Staff Machine Learning Engineer I, Search Retrieval (AI)

Location: Hybrid, Brooklyn, New York, US. Candidates should be within commutable distance of hirify.global’s Brooklyn office and attend once or twice per week; remote candidates outside commuting distance may be considered case by case with occasional office travel.

Company

hirify.global is a global marketplace for unique and creative goods connecting millions of entrepreneurs with buyers through large-scale commerce technology.

What you will do

• Architect and scale retrieval systems for hirify.global Search using lexical matching, semantic retrieval, dual-encoder models, vector similarity search, and query expansion.
• Build large-scale indexing, data, feature, training, evaluation, and low-latency serving pipelines for lexical and semantic retrieval.
• Move retrieval techniques from research and prototypes into reliable production systems and own models end to end.
• Design and analyze offline and online A/B experiments measuring relevance, latency, recall, coverage, diversity, and buyer impact.
• Lead cross-functional roadmaps with engineers, applied scientists, product managers, and leadership across immediate and 6–12-month initiatives.
• Act as a technical thought leader, mentor engineers and scientists, and resolve nuanced retrieval behavior issues at hirify.global scale.

Requirements

• Hands-on experience building retrieval or search systems end to end, including lexical matching, semantic or embedding-based retrieval, indexing, low-latency serving, and productionization.
• Proven delivery of impactful machine learning and NLP solutions across data extraction, feature engineering, model development, evaluation, and production integration.
• Experience designing scalable and extensible ML systems that account for localization and regional variation.
• Demonstrated technical leadership on complex ML systems, including setting technical direction, driving cross-team initiatives, and raising engineering standards.
• Strong software engineering foundations and proficiency in Python, Java, Scala, or equivalent languages.
• Hands-on experience with modern ML frameworks and infrastructure such as PyTorch and TensorFlow/TFX, including production use.
• Ability to translate abstract ideas into reliable, well-tested, maintainable code.
• Ability to collaborate empathetically and communicate clearly across disciplines.

Culture & Benefits

• Full-time employment reporting to the Search Retrieval Engineering Manager.
• Collaborative work with engineers, applied scientists, and product managers.
• Equity package and annual performance bonus.
• Benefits supporting employees and their families.
• Development opportunities and an inclusive, equitable workplace.
• Visa sponsorship is supported, though availability may be limited to certain roles and skills.

Hiring process

• Submit a resume; a cover letter is optional.
• Workplace accommodations are available during the interview and hiring process.