Staff Machine Learning Engineer

Taskrabbit; San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; USD 170,000 - 225,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

401k match (US)

Generous PTO and company-wide closures

Job summary

Taskrabbit is seeking a Staff Machine Learning Engineer to own and evolve the core ranking system that drives every matching request. You’ll lead architecture, design, and production reliability while collaborating with Product, Data Science, Risk, and Commerce teams.

You will mentor engineers, drive scalable ML infrastructure, and address biases with a focus on improving personalization and conversion across a hybrid US-based team.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of industry experience building and deploying production-grade ML systems with end-to-end ownership.

Responsibilities

• Own the architecture, model design, experiment strategy, and production reliability of the core ranking system end-to-end.
• Serve as the primary technical contact for Product, Data Science, Risk, and Commerce on matching and ranking.
• Build automated retraining pipelines and monitoring to prevent model drift and enable safe experimentation.
• Address biases in ranking, improve data quality for training, and drive better conversion.
• Leverage client intent signals and personalization to optimize booking outcomes.
• Mentor junior engineers and raise the technical bar through reviews and guidance.
• Shape long-term ML architecture and make build-vs-buy recommendations.

Skills

Python

SQL

PyTorch

TensorFlow

scikit-learn

LightGBM/XGBoost

Kafka

Airflow

Snowflake/BigQuery

Docker/Kubernetes

dbt

Education

BS/MS/PhD in Computer Science, Statistics, OR related quantitative field

Tools

Kafka

Airflow

Snowflake/BigQuery

Docker/Kubernetes

dbt

Job description

Taskrabbit is a marketplace platform that conveniently connects people with Taskers to handle everyday home to-do's, such as furniture assembly, handyman work, moving help, and much more.

At Taskrabbit, we want to transform lives one task at a time. As a company we celebrate innovation, inclusion and hard work. Our culture is collaborative, pragmatic, and fast-paced. We’re looking for talented, entrepreneurially minded and data-driven people who also have a passion for helping people do what they love. Together with IKEA, we’re creating more opportunities for people to earn a consistent, meaningful income on their own terms by building lasting relationships with clients in communities around the world.

Taskrabbit is a hybrid company with employees distributed across the US and EU and a Built In - Best Places to Work (2022, 2023, 2024, 2025) continually ranked across multiple national and regional categories. Join us at Taskrabbit, where your work will be meaningful, your ideas valued, and your potential unleashed!

This role is hybrid requiring 2 days in office at our San Francisco or NYC hub every Tuesday & Wednesday.

About the Role

Machine Learning is a cornerstone at Taskrabbit, and we’re looking for a Staff Machine Learning Engineer to take technical ownership of our core ranking system. Every job request on the platform flows through it, making this one of the most consequential ML systems we run.

This is a hands-on technical leadership role. You’ll operate as the primary architect and engineer for the ranking system—defining the system direction, driving the roadmap, solving the hardest problems, and creating leverage for the engineers around you. You’ll also serve as the primary technical interface for Product, Data Science, Risk, and Commerce on all things matching.

What we need is a single technical owner who can hold the architecture, translate strategy into engineering action, and mentor the team as the system scales.

What You’ll Work On

• Ranking System Ownership: Own the architecture, model design, experiment strategy, and production reliability of the core ranking system end-to-end. You are the system’s primary technical decision-maker.
• Cross-functional Technical Leadership: Serve as the primary technical point of contact for Product, Data Science, Risk, and Commerce on matching and ranking questions. Actively participate in architecture reviews; give clear, well-reasoned recommendations and convince stakeholders on technical trade-offs.
• Model Reliability: Build automated retraining pipelines, rollback capability, and skew detection—the foundations that enable safe experimentation at speed and eliminate silent model drift.
• Ranking Quality & Debiasing: Address position bias and other systemic biases in the ranking pipeline to produce cleaner training data and unlock downstream experimentation.
• Client Intent Signals: Leverage filter-based signals from high-booking user cohorts (69-72% higher booking rate) to drive direct conversion lift from untapped behavioral data.
• Personalization: Surface return-client signals, prior Tasker preferences, and preference modeling to improve IAR for the highest-value booking segment.
• Platform Thinking: Identify where ML can add value beyond the ranking system and scope those opportunities for the broader team. Make build-vs-buy recommendations and contribute to long-term ML architecture at Taskrabbit.
• Team Development & Thought Leadership: Mentor the junior engineer, elevate seniors through code and design reviews, and raise the technical bar across the team. Beyond day-to-day guidance, you bring a transformational perspective—introducing new methodologies, challenging existing patterns, and shaping how the team thinks about ML problems. You’re a sought-out guide and a catalyst for how the team evolves.

