Staff Software Engineer - Applied ML

Character.AI, a leading AI company founded in 2021 by AI pioneers Noam Shazeer and Daniel De Freitas, is seeking a Staff Software Engineer specializing in Applied Machine Learning. This role is part of the platform team, which bridges ML Engineering and Data Engineering to build best-in-class ML systems, provide high-quality data for analytics and model training, and optimize data engineering tasks.

As a Staff Software Engineer - Applied ML, you will be responsible for designing, implementing, and iterating on Applied ML systems such as search, recommendations, and RAG in collaboration with Research and Backend teams. You'll own a family of classifiers for async user-understanding and interface with Growth and Data Science teams to improve engagement and user experience.

Key qualifications include:

• Expertise in building ML systems from scratch
• Experience leading teams of MLEs and Backend engineers on machine learning projects
• Solid understanding of Spark and ability to optimize Spark code
• Experience with production systems in Go, Python, SQL, Java, and Scala
• Proficiency in designing and executing AB tests
• 2+ years of experience with Kubernetes

Character.AI offers a competitive salary range of $150K – $350K, along with equity and comprehensive benefits. These include top-notch health coverage, a 401(K) match up to 5% of your salary, generous parental leave (up to 20 weeks), 4 weeks of PTO, and daily gourmet meals.

Join Character.AI in shaping the future of AGI and be part of a company that achieved unicorn status in just two years and was named Google Play's AI App of the Year. The company values diversity and welcomes applicants from all backgrounds, upholding a strong non-discrimination policy.

If you're passionate about Applied ML, recommendations, retrieval, embeddings, and building cutting-edge AI systems, this role at Character.AI in New York City could be your next career-defining opportunity.