Senior Machine Learning Engineer, Discovery Recommendations

Epic Games; Larkspur (CA); On-site; USD 209,000 - 307,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical insurance

Dental

Vision

Long-term disability

Life insurance

401k with match

Mental health program

Unlimited PTO

Sabbatical

Job summary

Epic Games in California invites an experienced analytics engineer to design and optimize the recommendation systems powering Fortnite Discover. You will work across candidate generation, ranking, and real-time reranking to deliver personalized content to a massive player base.

Collaborate with analytics and content teams, own ML infrastructure tradeoffs, and run A/B experiments to validate improvements. This role supports a dynamic catalog where new experiences launch daily, requiring robust

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience building production recommendation or ranking systems.
• Deep learning for information retrieval and multi‑stage recommendation pipelines.
• Strong Python engineering skills with PyTorch and Spark.
• Experience with cloud-based ML environments (AWS).
• Familiar with explore/exploit strategies and cold-start.
• Knowledge of NLP/vision/generative AI used as ranking features.
• Understanding of creator economy dynamics in recommender design.
• Experience with PyTorch TorchRec, Transformers, Ray, Databricks.

Responsibilities

• Design and implement retrieval, ranking, and reranking models for creator content using deep learning approaches and build user representation systems.
• Build and optimize multi-stage candidate generation and impression allocation pipelines for relevance, diversity, and fair exposure.
• Design and run A/B experiments to validate model improvements and own evaluation frameworks for holistic quality.
• Collaborate with analytics and content quality teams on ranking signals such as genre, credibility, and content quality.
• Own ML infrastructure decisions: balancing batch, near-real-time, and streaming serving architectures.

Skills

Recommendation systems

Deep learning

Python

PyTorch

Spark

AWS

Ray

Databricks

A/B testing

Content understanding

NLP

Vision

Generative AI

Cloud ML

Explore/exploit

Creator economy

Information retrieval

Tools

PyTorch

TorchRec

Transformers

Job description

WHAT MAKES US EPIC?

At the core of Epic's success are talented, passionate people. Epic prides itself on creating a collaborative, welcoming, and creative environment. Whether it's building award-winning games or crafting engine technology that enables others to make visually stunning interactive experiences, we're always innovating.

Being Epic means being a part of a team that continually strives to do right by our community and users. We're constantly innovating to raise the bar of engine and game development.

ANALYTICS

What We Do

Our Data & Analytics teams build powerful stories and visuals that inform the games we make, the technology we develop, and business decisions that drive Epic.

What You'll Do

You will design, build, and optimize the recommendation systems that power Fortnite's Discover experience, serving personalized recommendations to one of the largest player bases in gaming across a massive catalog of creator-built experiences.

You'll work across the full recommendation stack: candidate generation, content ranking, impression allocation, and real-time reranking.

Unlike recommendation systems that operate over a stable catalog, you're working with a massive, rapidly changing content library where new experiences are published daily, quality signals are sparse, and the system's own outputs shape the data it learns from.

In this role, you will

• Design and implement retrieval, ranking, and reranking models for creator content using deep learning approaches (two-tower architectures, transformer-based sequence models, embedding-based retrieval) and build the user representation systems that power personalized discovery


• Build and optimize multi-stage candidate generation and impression allocation pipelines that balance relevance, diversity, and fair content exposure across a large and rapidly evolving catalog


• Design and run A/B experiments to validate model improvements, own evaluation frameworks that capture recommendation quality holistically, and drive the path from experiment to production deployment


• Collaborate with analytics and content quality teams on ranking signals including genre classification, creator credibility, and content quality metrics


• Own ML infrastructure decisions: choosing the right tradeoffs between batch, near-real-time, and streaming serving architectures

What we're looking for

• 5+ years of experience building production recommendation or ranking systems, ideally in a UGC, marketplace, or content discovery context


• Experience with deep learning for information retrieval and multi-stage recommendation pipelines (candidate generation, scoring, reranking)


• Demonstrated ability to design and analyze A/B experiments, with awareness of biases inherent to recommendation systems


• Strong Python engineering skills with experience in PyTorch and large-scale data processing frameworks (Spark preferred)


• Comfort working in a cloud-based ML environment


• Experience with explore/exploit strategies, content cold-start, or counterfactual evaluation methods applied to recommendation


• Experience with content understanding models (NLP, vision, or generative AI) used as ranking features


• Familiarity with creator economy dynamics and how recommendation design affects content quality and creator incentives


• Experience with our stack: PyTorch (TorchRec, Transformers), Ray, Databricks, AWS


• Passion for video games and/or experience with gaming analytics

This role is open to multiple locations across the US (including CA, NYC, & WA).

EPIC JOB + EPIC BENEFITS = EPIC LIFE

Our intent is to cover all things that are medically necessary and improve the quality of life. We pay 100% of the premiums for both you and your dependents. Our coverage includes Medical, Dental, a Vision HRA, Long Term Disability, Life Insurance & a 401k with competitive match. We also offer a robust mental well-being program through Modern Health, which provides free therapy and coaching for employees & dependents. Throughout the year we celebrate our employees with events and company-wide paid breaks. We offer unlimited PTO and sick time and recognize individuals for 7 years of employment with a paid sabbatical.

Pay Transparency Information

The expected annual base pay range(s) for this position are detailed below. Each base pay range is relevant only for individuals who are residents of or will be expected to work within the specified locale. Compensation varies based on a variety of factors, which include (but aren't limited to) things such as skills and competencies, qualifications, knowledge, and experience. In addition to base pay, most employees are eligible to participate in Epic’s generous benefit plans and discretionary incentive programs (subject to the terms of those plans or programs).

New York City Base Pay Range

$232,666 - $341,243 USD

California Base Pay Range

$209,399 - $307,119 USD

Washington Base Pay Range

$190,363 - $279,199 USD

ABOUT US

Epic Games is a leading interactive entertainment company. For over 30 years we've been making award-winning games and engine technology that empowers others to make visually stunning games and 3D content that bring environments to life like never before. Epic's award-winning Unreal Engine technology not only provides game developers the ability to build high-fidelity, interactive experiences for PC, console, mobile, and VR, it is also a tool being embraced by content creators across a variety of industries such as media and entertainment, automotive, and architectural design. As we continue to build our Engine technology and develop remarkable games, we strive to build teams of world-class talent.

Like what you hear? Come be a part of something Epic!

Epic Games deeply values diverse teams and an inclusive work culture, and we are proud to be an Equal Opportunity employer. Learn more about our Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) Policy here.

Note to Recruitment Agencies: Epic does not accept any unsolicited resumes or approaches from any unauthorized third party (including recruitment or placement agencies) (i.e., a third party with whom we do not have a negotiated and validly executed agreement). We will not pay any fees to any unauthorized third party. Further details on these matters can be found here.