Staff ML Engineer (ML/AI)

Lyrahealth; United States; On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Lyra Health is seeking a Staff ML/AI Engineer to define and drive the architectural vision for Lyra’s machine learning and generative AI technology landscape. In this role you will serve as a technical anchor across engineering and data organizations—architecting enterprise-scale AI platforms, setting strategy for high-impact AI/ML initiatives, and ensuring reliability, security, and medical precision.

The ideal candidate translates healthcare challenges into scalable platform solutions, builds

Qualifications

• 8+ years deploying ML/AI into production with leadership experience.
• Strong Python and modern API design (REST/Protobuf) skills.
• Hands-on with Docker, Kubernetes and scalable microservices.
• Experience building RAG pipelines, LLM fine-tuning, and vector DBs.

Responsibilities

• Architect and drive the long-term AI platform roadmap.
• Lead end-to-end AI infrastructure for training, fine-tuning, and inference.
• Set SDLC standards for data lineage, CI/CD, evaluation and monitoring.
• Collaborate with Product, Data Science, Security, and Clinical teams.
• Mentor Senior ML Engineers and drive architectural reviews.
• Contribute hands-on coding and prototype critical paths.

Skills

ML/AI leadership

Python

RESTful API design

Protobuf

Microservices

Docker

Kubernetes

RAG pipelines

LLMs fine-tuning

Vector databases

Tools

Docker

Kubernetes

Vector databases

Protobuf

CI/CD pipelines

Job description

About Lyra Health

Lyra Health is a leading provider of evidence-based mental health care, serving more than 20 million people globally in partnership with employers and more than 100 million through health plan and partner relationships. The company has delivered more than 15 million sessions of mental health care, published more than 35 peer-reviewed studies, and delivered unmatched outcomes in terms of access, clinical effectiveness, and cost efficiency. Extensive peer-reviewed research confirms Lyra’s transformative care model helps people recover twice as fast and results in a 26% annual reduction in overall healthcare claims costs. Lyra is transforming access to life-changing mental health care through Lyra Empower, the only fully integrated, AI-powered platform combining the highest-quality care and technology solutions.

About the Role

We are seeking a Staff ML/AI Engineer to define and drive the architectural vision for Lyra’s machine learning and generative AI technology landscape. In this role, you will serve as a technical anchor across the engineering and data organizations—architecting enterprise-scale AI platforms, setting technical strategy for high-impact AI/ML initiatives, and ensuring our AI products operate with top-tier reliability, security, and medical precision.

The ideal candidate is a seasoned technical leader who excels at translating complex healthcare challenges into scalable platform solutions, building consensus across cross-functional leadership, and elevating the technical bar for the entire engineering organization.

Lyra is for you if you

• Thrive on working with brilliant teammates to solve complex, meaningful problems
• Are passionate about making a social impact and supporting people at their most challenging moments
• Enjoy cross-functional collaboration with physicians, therapists, data scientists, data analysts and product managers

• Drive AI Platform Architecture: Design and execute the long-term roadmap for Lyra’s machine learning and generative AI platform, enabling fast, safe, and reliable deployment of frontier models across the company.
• Lead AI Infrastructure Vision: Architect end-to-end training, fine-tuning, and low-latency inference platforms, including centralized RAG architecture, vector databases, and enterprise evaluation/guardrail frameworks.
• Set Engineering Excellence Standards: Establish organizational standards for the full AI/ML SDLC—from dataset lineage and CI/CD pipelines to automated model evaluation, red-team, and production monitoring.
• Cross-Functional Technical Leadership: Partner closely with Product Management, Data Science, Security, and Clinical leaders to translate strategic clinical goals into foundational AI capability roadmaps.
• Mentor and Multiply Impact: Elevate the engineering culture by mentoring Senior ML Engineers, conducting high-leverage architectural reviews, and establishing engineering best practices across teams.
• Hands-On Leadership: Lead by example through technical prototypes, critical-path architecture, and strategic coding contributions.
• And of course, you will be coding!

• 8+ years of experience deploying complex ML/AI solutions into mission-critical production environments, with a proven track record of technical leadership.
• Deep System & Software Engineering Expertise: Mastery of Python, RESTful API design, Protobuf, and microservices architecture.
• Production AI/ML Infrastructure Mastery: Deep expertise with Docker, Kubernetes, container orchestration, and real-time inference services.
• Modern Generative AI Architecture: Hands-on experience designing and deploying RAG pipelines, fine-tuning LLMs, managing vector databases, and building robust LLM evaluation/guard