Founding Machine Learning Engineer (AI)

TL;DR

Founding Machine Learning Engineer (AI): Building the next generation of intelligent search experiences for domains, leveraging large language models and scalable ranking/personalization systems. Focus on designing, building, and deploying hybrid search systems balancing relevance, latency, and scale, and leading technical direction in retrieval or ranking.

Location: New York City headquarters (Hybrid)

Salary: $128,500 - $236,500 USD

Company

hirify.global is a design-driven platform helping entrepreneurs build brands and businesses online, offering tools for websites, domains, e-commerce, and marketing.

What you will do

• Own key parts of retrieval or ranking scope as a founding Machine Learning Engineer.
• Design, build, and deploy hybrid search systems (classical ML + genAI + rule-based) for generative domain name search.
• Lead technical direction in retrieval (index design, query parsing, retrieval strategies) or ranking (learning-to-rank, multi-objective optimization).
• Lead embedding model selection, post-training optimization, and evaluation for semantic retrieval and ranking features.
• Collaborate with engineers, data scientists, and product managers to translate ambiguous product ideas into technical approaches.

Requirements

• 5+ years of professional experience in machine learning engineering, with at least 2 years focused on search, retrieval, ranking, or recommendation systems.
• Experience building production search or ranking systems end-to-end, including standing up new systems or leading architectural shifts.
• Depth in two or more of: retrieval (indexing, vector search), ranking (learning-to-rank, multi-objective optimization), or embeddings.
• Comfort owning strategy to help shape the roadmap while building high-quality technical solutions.
• Strong architectural judgment, with an ability to evaluate tradeoffs and communicate decisions clearly.
• Proven ability deploying and operating ML systems at scale, ensuring reliability, performance, and quality under high traffic volumes.

Nice to have

• LLM integration experience.

Culture & Benefits

• Choice between medical plans with an option for 100% covered premiums, fertility, and adoption benefits.
• Access to supplemental insurance plans and a Headspace mindfulness app subscription.
• Retirement benefits with employer match.
• Flexible paid time off, 12 weeks paid parental leave, and family care leave.
• Education reimbursement and employee donation match to community organizations.
• Dog-friendly workplace with free lunch, snacks, a private rooftop, and hack week twice per year.