Founding Machine Learning Engineer

Adaptive Security; New York (NY); On-site; USD 150,000 - 200,000; Full time

Job summary

A cybersecurity startup is seeking a Staff ML Engineer to define and build its machine learning capabilities. The role requires developing production ML systems and defining the ML strategy across products. Candidates should have over 8 years of experience in ML system design, strong software engineering skills, and familiarity with cloud ML infrastructure. This position offers a unique opportunity to lead and establish the ML team from the ground up in a rapidly evolving industry.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience in building ML systems.
• Strong software engineering fundamentals.
• Experience with cloud ML infrastructure.

Responsibilities

• Define Adaptive's ML strategy and infrastructure.
• Design and build end-to-end production ML systems.
• Establish evaluation methodologies for model quality.

Skills

Machine Learning System Design

Software Engineering

Cloud ML Infrastructure

Data Processing Frameworks

Mentoring

Python

Java

TypeScript

Tools

AWS SageMaker

PyTorch

TensorFlow

Spark

Job description

About Adaptive

NVIDIA and OpenAI’s only AI cybersecurity investment.

Adaptive is a cybersecurity startup on a mission to stop AI-powered cyberattacks. In December 2025, the company announced an $81M Series B led by NVIDIA and Bain Capital Ventures, with participation from Capital One Ventures, Citi Ventures, and continued support from Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), the OpenAI Startup Fund, and Abstract Ventures. The round marked NVIDIA’s first AI cybersecurity investment.

Adaptive was founded by Brian Long and Andrew Jones, repeat entrepreneurs who have built and scaled category-defining companies. Brian and Andrew previously co-founded Attentive, which grew to more than $500M in annual revenue and a $10B+ valuation, and TapCommerce, which was acquired by Twitter. Together, they bring deep experience building high-growth, product-led businesses at massive scale as Adaptive builds the security layer for the AI era.

Trusted by leading banks, technology companies, and healthcare organizations, Adaptive protects teams from emerging threats like deepfakes, smishing, and AI-powered voice scams. With rapid enterprise adoption and a $200B+ market ahead, the company is just getting started.

Role

We are seeking a Staff ML Engineer to define and build Adaptive's ML capabilities. Adaptive is an AI cybersecurity company whose products use LLMs and ML models to detect, classify, and respond to threats in real time. ML is central to the future of our products, and we need someone who can own the strategy, infrastructure, and execution for how we use it.

We don't have dedicated ML infrastructure or an ML team today. You'll be building this from the ground up. You'll set the technical direction for how we use ML across the company, stand up the infrastructure, and do the hands‑on work yourself.

Responsibilities

• Define Adaptive's ML strategy: where ML should be applied across our products, what infrastructure we need, and how we should approach build vs. buy decisions.

• Design and build production ML systems end‑to‑end — data pipelines, model training, evaluation frameworks, and inference serving.

• Establish evaluation methodology. Define how we measure model quality, catch regressions, and make data‑driven decisions about model changes.

• Own the strategy for getting the data you need, in the format you need it — what/how to label, how to build feedback loops, and how our models improve over time.

• Partner with product engineers to integrate ML into the product. You will write production code and work within our existing codebase.

• Over time, help build and lead the ML team as scope grows.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience building ML systems in production, ideally with experience standing up the ML function at an early‑stage startup or as the senior or lead ML person at a previous company.

• Strong software engineering fundamentals. You write production‑quality code in modern languages (Python, Java, TypeScript) and work within large codebases.

• Experience with cloud ML infrastructure (AWS SageMaker, Bedrock, Modal, Baseten, or similar).

• Experience with common ML and data processing frameworks (PyTorch, Tensorflow, Spark)

• Comfortable working across the stack — infrastructure, backend services, and data systems.

• Track record of mentoring MLEs and other engineers with observable, clear improvements in those you've worked with.

• High autonomy. You'll have support and context from leadership, but you're expected to define the path forward and drive it.