Staff Engineer - Recommendations

VRChat Inc.; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 150,000 - 190,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Remote work

Health benefits

401K for US & Group RRSP for Canadian

Stock options

Generous paid holidays

Unlimited/flexible vacation time

Paid parental leave benefits

Job summary

VRChat is seeking a data/ML engineer for the Social Experience team to build data-driven recommendations and personalization. The role uses AWS, Python/FastAPI, Node.js, and Snowflake to train and operationalize systems, processing large platform data to improve user experiences.

You will work with a full-stack team to develop scalable data pipelines, data models, and backend services for discovery, groups, and events, collaborating with data scientists and product managers to ensure correct

Qualifications

• Experience building production-grade data pipelines (ETL/ELT).
• Strong SQL and data warehouse optimization skills.
• Experience with Spark, Hadoop/Beam, or Kafka.
• Cloud experience at scale (AWS or Google Cloud).
• Proficiency in Python and JavaScript/Node.js; Mongo and Redis familiarity.
• Experience with Elasticsearch and ML system integration.
• Able to collaborate in a remote, cross-functional team.

Responsibilities

• Develop, maintain, and optimize scalable data pipelines and APIs for data-driven features like recommendations and content discovery.
• Design data models to support analytical and real-time needs.
• Collaborate with data scientists and product managers to ensure proper data capture and availability.
• Implement data processing jobs using big data tech to handle large datasets.
• Contribute to evolving data-backed personalization for content and experiences.
• Design backend systems including REST and websocket APIs, caching and queues.
• Be available to address outages as needed.

Skills

Data engineering

Backend development

SQL proficiency

Python/Node.js

Cloud platforms (AWS/GC)

Big data systems

Elasticsearch

Communication

Tools

Spark

Kafka

Hadoop/Beam

MongoDB

Redis

REST APIs

WebSocket APIs

Job description

Join the VRChat Team!

VRChat offers a first-of-its-kind, game-changing platform that provides an endless collection of social VR experiences and gives the power of creation to its robust community. With over 250,000 worlds and growing, VRChat’s vision is to allow users to bring their imaginations to life and help shape the metaverse anywhere in the world on any device. VRChat has raised $100M to date with the support of investors, Makers Fund, Anthos Capital and HTC.

We have a great team which includes people from: Netflix, Twitter, Meta, Microsoft, Roblox, Google, Amazon, Unity, Spotify, Discord, Uber, eBay, Robinhood, Twitch, Zynga and TikTok. Come and join the mission!

Job Overview

We’re looking for a data / ML engineer to join our Social Experience team. You will be instrumental in developing and refining the data-driven recommendations systems that help our users connect, interact, and discover content and communities. This role involves working with AWS, Python/FastAPI, Node.js, and Snowflake to build, train, and operationalize personalization systems. You will be instrumental in processing and transforming the large volumes of data generated by our platform to create meaningful user experiences. If you’re passionate about data engineering and leveraging data to enhance content discovery, this role could be the perfect fit.

What You'll Do

• Work within a full-stack team of engineers to develop, maintain, and optimize scalable data pipelines, backend services, and APIs for data-driven features like recommendations, content discovery, groups, and events in VRChat.
• Design and implement data models and schemas that support both analytical needs and real-time recommendation systems.
• Collaborate with data scientists, product managers, and other engineers to ensure the correct data is captured, processed, and available to power meaningful user experiences.
• Implement and maintain data processing jobs using big data technologies (e.g., Spark, Kafka) to handle large-scale datasets.
• Contribute to the evolution of our technical and product capabilities, helping to progress from simple heuristics to more sophisticated, data-backed personalization for content and experiences.
• Participate in the design and implementation of backend systems including REST and websocket APIs, caching systems, queueing systems, and cloud orchestration.
• Be available to occasionally jump into action to solve an outage.

Qualifications

• 3+ years of experience in software engineering, with a strong focus on data engineering and building scalable backend systems for SaaS products or online platforms.
• Proven experience building and optimizing production-grade data pipelines (ETL/ELT).Strong proficiency in SQL and experience with database optimization for both analytical queries and high-throughput real-time access.
• Experience with big data technologies such as Spark, Hadoop/Beam, or Kafka.
• Experience with cloud providers at scale, such as AWS or Google Cloud.
• Able to work in a variety of languages and technologies, such as Python, JavaScript/Node.js, Mongo, and Redis.
• Experience with Elasticsearch, data warehousing, and machine learning (ML) systems.
• An agile, collaborative mindset and excellent communication skills, capable of working effectively in a remote, cross‑functional team environment.

Bonus Points

• Experience building and scaling aspects of content discovery or recommendation systems.
• Demonstrated interest in online communities, VR, or VRChat (as a user or creator). Knowing how our platform and community works will be helpful for this role.
• Experience with social networks, social graphs, or systems dealing with user-generated content.
• Experience working on consumer products, e‑commerce, or two‑sided marketplaces.

Benefits

• Work from anywhere! VRChat is a 100% remote company offering flexible working hours in combination with core hours supporting real-time collaboration
• Health Benefits
• 401K for US & Group RRSP for Canadian Employees
• Stock Options
• Generous paid holiday schedule
• Unlimited/flexible vacation time
• Paid parental leave benefits

VRChat is an equal‑opportunity employer, and we welcome applicants from all backgrounds. VRChat fosters a diverse, creative, and collaborative environment where anyone can contribute to any of the ongoing projects or direction of the roadmap at any time. If you’re a passionate team player who wants to have an impact on a dynamic team, we’d love to hear from you!

All job offers are subject to satisfactory referencing and background checks.