Machine Learning Engineer / Researcher

Senior ML and Research Engineer to own the end-to-end lifecycle of an AI driven CAD product, with onsite work in San Mateo, CA.

Responsibilities

• Develop and refine bespoke deep learning models tailored to CAD workflows, delivering high quality next-step recommendations
• Create and maintain robust Python based training and evaluation pipelines, covering data preprocessing, experimentation, and both offline and online metrics
• Design scalable model serving and backend components to ensure fast, reliable features that integrate with CAD environments
• Collaborate with the founder and early customers (mechanical and hardware engineers) to map real-world workflows into ML formulations
• Own ML features end-to-end from research and prototyping to productionization, deployment, and monitoring
• Partner with the engineering team on core product and infrastructure tasks including backend, APIs, data models, and performance
• Establish and enforce best practices for experimentation, logging, and model comparison
• Stay current with relevant ML research (sequence models, geometric deep learning, representation learning) and apply pragmatically

Requirements

• 4+ years of hands-on ML experience, or an equivalent research-based Master’s or PhD
• Proven track record of training and improving deep models, not solely relying on hosted APIs
• Expert with PyTorch (preferred), TensorFlow, or JAX — capable of implementing and modifying custom architectures, loss functions, and training loops
• Strong production-ready Python skills — clean, well-structured code with tests, documentation, and thoughtful abstractions
• End-to-end ownership experience — from data to deployment, including training pipelines, hyperparameter tuning, and shipping models into real products
• Ability to work closely with founders and translate open-ended product requirements into concrete ML formulations
• Willingness to commute to San Mateo for onsite or hybrid work
• US work authorization required; no visa sponsorship available

Technologies

• Python
• PyTorch
• TensorFlow
• JAX
• FastAPI
• Flask
• Django
• AWS
• GCP

Compensation

USD 110,000 - 175,000 per yearly

Benefits

• Competitive salary and meaningful equity
• Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage
• Catered team lunch in the San Mateo office
• Unlimited / flexible time off
• High-ownership role on a small, senior founding team

About the Company

The company is building AI powered CAD to fundamentally change how hardware is designed and manufactured. Founded by repeat deep-tech entrepreneurs with experience from top YC companies and frontier robotics, the team is turning CAD into an intelligent collaborator that understands design intent and autocompletes the work, enabling hardware teams to shift from weeks of repetitive clicking to minutes of high-leverage engineering. YC-backed, a 5–10 person team based in San Mateo.

About the Role

This is the first senior ML and research hire at the company. You will own the full lifecycle of ML systems powering the AI driven CAD product, moving between deep research and hands-on engineering, scoping problems with the founders, designing and training novel models, and shipping them into robust production code. Over time you will have the opportunity to define the roadmap for CAD focused ML research, mentor future hires, and grow into a Staff or Principal IC or early engineering leader.

Nice to Have

• Experience with geometry, graphics, CAD, 3D representations, or robotics
• Familiarity with cloud ML platforms (AWS/GCP) and backend frameworks (FastAPI, Flask, Django)
• Published research or meaningful open-source contributions demonstrating novel technical work

Interview Process

1. Short online survey (about 15 minutes)
2. Initial call (30–45 minutes) with the founders
3. Take-home coding and ML exercise (target around 8 hours)
4. Onsite or virtual technical interviews with CEO, CTO, and engineering team focusing on ML system design, research thinking, and production engineering
5. Offer

Logistics

• Onsite preferred in San Mateo; Bay Area candidates willing to commute considered
• US work authorization required; no visa sponsorship or relocation assistance available