Staff Machine Learning Engineer, Recommendation & AI Platform

NewsBreak; United States; On-site; USD 230,000 - 300,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health, dental, and vision benefits

401(k) plan with company matching

Paid time off and holidays

Paid parental leave

FSA and commuter benefits

Team activity budget

Job summary

NewsBreak is seeking a Staff Machine Learning Engineer to provide technical leadership for our recommendation systems and AI initiatives. You will define technical direction for large-scale personalization systems, lead cross-team projects, and drive adoption of AI technologies in product capabilities and engineering workflows.

This role suits engineers who enjoy system-level thinking, mentoring others, and turning ambiguous problems into scalable solutions within a fast-growing company.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of industry experience building large-scale ML or recommendation systems.
• Deep expertise in recommendation systems and applied ML in production.
• Strong system design skills and ability to influence architecture across teams.
• Proven track record of technical leadership and cross-team collaboration.

Responsibilities

• Lead design of next-generation recommendation system architectures at scale.
• Drive model lifecycle management, experimentation, and system reliability.
• Partner with product, infra, and data teams to align technical strategy with business goals.
• Lead the application of LLMs and foundation models in recommendation, content intelligence, and user modeling.
• Champion AI-native development practices and tooling.

Skills

Large-scale ML systems

System design

Technical leadership

Recommendation systems

Tools

LLMs

Foundation models

Job description

About NewsBreak

Founded in 2015, NewsBreak is the Content Intelligence platform shaping the future content economy. With over 40 million monthly active users, our flagship platform delivers highly personalized local news and information powered by advanced AI, recommendation systems, and adtech.

Recognized by Fast Company as #32 on the Top Workplaces for Innovators, we’re proud to be Great Place to Work® certified and home to a dynamic team of technologists, product innovators, and business leaders who are passionate about solving meaningful challenges at scale.

Together, we reached unicorn status in 2021, and we remain committed to continuing this high-growth trajectory with the right team to fulfill our mission: building the infrastructure layer for content intelligence.

If you’re inspired to dream big, innovate fast, and make a difference, we’d love to hear from you! For more information, visit www.newsbreak.com/about

About the Role

We are seeking a Staff Machine Learning Engineer to provide technical leadership for our recommendation systems and AI initiatives.

In this role, you will define technical direction for large-scale personalization systems , lead complex projects across teams, and drive the adoption of AI / LLM technologies in both product capabilities and engineering workflows.

This role is ideal for engineers who enjoy system-level thinking, mentoring others, and turning ambiguous problems into scalable solutions.

What You’ll Work On

Technical Leadership & Architecture

• Lead the design of next-generation recommendation system architectures at scale.
• Drive best practices for model lifecycle management, experimentation, and system reliability.
• Partner with product, infra, and data teams to align technical strategy with business goals.

Advanced Recommendation & AI Systems

• Own complex initiatives across retrieval, ranking, re-ranking, and multi-objective optimization.
• Lead the application of LLMs and foundation models in recommendation, content intelligence, and user modeling.
• Evaluate emerging AI technologies and guide their adoption into production systems.

AI-Native Engineering

• Champion AI-native development practices, including LLM-assisted coding, experimentation, and analysis.
• Help establish standards and shared tooling for AI-driven engineering.

0 → 1 Innovation & Scaling

• Lead 0–1 AI initiatives, from ideation and technical validation to production rollout and scaling.
• Ensure successful prototypes evolve into maintainable, scalable platforms.

What We’re Looking For

Minimum Qualifications

• 8 years of industry experience building large-scale ML or recommendation systems.
• Deep expertise in recommendation systems and applied machine learning in production environments.
• Strong system design skills and the ability to influence architecture across teams.
• Proven track record of technical leadership and cross-team collaboration.

Bonus / Plus Qualifications

• Demonstrated success applying LLMs or foundation models to recommendation or content systems in production.
• Experience leading 0 → 1 AI platform or product initiatives.
• Passion for improving engineering velocity through AI-assisted development workflows.

Benefits

We offer a competitive benefits package:

• Health, dental, and vision care for you and your family
• Top-tier 401(K) plan with company matching
• Paid time off and paid holidays
• Paid parental leave
• FSA and commuter benefits programs
• Team activity budget

The US base salary range for this full-time position is listed below. Pay may vary based on a number of factors including job-related skills, level, experience, geographic location and relevant education or training. At NewsBreak, we design our overall rewards package to attract top talents. Depending on the position, the role may also be eligible for discretionary bonus and options. Your recruiter can share more details during the hiring process.
Annual Base Pay Range
$230,000—$300,000 USD
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