Founding Machine Learning Engineer
Founding ML Engineer builds ML strategy, production systems, and infrastructure from scratch for AI cybersecurity threat detection using LLMs. Requires 8+ years production ML experience, strong software engineering, and cloud/ML frameworks; leads team growth.
About the job
Responsibilities
- Define Adaptive's ML strategy: where ML should be applied across our products, what infrastructure we need, and how we should approach build vs. buy decisions.
- Design and build production ML systems end-to-end — data pipelines, model training, evaluation frameworks, and inference serving.
- Establish evaluation methodology. Define how we measure model quality, catch regressions, and make data-driven decisions about model changes.
- Own the strategy for getting the data you need, in the format you need it — what/how to label, how to build feedback loops, and how our models improve over time.
- Partner with product engineers to integrate ML into the product. You will write production code and work within our existing codebase.
- Build and lead the ML team as scope grows.
Qualifications
- 8+ years of experience building ML systems in production, ideally with experience standing up the ML function at an early stage startup or as the senior or lead ML person at a previous company.
- Strong software engineering fundamentals. You write production-quality code in modern languages (Python, Java, TypeScript) and work within large codebases.
- Experience with cloud ML infrastructure (AWS SageMaker, Bedrock, Modal, Baseten, or similar).
- Experience with common ML and data processing frameworks (PyTorch, Tensorflow, Spark).
- Comfortable working across the stack — infrastructure, backend services, and data systems.
- Track record of mentoring MLEs and other engineers with observable, clear improvements in those you've worked with.
- High autonomy. You'll have support and context from leadership, but you're expected to define the path forward and drive it.
Compensation & Benefits
- Competitive cash compensation and meaningful stock.
- Several medical plans to choose from, most covered at 100% by Adaptive.
- 401k through Vestwell.
- Unlimited PTO, including winter break from Dec 24 - Jan 1.
- A fantastic office atmosphere including coffee, espresso, lounge, snacks, whiteboards, and tons of conference space.
- Rotating choice of 4 free lunch options from local restaurants every day.
- Expense dinner if you're in the office past 7pm. Expense Uber if you happen to stay past 9pm.
Skills
PyTorch, TensorFlow, Python, Java, TypeScript, Aws Sagemaker, Bedrock, Modal, Baseten, Spark
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