Principal Machine Learning Engineer, Matching and Recommendations

Bumble Inc.; Austin (TX); On-site; USD 180,000 - 280,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Insurance: Medical/dental/vision

Unlimited PTO and company‑wide week

Fully paid life and long‑term disabled

401k with company match

Monthly wellness benefit

Parental leave

Premium App Access

Job summary

Bumble Inc. is seeking a senior ML leader to define and execute the technical strategy for AI and ML systems powering recommendations, ranking, and personalization across Bumble products.

You will design, deploy, and scale production models using PyTorch in high‑traffic environments. You will mentor senior engineers, drive experimentation, and partner with Product, Engineering, and Data leadership to translate business challenges into impactful ML solutions while championing responsible AI

Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in machine learning, with hands‑on production systems
• Deep expertise in building and deploying large‑scale ML models
• Strong Python and major ML frameworks (PyTorch, TensorFlow)
• Expertise in prompting and fine‑tuning LLMs and production AI agents
• Experience designing scalable data and ML pipelines (Spark, Airflow)
• Ability to influence technical strategy and mentor others within a large org

Responsibilities

• Define and lead the technical strategy for AI/ML systems powering recommendations, ranking, and personalization.
• Design, develop, and deploy production‑grade models using PyTorch and scalable infra.
• Build and deploy production AI agents leveraging LLMs, sub‑agents, tools, and MCP integrations.
• Architect end‑to‑end ML pipelines integrating data processing with model training and deployment workflows.
• Drive experimentation frameworks including A/B testing and offline evaluation to improve performance.
• Collaborate with Product, Engineering, and Data leaders to translate business challenges into ML solutions.
• Mentor senior ICs and foster a culture of excellence, curiosity, and continuous learning.
• Champion responsible AI practices with fairness, transparency, and user safety in mind.

Skills

Python

ML Systems

Leadership

Cross‑functional collaboration

Experimentation

Tools

PyTorch

Spark

Airflow

LLMs

Job description

What you’ll do

• Define and lead the technical strategy for AI and Machine Learning systems that power recommendations, ranking, and personalization across Bumble products, delivering measurable improvements in user engagement and safety
• Design, develop, and deploy production‑grade models using modern ML frameworks such as PyTorch, ensuring scalability and reliability in high‑traffic environments
• Build and deploy production AI agents using raw and fine‑tuned foundational Large Language Models (LLMs), along with sub‑agents, tools, and MCP integrations
• Architect end‑to‑end ML pipelines, integrating data processing (e.g. Spark, Airflow) with model training, evaluation, and deployment workflows
• Drive experimentation frameworks, including A/B testing and offline evaluation, to continuously improve model performance and product outcomes
• Partner cross‑functionally with Product, Engineering, and Data leadership to translate business challenges into impactful ML solutions, collaborating with purpose and influencing at senior levels
• Mentor and elevate senior individual contributors, fostering a culture of Excellence, Curiosity, and continuous learning across the ML community
• Take ownership of complex, ambiguous problem spaces, seeing initiatives through from insight to impact while adapting approaches with an agile mindset
• Champion responsible AI practices, ensuring fairness, transparency, and user safety are embedded into all machine learning systems

About You

• Typically requires 10-15 years of experience, though we welcome candidates with alternative backgrounds that demonstrate equivalent skills
• Deep expertise in machine learning, with hands‑on experience building and deploying large‑scale systems in production environments
• Strong proficiency in Python and at least one major ML framework (e.g. PyTorch, TensorFlow), with experience in areas such as recommendation systems, ranking models, or NLP
• Expertise in prompting and fine‑tuning Large Language Models (LLMs) and building production AI agents
• Proven experience designing scalable data and ML pipelines using tools such as Spark, Airflow, or similar distributed systems
• Demonstrated ability to operate as a senior individual contributor, influencing technical strategy and decision‑making without direct authority
• Experience partnering effectively across functions, collaborating with purpose and taking ownership of outcomes in complex organisational environments
• A track record of mentoring and uplifting others, role‑modeling Respect and Excellence while building inclusive, high‑performing teams
• Strong AI fluency, with the ability to independently design, evaluate, and optimise ML systems, and guide others in the responsible and effective application of AI

Benefits & Perks

• Insurance: Medical/dental/vision, 30‑day eligibility
• Unlimited PTO + 1 company‑wide week off + Focus Fridays every week
• Fully paid life and long‑term disability insurance
• 401k with 4% company match if you contribute 6%, 90‑day eligibility
• Monthly wellness benefit and access to Noom, Unmind, and Your Money Line
• Maternity and Fertility benefit + 26 week paid parental leave
• Premium App Access

Inclusion at Bumble Inc.

Bumble Inc. is an equal opportunity employer. We strongly encourage people of all ages, colour, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and non‑binary people, veterans, parents, people with disabilities, and neurodivergent people to apply. We’re happy to make any reasonable adjustments that will help you feel more confident throughout the process, please don't hesitate to let us know how we can help.

In your application, please feel free to note which pronouns you use (for example: she/her, he/him, they/them, etc).

AI in Bumble Inc. Hiring

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