Senior Machine Learning Engineer/ Applied Research

About the Company

We are a fast-growing, product-focused AI company operating at the intersection of applied research and real-world deployment. Our team partners closely with customers to design, build, and productionize advanced machine learning systems that solve complex, high-impact problems.

We emphasize ownership, speed, and innovation-empowering engineers to take ideas from concept to production while staying at the forefront of emerging AI technologies.

About the Role

We are seeking a Senior Machine Learning Engineer who thrives at the intersection of applied research and hands-on engineering. This role blends approximately 30% research (reading, synthesizing, and contributing to academic work) with 70% production-focused development.

You will play a key role in evaluating cutting-edge techniques and translating them into scalable, real-world systems. This is a highly autonomous role where you will own end-to-end ML initiatives, especially for new problem domains, building solutions from 0→1.

What You'll Do

Applied Research (30%)

• Stay at the forefront of machine learning by reading and synthesizing academic papers in areas such as:
  • Deep Learning
  • Large Language Models (LLMs)
  • Reinforcement Learning
  • Multimodal AI
• Publish research findings internally and externally to guide engineering direction
• Evaluate emerging techniques and determine their applicability to real-world use cases
• Contribute to technical thought leadership and influence company-wide ML strategy

Engineering & Development (70%)

• Design, build, and deploy production-grade machine learning systems
• Develop scalable pipelines for training, evaluation, and inference
• Work with modern ML frameworks and tooling to train and optimize models
• Implement and iterate on models across domains including language, vision, and multimodal data
• Collaborate cross-functionally to integrate ML systems into customer-facing products

Ownership & Execution

• Lead 0→1 builds for new customer domains or problem spaces
• Own the full lifecycle: problem definition, modeling, experimentation, deployment, and iteration
• Operate with a high degree of autonomy while maintaining strong alignment with team goals
• Mentor junior engineers and contribute to best practices across the team

What We're Looking For

Core Requirements

• 4+ years of experience in Machine Learning Engineering or Applied Research roles
• Strong programming skills in Python and experience with ML ecosystems
• Hands-on experience with:
  • Deep Learning frameworks (e.g., PyTorch, TensorFlow)
  • Large Language Models (LLMs) and/or generative AI systems
  • Model training, evaluation, and optimization techniques
• Experience reading and applying academic research in practical settings

Research Background (Preferred)

• Prior experience publishing or contributing to research papers (industry or academia)
• MS or PhD in Computer Science, Machine Learning, or a related field is a plus
• Ability to bridge theoretical concepts with production systems

Nice-to-Have Experience

• Reinforcement Learning (RL) or RLHF
• Multimodal systems (vision, video, audio, etc.)
• AI safety, security, or reliability in production environments
• Experience working in ambiguous, fast-paced environments or startup settings

What Makes This Role Unique

• High ownership: You will lead initiatives end-to-end, not just contribute to isolated components
• Research + production blend: Directly apply cutting-edge research to real-world systems
• 0→1 opportunities: Build entirely new solutions for emerging customer needs
• Impact-driven work: Your contributions will shape both product direction and technical strategy

Oscar Associates Limited (US) is acting as an Employment Agency in relation to this vacancy.