AI/ML Engineer, Lead

Sandbar; New York (NY); On-site; USD 170,000 - 240,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health, vision, and dental benefits

Unlimited PTO and sick time

Early-stage equity

Job summary

A tech interface company in New York City is seeking a Lead ML Engineer to build Stream, a groundbreaking conversational interface. This role involves leading the architecture and deployment of ML-based products, optimizing user-facing experiences, and collaborating with a multidisciplinary team. The ideal candidate has over 6 years of experience in machine learning, a passion for human-computer interaction, and experience in producing ML-based products. Competitive compensation and benefits are available.

Qualifications

• 6+ years in machine learning experience.
• Experience shipping ML-based products is required.
• Comfortable writing production-grade software.
• Passion for human-computer interaction.

Responsibilities

• Lead architecture, strategy, and tradeoffs for our ML-based products.
• Design and improve user-facing model-based experiences.
• Develop infrastructure to rapidly develop, evaluate, and deploy models.
• Optimize inference pipelines for latency, reliability, and concurrency.

Skills

Machine Learning

Large Language Models

Software Development

Human-Computer Interaction

Audio / Voice ML

Job description

About

Sandbar is an interface company in New York City. We aim to augment individuals in an agentic world—to think, act, and move freely. Our team has built SW, ML, and HW products across Meta, CTRL‑labs, Google, Apple, Fitbit, Peloton, and Equinox.

Our first product, Stream, is a new human‑agent interface—a private voice ring and conversational computer. Stream has been featured in WSJ, Bloomberg, & Wired, and begins shipping in Summer ’26. Join us in creating a new interface for self augmentation.

Lead ML Engineer

We’re looking for a Lead ML Engineer to build Stream, a new conversational interface. As an ML Lead, you will architect, build, and deploy a new interface which spans agentic control, multimodal interactions, and information retrieval. This role is perfect for someone who cares deeply about real‑world ML deployment and human‑in‑the‑loop agentic interactions.

Responsibilities

• Lead architecture, strategy, and tradeoffs for our ML‑based products
• Design and improve user‑facing model‑based experiences, including agentic control, conversational interactions, and information retrieval.
• Develop infrastructure to rapidly develop, evaluate, and deploy models
• Optimize inference pipelines for latency, reliability, and concurrency
• Work closely with other ML/AI engineers, infrastructure engineers, designers, and cofounders on existing and future products

Qualifications

• 6+ years in machine learning experience
• Experience shipping ML‑based products is required
• Experience in large‑language model evaluation and post‑training is required
• Experience in audio / voice ML is a plus
• Comfortable writing production‑grade software
• Passion for human‑computer interaction
• Experience setting technical direction and driving execution with multidisciplinary teams

Benefits (FTE)

• Health, vision, and dental benefits
• Unlimited PTO and sick time
• Early‑stage equity

Compensation Range: $170K - $240K