Staff ML Engineer: Large-Scale Matching & Personalization

ZipRecruiter, Inc.; Santa Monica (CA); 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, Inc. is seeking a Staff Machine Learning Engineer / Data Scientist to lead core ML initiatives in a high-visibility role. You will shape the ML roadmap, design scalable systems, and translate research into production models.

This role is hybrid with remote options for US-based employees. You will mentor ML engineers, collaborate with engineering and product teams, and drive end-to-end model development from experimentation to deployment.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of professional experience developing and deploying machine learning models in large-scale production environments.
• 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.

Responsibilities

• 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.

Skills

Leadership

AB testing

Statistical modeling

Recommendation systems

Retrieval & ranking

Education

MS/PhD in CS or ML

Tools

PyTorch

TensorFlow

Job description

Staff Machine Learning Engineer, Recommendations

Remote, Santa Monica, CA

We offer a hybrid work environment. Most US-based positions can also be performed 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.

We are seeking a Staff Machine Learning Engineer / Data Scientist to serve as a technical anchor for our machine learning and AI capabilities. Reporting directly to the Director of Recommendation Systems, you will be a core partner in shaping our multi-year ML roadmap, driving foundational algorithmic architecture, and translating complex machine learning research into high-throughput, low-latency production systems.

This is a high-visibility role with org-wide reach. Beyond delivering core algorithmic gains, you will mentor Machine Learning Engineers across the organization and establish best practices for how ML models are built, deployed, and evaluated at scale.

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

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.

Accepted file types: pdf, doc, docx, txt, rtf

Enter manually

Accepted file types: pdf, doc, docx, txt, rtf

Education

School Select...

Degree Select...

Select...

Are you legally authorized to work in the United States for our Company? * Select...

Will you now, or in the future, require sponsorship (i.e. H-1B visa, etc.) to legally work in the U.S.? * Select...

How did you hear about this opportunity? Select...

Voluntary Self-Identification

For government reporting purposes, we ask candidates to respond to the below self-identification survey.Completion of the form is entirely voluntary. Whatever your decision, it will not be considered in the hiringprocess or thereafter. Any information that you do provide will be recorded and maintained in aconfidential file.

As set forth in ZipRecruiter’s Equal Employment Opportunity policy,we do not discriminate on the basis of any protected group status under any applicable law.

If you believe you belong to any of the categories of protected veterans listed below, please indicate by making the appropriate selection.As a government contractor subject to the Vietnam Era Veterans Readjustment Assistance Act (VEVRAA), we request this information in order to measurethe effectiveness of the outreach and positive recruitment efforts we undertake pursuant to VEVRAA. Classification of protected categoriesis as follows:

A "disabled veteran" is one of the following: a veteran of the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service who is entitled to compensation (or who but for the receipt of military retired pay would be entitled to compensation) under laws administered by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs; or a person who was discharged or released from active duty because of a service-connected disability.

A "recently separated veteran" means any veteran during the three-year period beginning on the date of such veteran's discharge or release from active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval, or air service.

An "active duty wartime or campaign badge veteran" means a veteran who served on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service during a war, or in a campaign or expedition for which a campaign badge has been authorized under the laws administered by the Department of Defense.

An "Armed forces service medal veteran" means a veteran who, while serving on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service, participated in a United States military operation for which an Armed Forces service medal was awarded pursuant to Executive Order 12985.