Senior Machine Learning Engineer

$165,600 - $264,500/Yr

Zillow - Oregon City, OR

Full-time - Senior

Onsite - Oregon City, OR

Real Estate

About the position

At Zillow, our mission is to empower individuals to unlock the next chapter of their lives. The AI Org at Zillow plays a pivotal role in delivering unique AI-powered experiences to the hundreds of millions of customers who visit our websites each month. The Connections AI team is at the forefront of AI product development, iterating quickly to solve complex problems. We are looking for a Senior Machine Learning Engineer (MLE) to join our team, where you will collaborate with a highly skilled group of applied scientists, software developers, and machine learning engineers. This role requires an entrepreneurial mindset and a deep curiosity about the rapidly evolving fields of large language models (LLMs) and AI-powered assistants. As a Senior MLE on the Connections AI team, you will be responsible for applying your expertise in applied machine learning to develop innovative solutions. You will work closely with cross-functional teams to understand customer needs, scope projects, design prototypes, and implement systems that support next-generation AI applications. Your role will involve leading efforts to deploy machine learning applications into production, optimizing their performance and efficiency, and fostering connections with other teams to ensure critical dependencies are met. We value a culture of rapid innovation and creative frugality, and you will play a key role in cultivating this environment. This position is categorized as remote, allowing you to work from a location of your choice within the U.S. However, you must identify your physical location to the company. The standard base pay range for this role in specific states is between $165,600.00 and $264,500.00 annually, with additional equity awards based on experience, performance, and location.

Responsibilities

• Collaborate with applied scientists, engineering, design, and research teams to understand and scope projects.
• Prototype, implement, and iterate on internal and external facing systems for AI applications.
• Lead efforts to deploy machine learning applications into production environments.
• Optimize impact, performance, and efficiency of machine learning models in production.
• Cultivate connections with other teams for critical dependencies and infrastructure.
• Contribute to a culture of rapid innovation and creative frugality.

Requirements

• Proficiency in a high-level programming language, primarily Python and PySpark.
• Practical knowledge of statistics, including causal inference and Bayesian inference.
• Strong communication skills to influence and educate others on experimentation and statistics.
• Experience in prototyping, developing, and implementing algorithmic solutions and new technologies.
• Hands-on experience in deploying machine learning models into production environments.
• Experience working with large-scale datasets and building ETL pipelines using Spark, Kubeflow, and DataBricks.
• Strong understanding of Machine Learning and Natural Language Processing fundamentals.
• Familiarity with Machine Learning tools and frameworks such as PyTorch, Transformers, XGBoost, and scikit-learn.
• Tenacity to tackle challenging problems and a passion for technical leadership.

Nice-to-haves

• Experience with generative AI or large language models.
• Experience with regulated, private, or sensitive data, document understanding, or reinforcement learning.
• Experience collaborating in a startup culture with science, engineering, design, research, and product partners.
• Advanced degree (M.S. or Ph.D.) in Computer Science, Engineering, Machine Learning, or a related field.

Benefits

• Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage.
• Life and disability insurance.
• Parental leave and family benefits.
• Retirement contributions.
• Paid time off and flexible work arrangements.