Senior Machine Learning Engineer (NLP & Search)

Ontra; United States; Remote; USD 176,000 - 264,000; Full time

Job summary

An innovative firm is seeking a Senior Machine Learning Engineer to revolutionize legal tech through advanced NLP and semantic search. This role focuses on designing and scaling machine learning systems to automate legal processes and enhance AI capabilities. With a remote-first culture, the company values creativity and collaboration, offering a dynamic environment for growth. Join a team that is at the forefront of AI legal technology, driving significant improvements in legal document review workflows while working alongside talented professionals committed to innovation.

Benefits

Remote-first working policy

Paid flexible time off

Paid parental leave

Employer-supported retirement contributions

Monthly phone and internet reimbursement

Company-sponsored LinkedIn Learning accounts

Department budgets for professional development

Robust onboarding program

Twice yearly team offsites

Qualifications

• 4+ years in applied machine learning or NLP roles.
• Experience in deploying ML models in production environments.

Responsibilities

• Design and scale advanced ML systems for legal obligations extraction.
• Collaborate with teams to integrate AI solutions into workflows.

Skills

NLP

Machine Learning

Semantic Search

Transformer-based Architectures

Document-level NLP

Education

Bachelor's in Computer Science

Master's in Computer Science

Tools

Pinecone

Weaviate

Orchestration Tools

Job description

About Ontra
Ontra is the global leader in AI legal tech for private markets. Powered by industry-leading AI, data from 1M+ contracts, and a global network of legal professionals, Ontra's private markets technology platform streamlines and optimizes critical legal and compliance workflows across the full fund lifecycle. Ontra’s purpose-built solutions automate contracts, streamline obligation management, digitize entity management, and surface insights. Trusted by more than 800 global GPs, investment banks, law firms, and advisors - including nine of the top ten PEI-ranked firms worldwide - Ontra helps firms focus on what’s important to them.

Our Culture
Ontra is a remote-first company that values the power of connection. We find innovative ways to stay connected, both virtually and in person. By promoting ownership, inspiring creativity, and championing collaboration, Ontra enables you to shape your impact and growth. Our commitment to innovation extends beyond our technology; it’s embedded in our culture, and AI plays a crucial role in everything we do.

Our culture is one where belonging is the cornerstone of every interaction, rooted in acceptance and respect for all. Our commitment to inclusion begins at the application process, ensuring a fair and equitable hiring experience that values the unique contributions you bring from day one.

About the Role

Ontra is seeking a Senior Machine Learning Engineer (NLP & Search) reporting to our Senior Manager, Machine Learning.

To foster team connection and collaboration, this role requires being present in either our Santa Barbara or San Francisco office up to once a quarter for team meetings and off-sites. As such, we are only considering candidates who are currently based in California.

We’re looking for someone excited to revolutionize legal tech by designing and scaling advanced machine learning systems, with a focus on automating obligation extraction and enhancing semantic search functionality, while driving improvements in AI capabilities and optimizing legal document review workflows.

If you are an innovative and analytical thinker with deep expertise in NLP and semantic search, who thrives on solving complex, domain-specific challenges through advanced machine learning techniques, we’d love to get to know you!

What You’ll Do

• ML System Design: Design, build, and scale advanced machine learning systems to automate the extraction and retrieval of legal obligations from complex private equity documents.
• Model Development: Develop and fine-tune LLM solutions for legal workflows, enhancing the capabilities of Ontra’s AI systems with custom NER pipelines and semantic indexing.
• Collaboration and Integration: Work closely with product, legal, and engineering teams to define project requirements and seamlessly integrate AI solutions into existing workflows.
• Data and Pipeline Management: Review and refine datasets and machine learning pipelines to ensure they deliver high performance, scalability, and are tailored to evolving needs.
• Production Deployment: Deploy and continuously monitor machine learning models in production, conducting experiments and implementing optimizations to improve model performance.
• Workflow Improvement: Drive measurable improvements in legal review processes and enhance end-user productivity through advanced AI applications and tools.

What You’ll Bring

• Experience: 4+ years in applied machine learning or NLP roles.
• Technical Expertise: Proficient understanding of transformer-based architectures, embeddings, and document-level NLP.
• Production Deployment: Demonstrated experience in deploying ML models in production environments, including the use of orchestration and monitoring tools.
• Semantic Search Proficiency: Familiarity with semantic search, vector stores (e.g., Pinecone, Weaviate), or hybrid RAG systems.
• Educational Background: Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field preferred.

Pay Transparency
Ontra takes individual candidate location, experience, and skills into consideration when determining compensation. The base pay range is listed below. Additionally, all positions are eligible for unit-based equity grants.

Some positions may be eligible for additional compensation, such as commission or other variable compensation structures, which is not included in the below base pay range.

If you are selected to participate in our interview process, your Talent Acquisition Partner will share more details about the total compensation package for the role.

Base Pay Range

$176,000—$264,000 USD

Hiring LocationsWe currently hire exclusively in the locations listed below. Select jobs may have more specific location requirements due to business needs.

United StatesArizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maryland, Minnesota, North Carolina, New Jersey, Nevada, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington

APACHong Kong

EMEAUnited Kingdom

Benefits Snapshot

• Remote-first working policy, with office hubs in SF, NYC, Santa Barbara, and London
• Twice yearly team offsites for in-person collaboration
• Paid flexible time off policy
• Paid parental leave and benefits
• Employer-supported retirement contributions, varying by country
• Monthly phone and internet reimbursement
• Company-sponsored LinkedIn Learning accounts, department budgets for professional development, and robust onboarding program
• Various options for medical, dental, and vision insurance

Travel Occasional travel is required for Ontra employees, including typically at least twice per year to attend team and larger group off-sites for in-person collaboration. For some roles, additional travel may be required based on the requirements of the role and business need.

InclusivityOntra is committed to the full inclusion of all qualified individuals. As part of this commitment, Ontra will ensure that persons with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodations. If reasonable accommodation is needed to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and/or to receive other benefits and privileges of employment, please contact [e-mail].

Personnel Privacy Notice: View here.

Note on Employment Verification: All employees hired will be required to verify identity and eligibility to work in their particular location.

Note to External Agencies: We are not accepting any blind submissions or resumes/CVs from recruitment agencies. Any candidates sent to Ontra will NOT be accepted or considered as a submission without a signed agreement in place.

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