Manager, Machine Learning Engineering New San Francisco, CA

GoFundMe; San Francisco, Northern (CA, KY); Hybrid; USD 219,000 - 329,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity

Healthcare

Dental

Vision

Life insurance

401(k)

Job summary

GoFundMe is hiring a Manager, Machine Learning Engineering to lead the ML/AI operations team responsible for reliable, scalable production systems across training pipelines, feature stores, and model serving.

You will mentor engineers, drive architecture decisions, and partner with data science to streamline model deployment and monitoring, ensuring safe and cost-effective AI at scale.

Qualifications

• 7+ years building production ML systems with backend services.
• 1-3+ years directly managing engineers in ML/AI ops or related.
• Strong Python and ML libraries (PyTorch, TensorFlow, scikit-learn).
• Experience with real-time model serving, containerization, scalable inference.
• Fluent data engineering with SQL, Spark/Databricks, data quality controls.
• Experience with ML monitoring (drift, calibration, latency, SLOs).
• Familiarity with generative AI/LLM infra and safety considerations.

Responsibilities

• Own reliability, scalability, and health of ML/AI production systems (training pipelines, model serving, monitoring).
• Lead, hire, and mentor ML/AI operations engineers and set technical direction.
• Align CI/CD for ML, model packaging/versioning/rollback strategies.
• Establish operational excellence: observability, automated retraining triggers, incident playbooks.
• Drive on-call processes, SLOs/SLAs, and postmortem practices for ML/AI systems.

Skills

ML leadership

People management

Python & ML libraries

Real-time model serving

Data engineering

ML monitoring

Generative AI familiarity

Architectural decisions

Stakeholder communication

Education

Advanced degree (MS/PhD) in CS/Statistics/DS

Tools

Docker

Kubernetes

Terraform

Snowflake

Databricks

GitHub

Job description

Want to help us help others? We’re hiring!

GoFundMe is the world’s most powerful community for good, dedicated to helping people help each other. By uniting individuals and nonprofits in one place, GoFundMe makes it easy and safe for people to ask for help and support causes – for themselves and each other. Together, our community has raised more than $40 billion since 2010.

Join GoFundMe as our next Manager, Machine Learning Engineering (ML and AI Operations). In this role, you will lead the team responsible for the infrastructure, pipelines, and operational rigor that keep GoFundMe's machine learning and AI systems reliable, scalable, and safe in production. This role requires strong technical judgment across the ML lifecycle (data → training → online inference → monitoring), a strong understanding of how to enable AI applications to operate safely at scale, and a proven ability to build and lead a high performance team that operates production ML/AI systems with the same rigor as core infrastructure.

Candidates considered for this role will be located in the San Francisco Bay Area. There will be an in-office requirement of 3x a week.

The Job

• Own the reliability, scalability, and operational health of ML/AI production systems across GoFundMe, including training pipelines, feature stores, model serving, and monitoring/observability infrastructure.
• Lead, hire, and grow a team of ML/AI operations engineers, setting technical direction through design reviews, architecture decisions, and shared best practices for production ML and AI systems.
• Partner with data science and ML engineering teams to streamline the path from model development to production deployment, including CI/CD for ML, model packaging, versioning, and rollback strategies.
• Establish ML operational excellence org-wide by driving standards for model observability (latency, errors, drift, calibration, business KPI deltas), automated retraining triggers, and incident response playbooks.
• Build and mature on-call processes, SLOs/SLAs, and postmortem practices for ML/AI systems, treating model incidents with the same discipline as production infrastructure incidents.
• Drive operational strategy for GoFundMe's generative AI systems alongside traditional ML, balancing innovation velocity with safety, compliance, cost, and reliability.
• Collaborate cross-functionally with Product, Engineering, Design, and Legal/Privacy stakeholders to translate business goals into team priorities and measurable operational outcomes.
• Manage vendor and platform relationships (e.g., cloud ML platforms, LLM providers) and make build-vs-buy calls that balance cost, control, and speed.
• Report on team health, system reliability metrics, and operational risk to senior engineering leadership.
• Employ a diverse set of tools and platforms, including Python, AWS, Databricks, Docker, Kubernetes, Terraform, Snowflake, and GitHub, to guide your team in developing, deploying, and maintaining scalable and robust machine learning systems.

