Senior Machine Learning Engineer

Taboola; Los Angeles (CA); Hybrid; USD 139,000 - 195,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid work schedule

Health/dental/vision insurance

401k matching

Paid parental leave

Job summary

Taboola in Downtown Los Angeles is seeking a Sr Machine Learning Engineer to join our R&D team. You will design and deploy recommendation and ranking models that power Realize, Taboola’s performance advertising platform used by 600M+ daily active users.

We expect 5+ years of Python/Java, proficiency with PyTorch or TensorFlow, and experience with large-scale recommender systems. This hybrid role offers growth and impact across teams.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's or advanced degree in CS, EE, or computational economics.
• 5+ years of hands-on Python and Java experience.
• Proficiency with ML frameworks (PyTorch, TensorFlow).
• Experience with recommendation systems at scale.
• End-to-end ownership of ML systems from design to production.

Responsibilities

• Design and build predictive customer behavior models for targeting and personalization.
• Implement ML or statistics-based algorithms for prediction and optimization.
• Take end-to-end ownership of models and services, prototyping rapidly.
• Build evaluation harnesses, tests, benchmarks, and guardrails.
• Present findings to product and technical leads clearly.
• Maintain code to populate HDFS/Hadoop with Kafka logs or SQL data.
• Design, build, and support data transformation and computation on Hadoop/Spark.

Skills

Python

Java

ML frameworks

Recommendation systems

End-to-end ML ownership

Communication across teams

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS/EE/Computational Economics

Tools

Hadoop

Spark

Kafka

SQL

Job description

Realize your potential by joining the leading performance-driven advertising company and a proud Great Place to Work® Certified employer in the US As a Sr Machine Learning Engineer on Taboola’s R&D Team in Downtown Los Angeles, utilizing some of the latest technology and tools, you will work on the recommendation and ranking algorithms that drive Realize — Taboola's performance advertising platform serving 600M+ daily active users. The models you build directly influence campaign performance and revenue outcomes for advertisers worldwide.

To Thrive In This Role, You'll Need

• Bachelor or advanced degree in a relevant field, ideally Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or Computational Economics
• 5+ years of hands-on experience in Python and Java
• Proficiency with ML frameworks (e.g., PyTorch, Tensorflow)
• Experience with recommendation systems, ranking algorithms, or personalization at scale
• Experience taking end-to-end ownership of ML systems: design, build, ship, measure, and maintain — using AI-assisted “vibe coding” tools (e.g., Cursor, Claude, GitHub Copilot)
• Experience building automated evaluation harnesses and test frameworks for ML systems — defining benchmarks, baselines, and guardrails that let a team ship confidently and repeatedly
• Ability to communicate technical findings clearly, and to collaborate effectively across teams (including early morning or evening syncs with our Tel Aviv team)

Bonus Points If You Have

• Experience with Karpathy's autoresearch (MIT), AutoML or any other agentic tools for ML experiments

How You’ll Make An Impact

• Design and build predictive customer behavior models for targeting and personalization
• Implement the applicable Machine Learning or statistics based algorithm for prediction and optimization and deliver the trained model to production
• Take end-to-end ownership: design, build, ship, measure, and maintain models and the services around them—rapidly prototyping and delivering complete projects/products using AI-assisted “vibe coding” workflows.
• Act as a Harness Engineer: build the evaluation harnesses, automated testing frameworks, benchmarks, and guardrails that let the team experiment, measure model quality, and ship AI/ML systems safely and repeatedly, following a TDD process.
• Present findings to the product team and technical team leads in a clear and actionable way.
• Build and maintain code to populate HDFS, Hadoop with log from Kafka or data loaded from SQL production systems
• Design, build and support algorithms of data transformation, conversion, computation on Hadoop, Spark and other distributed Big Data Systems

Why Taboola?

About

• Adam Singolda, Taboola Founder and CEO says; “You can copy anything from another business but you can’t copy a company’s culture.”
• Well-being: Enjoy comprehensive benefits (health, dental, vision, 401k matching), a fully stocked kitchen and parking.
• Flexibility: We offer a hybrid work schedule with 3 days in-office with an option to come in more often if desired.
• Work with some of the biggest names: Our publisher partners include Yahoo, Conde Nast, Fox Sports, NBCU, ESPN, CBS, and E! Online. Our advertiser clients include Wells Fargo, Honda, Pinterest, and Expedia.

Ready to realize your potential?

Taboola is an equal opportunity employer and we value diversity in all forms. We are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees and believe such an environment is critical for success. Employment is decided on the basis of qualifications, merit, and business need.

Learn more about #TaboolaLife on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, X, YouTube, & the Taboola Life Blog.

About Taboola

Taboola empowers businesses to grow through performance advertising technology that goes beyond search and social and delivers measurable outcomes at scale.

Taboola works with thousands of businesses who advertise directly on Realize, Taboola’s powerful ad platform, reaching approximately 600M daily active users across some of the best publishers in the world. Publishers like NBC News, Yahoo, and OEMs such as Samsung, Xiaomi and others use Taboola’s technology to grow audience and revenue, enabling Realize to offer unique data, specialized algorithms, and unmatched scale.

The pay offered may vary depending on several factors such as location, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. We may offer several perks as part of the compensation package that include a discretionary bonus, equity, flexible PTO, medical/dental/vision insurance, a competitive 401(k) match, paid parental leave, and more.

Base Salary Pay Range: $138,500 USD - $195,000 USD