Senior Machine Learning Engineer

Onward Search is seeking a Senior Machine Learning Engineer for a remote, U.S. based contract role within an e-commerce ads platform. The focus is on building scalable ML models and production-grade ML systems. This assignment runs for 10 to 26 weeks with an hourly rate of USD 80 to 85. The position is based in Brooklyn, NY with remote work options and requires a minimum of two years of relevant experience.

Responsibilities

• Design and maintain scalable machine learning models to enhance ad relevance and overall system efficiency.
• Collaborate with product, data, and engineering teams to improve ad candidate retrieval and user engagement metrics.
• Deploy, monitor, and optimize ML systems operating in production environments.
• Contribute to data pipeline architecture to support scalable machine learning workflows.
• Troubleshoot and resolve issues in live production ML systems.

Qualifications

• Proficiency in Python, with additional experience in Scala, Java, or C/C++.
• Strong software engineering foundation with the ability to develop performant data pipelines on distributed systems.
• 2-5 years of hands-on experience across the ML lifecycle, including training, deployment, and monitoring.
• Familiarity with vector databases and retrieval systems, with ANN tuning; Vespa experience preferred.
• Practical experience using frameworks such as TensorFlow or PyTorch.

Technologies

• Python
• Scala
• Java
• C/C++
• Vespa
• TensorFlow
• PyTorch

Benefits

• Medical, Dental, and Vision Insurance
• Life Insurance
• 401(k) Program
• Commuter Benefit
• eLearning and Ongoing Training
• Education Reimbursement