Staff Machine Learning Engineer

HR Tech Job; Chicago (IL); Hybrid; USD 205,000 - 265,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive compensation

Exceptional benefits package

Flexible Vacation & Paid Time Off

Employer-matched 401(k) plan

Job summary

ZipRecruiter is seeking a senior ML leader to define strategy and roadmap for core marketplace components, including matching and retrieval systems. You will mentor ML engineers and data scientists, while delivering scalable, production-grade models in a hybrid/remote work environment.

The role emphasizes end-to-end ownership—from feature engineering through distributed training to online/offline evaluation—and requires deep expertise in modern DL frameworks and experimentation design.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of professional ML production experience.
• End-to-end ML solutions shipping in production.
• Expertise in Recommendation, Personalization, Ranking & Retrieval, or Interaction Prediction.
• Strong software engineering with PyTorch or TensorFlow.
• Experience in technical leadership and mentorship.
• Background in statistical modeling and online experimentation (A/B testing).

Responsibilities

• Drive ML strategy and roadmap with Engineering and Product Leadership.
• Architect high-scale ML systems for prediction and retrieval.
• Optimize two-sided marketplace dynamics and real-time prediction.
• Mentor ML Engineers and Data Scientists across teams.
• Drive end-to-end model ownership from exploration to latency optimization.

Skills

ML engineering

Leadership

A/B testing

PyTorch

TensorFlow

Recommendation systems

Two-Tower nets

Graph Neural Networks

Transformer models

Contextual Bandits

Education

MS/PhD in CS/ML

Tools

MLOps

Distributed training

Job description

We offer a hybrid work environment. Most US-based positions can alsobeperformed remotely (any exceptions will be noted in the Minimum Qualifications below.)

Our Mission:

To actively connect people to their next great opportunity.

Who We Are:

ZipRecruiter is a leading online employment marketplace. Powered by AI-driven smart matching technology, the company actively connects millions of all-sized businesses and job seekers through innovative mobile, web, and email services, as well as through partnerships with the best job boards on the web. ZipRecruiter has the #1 rated job search app on iOS & Android.

Summary:

At ZipRecruiter, we sit on a massive universe of data—over a billion archived job postings, tens of millions of dynamic job seekers, and billions of impressions, clicks, and application events. Connecting the right job seeker with the right employer in real time is a complex two-sided marketplace problem, where precision, scale, and latent intent prediction directly impact millions of lives.

Key Responsibilities & Strategic Impact

• Drive ML Strategy & Roadmap: Partner directly with Engineering and Product Leadership to define and execute the technical vision for core components in the marketplace, including but not limited to recommendation engines and matching algorithms, ML entity representation platform.
• Architect High-Scale Systems: Design and own state-of-the-art ML systems handling dynamic interaction prediction, candidate ranking, and candidate/job retrieval across high-throughput production environments.
• Optimize Two-Sided Marketplace Dynamics: Solve high-complexity matching and recommendation challenges native to two-sided marketplaces, including real-time intent prediction, bilateral relevancy, candidate cold-start problems, and feedback loops between job seekers and employers.
• Org-Wide Technical Leadership: Mentor and guide Machine Learning Engineers and Data Scientists across teams to instill a culture of technical excellence, rigorous experimentation, and fast production delivery.
• Production Excellence: Drive end-to-end model ownership—from initial exploration and feature engineering through distributed training, offline/online evaluation (A/B testing), to real-time latency optimization.

Minimum Qualifications

• 8+ years of professional experience developing and deploying machine learning models in large-scale production environments.
• Proven track record of architecting and shipping end-to-end ML solutions that serve production traffic at scale.
• Deep domain expertise in Recommendation Systems, Personalization, Ranking & Retrieval, or Interaction Prediction.
• Strong software engineering fundamentals with hands‑on expertise using modern deep learning frameworks (PyTorch, TensorFlow).
• Proven experience in technical leadership and mentorship, driving technical alignment across cross‑functional engineering and product teams.
• Strong background in statistical modeling, online experimentation (A/B testing methodology), and offline metric design.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in Two-Sided Marketplaces: Familiarity with supply/demand liquidity, bilateral matching algorithms, dynamic pricing, or auction-based models.
• Modern deep learning techniques for recommendations, such as Two-Tower Neural Networks, Graph Neural Networks (GNNs), Transformer-based retrieval models, or Contextual Bandits.
• Advanced degree (MS/PhD) in Computer Science, Machine Learning or a related quantitative field or equivalent experience.
• Experience with modern MLOps architectures and distributed training frameworks.

As part of our team you'll enjoy:

• Competitive compensation
• Exceptional benefits package
• Flexible Vacation & Paid Time Off
• Employer-matched 401(k) plan

#LI-Remote

The US base salary range for this full-time position is $205,000.00-$265,000.00 USD. Our salary ranges are determined by role, level, and location, and the range displayed on each job posting reflects the minimum and maximum target for new hire salaries for the position across all US locations. Within the range, individual pay is determined by work location, role-related knowledge and skills, depth of experience, relevant education or training, and additional role-related considerations.

Depending on the position offered, equity, bonuses, commission, or other forms of compensation may also be provided as part of a total compensation package, in addition to a full range of medical, financial, and other benefits.

ZipRecruiter is proud to be an equal opportunity employer and provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or genetics.

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