Lead ML Engineer

Lead ML Engineer

Lead a team of ML engineers building next-generation personalization and optimization systems. You'll balance hands-on technical work with team leadership, driving both technical excellence and business impact. This role requires someone who can architect complex systems while mentoring others and collaborating across organizations.

What You'll Do

• Lead a team of 3-5 ML engineers building personalization systems
• Architect multi-stage ranking systems (retrieval → ranking → re-ranking)
• Define technical roadmap aligned with business objectives
• Drive improvements in model quality, system reliability, and development velocity
• Establish best practices for model development and deployment
• Partner with product, data science, and engineering teams
• Contribute hands-on to critical model development (50% coding)

What We're Looking For

• 7+ years in ML engineering, 2+ years leading technical teams
• Deep expertise in large-scale personalization systems
• Experience with modern ML architectures (two-tower, transformer-based, graph neural networks)
• Strong system design skills for ML infrastructure
• Proven ability to mentor engineers and drive technical decisions
• Experience managing stakeholder relationships and project delivery
• BS/MS in Computer Science or equivalent experience

Nice to Have

• Experience in adtech, e-commerce, or content platforms
• Published papers or significant ML contributions
• Experience with multi-objective optimization
• Knowledge of reinforcement learning for personalization

Compensation: $130,000 - $250,000

Total Compensation

Base salary is set according to market rates for the nearest major metro and varies based on Launch Potato's Levels Framework. Your compensation package includes a base salary, profit-sharing bonus, and competitive benefits. Launch Potato is a performance-driven company, which means once you are hired, future increases will be based on company and personal performance, not annual cost-of-living adjustments.