offering competitive salary and benefits, this position supports a hybrid work model with flexibility.

Qualifications

• Experience conducting machine learning research and shipping models to production.
• Strong experience building and deploying production-grade machine learning systems.
• Strong experience with Python and PyTorch.

Responsibilities

• Develop and deploy high-quality machine learning models that power Modulate's products.
• Collaborate with engineers, researchers, product managers, and company leadership.
• Conduct experiments to improve model quality, accuracy, robustness, and scalability.

Skills

Machine learning research

Production-grade machine learning systems

Python

PyTorch

Communication skills

Collaboration

Tools

AWS

Job description

Modulate is the leader in conversational voice intelligence. We enable enterprises to deeply understand how people communicate and take timely action based on those insights. Our products help detect harm, prevent fraud, and build safer, more trusted online and real-world voice environments. We are building a Conversation Intelligence Platform — APIs, workflows, and applications that bring voice understanding to customers at enterprise scale.

We're looking for a Senior Machine Learning Engineer to help advance the state of voice understanding at Modulate. In this role, you'll design, train, evaluate, and deploy cutting‑edge machine learning models that power our products. You'll work closely with researchers, engineers, product leaders, and executives to bring innovative ML solutions from concept to production.

Your Impact

• Develop and deploy high-quality machine learning models that power Modulate's products
• Advance our capabilities in conversational voice intelligence through applied research and engineering
• Help translate business needs into scalable ML solutions
• Improve model performance, reliability, and efficiency across our platform
• Contribute to a collaborative, high‑performing engineering culture

What You Will Do

• Design, train, evaluate, and deploy machine learning models for production applications
• Collaborate with engineers, researchers, product managers, and company leadership to define and execute on ML initiatives
• Conduct experiments to improve model quality, accuracy, robustness, and scalability
• Partner with platform and infrastructure teams to operationalize and monitor ML systems in production
• Analyze model performance and identify opportunities for improvement
• Communicate technical findings, tradeoffs, and recommendations to both technical and non‑technical stakeholders
• Contribute to technical strategy and help shape the future direction of Modulate's ML systems
• Review code, share knowledge, and mentor teammates as needed
• Stay current on advances in machine learning and identify opportunities to apply new techniques to our products

What We Are Looking For

• Experience conducting machine learning research and shipping models to production
• Strong experience building and deploying production‑grade machine learning systems
• Strong experience with Python and PyTorch
• Experience designing experiments and evaluating model performance
• Ability to work across research and engineering disciplines to deliver business impact
• Strong communication skills and the ability to explain complex technical concepts clearly
• Experience working collaboratively in cross‑functional environments

Nice to Have

• Experience communicating research externally through papers, conferences, or open‑source contributions
• Experience with audio models or speech systems (ASR, TTS, speaker modeling, etc.)
• Experience with cloud infrastructure, especially AWS
• Experience building and maintaining large‑scale ML infrastructure or MLOps systems
• Experience in fast‑paced startup environments

Benefits

• Competitive salary + equity
• Full health, dental, and vision coverage
• Flexible PTO with a strong culture of taking it
• Weekly team lunches with dietary accommodations
• Hybrid work with core in‑office days and flexible remote options
• Leadership and technical learning sessions
• Career development and continued growth support
• Up to 8 weeks work‑from‑anywhere policy
• A deeply inclusive, human‑centered culture

Pay Transparency

Salary: $170,000–$200,000
Equity: Offered

Additional benefits include HSA, FSA, 15 company holidays, and professional development resources.

Candidates may be located anywhere in the U.S., with preference for proximity to major tech hubs such as Boston, San Francisco, Seattle, New York, or Austin.

About Modulate

Modulate is on a mission to make voice a force for good online. Our tools help communities thrive by proactively detecting toxic behavior, protecting user identity, and empowering safety teams. We're trusted by leaders in gaming and beyond—and we're growing fast.

We believe that great cultures don't just happen. That's why we've built a foundation of intentional systems: from bias‑reducing hiring practices to transparent pay to tools that help teams collaborate across communication styles. At Modulate, we treat people like people—and we're building technology that does the same.

Ready to join us? Apply here or reach out directly—we're excited to meet you.