You

• 7+ years of hands‑on experience building and shipping production machine learning systems, with demonstrated ownership of backend services and ML pipelines in a high‑availability environment.
• 1-3+ years of experience directly managing engineers, ideally in an MLOps, ML platform, or infrastructure context, with a track record of hiring and developing strong teams.
• Strong proficiency in Python and ML libraries/frameworks such as PyTorch, TensorFlow, Scikit-learn, plus strong software engineering fundamentals (testing, code review, CI/CD, API design, performance, and reliability) — enough depth to stay hands‑on and credible with your team.
• Experience designing and operating real‑time model serving at scale, including containerization, scalable inference, feature retrieval, and safe rollout strategies (canaries, shadowing, backward‑compatible schema evolution).
• Strong data engineering fluency: building reliable datasets and features using SQL, Spark/Databricks, and warehouse technologies (e.g., Snowflake), with an understanding of event semantics, identity resolution, and data quality controls.
• Proven experience implementing ML monitoring for both technical and business metrics (drift, calibration, segment performance, latency, error budgets) and running models reliably in production.
• Familiarity with generative AI/LLM infrastructure and operational considerations (latency, cost, safety guardrails) is a strong plus.
• Ability to break down ambiguous, high‑impact problems, define crisp interfaces and success metrics, and deliver iteratively while managing stakeholder expectations across engineering leadership, product, and data science.
• Strong leadership and mentoring skills and a proven ability to raise the bar on architecture, engineering quality, and operational rigor for production ML/AI systems.
• Advanced degree (Master's or Ph.D.) in Computer Science, Statistics, Data Science, or a related technical field is preferred.
• Sense of humor is optional but appreciated.

Why you’ll love it here

• Make an Impact: Be part of a mission‑driven organization making a positive difference in millions of lives every year.
• Innovative Environment: Work with a diverse, passionate, and talented team in a fast‑paced, forward‑thinking atmosphere.
• Collaborative Team: Join a fun and collaborative team that works hard and celebrates success together.
• Competitive Benefits: Enjoy competitive pay and comprehensive healthcare benefits.
• Holistic Support: Enjoy financial assistance for things like hybrid work, family planning, along with generous parental leave, flexible time‑off policies, and mental health and wellness resources to support your overall well‑being.
• Growth Opportunities: Participate in learning, development, and recognition programs to help you thrive and grow.
• Commitment to DEI: Contribute to diversity, equity, and inclusion through ongoing initiatives and employee resource groups.
• Community Engagement: Make a difference through our volunteering program.

We live by our core values: impatient to be great, find a way, earn trust every day, fueled by purpose. Be a part of something bigger with us!

GoFundMe is proud to be an equal opportunity employer that actively pursues candidates of diverse backgrounds and experiences. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, ethnicity, nationality or national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity or expression, pregnancy status, marital status, age, medical condition, mental or physical disability, or military or veteran status.

The annual U.S. salary range for this full‑time position is $219,000 - $329,000. The company also offers equity and other benefits to employees, including healthcare, dental, vision, life insurance and 401(k) saving program. In addition to this wage, there are geolocation differentials that will increase pay depending on the work location. Additionally pay may vary depending on other factors including skills, experience, education, or training. Your recruiter can share more about the specific total compensation package based on your location during the hiring process.

If you require a reasonable accommodation to complete a job application or a job interview or to otherwise participate in the hiring process, please fill out this accommodation form .

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Depending on your location, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) or certain US privacy laws may regulate the way we manage the data of job applicants. Our full notice outlining how data will be processed as part of the application procedure for applicable locations is available here . By submitting your application, you are agreeing to our use and processing of your data as required.

Learn more about GoFundMe:

We’re proud to partner with GoFundMe.org , an independent public charity, to extend the reach and impact of our generous community, while helping drive critical social change. You can learn more about GoFundMe.org’s activities and impact in their FY ‘26 annual report .

For recent company news and announcements, visit our Newsroom .