Staff Machine Learning Engineer

GEICO; Palo Alto (CA); On-site; USD 130,000 - 260,000; Full time

Job summary

GEICO is seeking a Staff AI engineer to join our AI org. This role provides technical leadership for GenAI workflows across GEICO’s platforms, collaborating with data scientists and software engineers to design, develop and deploy scalable AI/ML systems. The ideal candidate has hands-on experience building high-performance AI infrastructure and leading small teams.

Join a dynamic environment focused on productivity, quality of service, and innovation for 20K+ contact center staff.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or above in Computer Science, Engineering, Statistics or a related field.
• 6+ years of professional software development experience with Java, C++, Python or C#.
• 6+ years of experience designing and building AIML systems using open-source/cloud-agnostic components (search, data warehouse, streaming, databases, workflows)
• 4+ years’ experience managing end-to-end software development life cycle (version control, CICD pipelines, Kubernetes clusters, testing, monitoring & alerting)
• 4+ years’ experience building training, finetuning, real-time/batch inferencing and evaluation systems for AIML models and LLMs, esp. using GPU-powered infra
• 2+ years’ experience utilizing and/or finetuning LLMs such as GPT, Llama, Mistral, Claude for conversational experiences and agentic workflows

Responsibilities

• Own design, development and maintenance of high-performance, scalable platform components (knowledge management, search, prompt management, workflow orchestration, action execution, logging & tracing).
• Contribute to evaluation and implementation of software technologies balancing build vs. buy and release timelines.
• Collaborate with data scientists, ML engineers, software engineers, product managers and designers to gather requirements and prioritize feature backlogs.
• Assist in planning and estimation of software projects ensuring timely delivery.
• Lead a small team of engineers for feature implementation and mentor junior engineers.
• Foster AI engineering best practices across the company.

Skills

Java

C++

Python

C#

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related field

Tools

Elasticsearch

Snowflake

Kafka

PostgreSQL

MongoDB

Cassandra

Spark

Ray

Airflow

Temporal

Job description

Why Join GEICO?

At GEICO, we offer a rewarding career where your ambitions are met with endless possibilities.

Why Join GEICO?

At GEICO, we offer a rewarding career where your ambitions are met with endless possibilities.

Every day we honor our iconic brand by offering quality coverage to millions of customers and being there when they need us most.

We thrive on relentless innovation to exceed our customers' expectations while making a real impact on local communities nationwide.

Founded in 1936, GEICO is a member of the Berkshire Hathaway family of companies and one of the largest auto insurers in the United States. When you join our company, we want you to feel valued, supported, and proud to work here. That's why we offer the GEICO Pledge: Great Company, Great Culture, Great Rewards, and Great Careers.

GEICO is seeking a Staff AI engineer to join our AI org. This person will play key technical leadership roles for the development of Geico’s virtual agent platform that elevates the productivity and quality of service for 20K+ contact center employees in claims, service and sales operations, etc. You will be collaborating with a dynamic team of AI and software engineers to design, develop and deploy systems that ensure productivity, scalability and usability of GenAI workflows across Geico. The ideal candidate should demonstrate a proven track record of building high performance AI/ML platform & systems, with hands‑on experience and deep enthusiasm for Generative AI technologies. This role requires a minimum of 6 years of relevant experience.

Responsibilities

• Technical Design & Implementation: Own design, development and maintenance of high-performance, durable and scalable platform components. Examples include knowledge management, search, prompt management, workflow orchestration, action execution systems, logging & tracing, semantic knowledge graph, etc.
• System Evaluation: Contribute to the evaluation and implementation of software technologies, tools, and frameworks, balancing build vs. buy, speed to market, maintainability, etc. for individual systems and platform components.
• Cross-functional collaboration: Collaborate with cross-functional teams, including data scientists, ML engineers, software engineers, product managers, designers to gather requirements, define project scope and prioritize feature backlogs. Establish pragmatic technical visions & roadmaps that balance business outcome, product release timelines and engineering excellence.
• Project Planning: Assist in the planning and estimation of software development projects, ensuring the efficient allocation of resources and timely delivery of solutions.
• Technical Leadership: Lead a small team of engineers for feature implementation. Troubleshoot and resolve complex software issues, ensuring optimal system performance and reliability.
• Mentorship: Mentor and guide junior engineers via code reviews and design sessions, fostering a collaborative and high-performance team culture, elevating AI engineering best practices across the company.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or above in Computer Science, Engineering, Statistics or a related field
• 6+ years of professional software development experience with at least two general-purpose programming languages such as Java, C++, Python or C#.
• 6+ years of experience designing and building AIML systems utilizing open-source/cloud-agnostic components such as search engine (e.g. elastic search, Qdrant), data warehouse (e.g. snowflake), streaming platform (e.g. Kafka), relational database (e.g. postgresql), Nosql (e.g. MongoDB, Cassandra), distributed processing (e.g. Spark, Ray), workflow management (e.g. Airflow, Temporal), robotic process automation, context management, etc.
• 4+ years’ experience managing end-to-end software development life cycle (version control, CICD pipelines, Kubernetes clusters, testing, monitoring & alerting, production support etc.)
• 4+ years’ experience building training, finetuning, real-time/batch inferencing and evaluation systems for AIML models and LLMs, esp. utilizing GPU-powered infrastructure
• 2+ years’ experience utilizing and/or finetuning LLMs such as GPT, Llama, Mistral, Claude etc. to build conversational experiences and/or agentic workflows

Annual Salary

$130,000.00 - $260,000.00

The above annual salary range is a general guideline. Multiple factors are taken into consideration to arrive at the final hourly rate/ annual salary to be offered to the selected candidate. Factors include, but are not limited to, the scope and responsibilities of the role, the selected candidate’s work experience, education and training, the work location as well as market and business considerations.

GEICO will consider sponsoring a new qualified applicant for employment authorization for this position.

The GEICO Pledge

Great Company: Protecting customers through life’s twists and turns with innovation and integrity.

Great Careers: Personalized development programs, mentorship, and certification assistance.

Great Culture: Inclusive and collaborative culture rooted in shared success.

Great Rewards: Competitive pay, benefits, and flexibility to support your well-being and future.

The equal employment opportunity policy of the GEICO Companies provides for a fair and equal employment opportunity for all associates and job applicants regardless of race, color, religious creed, national origin, ancestry, age, gender, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, familial status, disability or genetic information, in compliance with applicable federal, state and local law. GEICO hires and promotes individuals solely on the basis of their qualifications for the job to be filled.

GEICO reasonably accommodates qualified individuals with disabilities to enable them to receive equal employment opportunity and/or perform the essential functions of the job, unless the accommodation would impose an undue hardship to the Company. This applies to all applicants and associates. GEICO also provides a work environment in which each associate is able to be productive and work to the best of their ability. We do not condone or tolerate an atmosphere of intimidation or harassment. We expect and require the cooperation of all associates in maintaining an atmosphere free from discrimination and harassment with mutual respect by and for all associates and applicants.