Who You Are

We welcome applicants from a variety of backgrounds and experiences. Below gives you a sense of how we’re thinking about what you’ll need to be successful in the role.

• BS, MS, or PhD in Computer Science, Statistics, Operations Research, or a related quantitative field.
• 8+ years of industry experience building and deploying production-grade ML systems, with a track record of owning a system end-to-end — not just contributing to one.
• Deep expertise in ranking, recommender systems, or two-sided marketplace ML. Experience with debiasing, A/B experimentation at scale, and the subtleties of feedback loops in production systems.
• You think architecturally. You can hold the full picture of a complex system — data pipelines, feature stores, training infrastructure, serving, monitoring — and make principled decisions about how they fit together.
• You write and review code at a high standard. Your code reviews are insightful and educational; your implementations set the bar for quality and maintainability on the team.
• You can do critical R&D. When a problem is novel and the solution is unclear, you have the depth to explore it systematically and the judgment to know when to go deeper vs. ship.
• You have a vision for how state-of-the-art advances in ML — from large language models to modern deep ranking architectures — can transform what a traditional ranking system is capable of, and the judgment to chart a practical path toward that future.
• You’re an effective cross-functional partner. You communicate technical tradeoffs clearly to non-technical stakeholders, proactively identify upstream and downstream implications, and build trust with partners through reliability and transparency.
• You motivate and elevate the people around you. You give kind, direct feedback, mentor with generosity, and help others grow without creating dependency.
• Strong proficiency in Python and SQL. Hands-on experience with ML libraries (PyTorch, TensorFlow, scikit-learn, LightGBM/XGBoost) and modern data infrastructure (Kafka, Airflow, Snowflake/BigQuery, Docker/Kubernetes). Familiarity with dbt is a plus.
• Experience with Infrastructure as Code (Terraform) and CI/CD pipelines.
• Proficiency in using AI coding tools (e.g., Claude Code, Augment, or similar) across the full software development lifecycle — from designing and generating code to testing, monitoring, and releasing software.

Compensation & Benefits

At Taskrabbit, our approach to compensation is designed to be competitive, transparent, and equitable. Total compensation consists of base pay + bonus + benefits + perks. The base pay range for this position is $170,000 - $225,000. This range is representative of base pay only, and does not include any other total cash compensation amounts, such as company bonus or benefits. Final offer amounts may vary from the amounts listed above and will be determined by factors including, but not limited to, relevant experience, qualifications, geography, and level.

You’ll love working here because

• Taskrabbit is a Hybrid Company. We value flexibility and choice but also stay committed to regular in-person connection.
• The People. You will be surrounded by some of the most talented, supportive, smart, and kind leaders and teams - people you can be proud to work with!
• The Diverse Culture. We believe that we make better decisions when our workforce reflects the diversity of the communities in which we operate. Women make up half of our leadership team and our diversity representation is above that of the tech industry average.
• The Perks. Taskrabbit offers our employees with employer-paid health insurance and a 401k match with immediate vesting for our US based employees. We offer all of our global employees generous and flexible time off with 2 company-wide closure weeks, Taskrabbit product stipends, wellness + productivity + education stipends, IKEA discounts, reproductive health support, and more. Benefits vary by country of employment.

Taskrabbit’s commitment to Diversity and Inclusion

An Active Commitment to Equity within our Company and Platform. We are an inclusive community where all who share our mission and values belong. Our diverse team represents the communities we serve, breaking down systemic barriers, and transforming lives- one action at a time.

Taskrabbit is an equal opportunity employer and values diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, sex, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, marital status, military/veteran status, or disability status. Taskrabbit is committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodation to applicants with physical and mental disabilities. Taskrabbit will consider for employment all qualified applicants with criminal histories in a manner consistent with applicable law.

AI-Assisted Prescreening Notice [US Based Candidates Only]

As part of our hiring process, we may use artificial intelligence tools to assist with the initial prescreening of applications and responses. This tool does not make hiring decisions — every application and response is reviewed by a member of our recruiting team to determine fit for the role. If you would prefer not to have your application processed using this tool, you may opt out by selecting 'opt out' in the application form or by emailting [e-mail], and your application will be reviewed manually with no impact on your candidacy.