Senior ML Engineer

About Us

The wholesale distribution industry is ready for a revolution, and Proton is leading the charge. The world relies on distributors to sell nearly every physical product, but despite its massive contribution to the global economy, this industry has been left behind in terms of technology. Proton is changing that. With AI-powered sales software, we’re breaking through the complexity of selling millions of products and making it easier for distributors to anticipate customer needs. Our mission is to bring the distribution industry into the modern age and the results speak for themselves. Distributors using Proton see 10x ROI, faster new hire ramp-up, and happier sales teams.

In 2022, we raised a $20M Series A backed by Felicis Ventures (investors in Twitch, Shopify, Opendoor, and many others) and Battery Ventures. This year, we’re laser-focused on driving customer growth. If you’re excited about the opportunity to wear multiple hats, and continuously learn and experiment, now’s the time to join the Proton team. 

The Role

We're looking for a product-minded generalist that will help us define and ship ML features that add value to our customers. As a Senior ML Engineer you will be responsible for the development and deployment of ML-powered features that enhance our CRM platform for distributors. You'll work closely with our users, and product managers to create cutting-edge machine learning solutions involving recommendation systems, personalization, insight generation and other AI-driven features. The Senior ML Engineer will also be responsible for prototyping new ideas, iterating based on user feedback, and shipping production-ready code. This role will report to an Engineering Manager.

The target annual salary range for this role is $100,000 - $120,000 USD.  Final offers will be based on your skills and previous experience. Proton collaborates with Oyster HR to hire international employees as full time (long term) contractors within our company. 

This role will be fully remote and based in either Europe or Lateen America. 

What you'll do

• Develop and implement machine learning features to power product recommendations, customer insights, and search functionality
• Improve ML features within our existing infrastructure, ensuring scalability and performance
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to gather requirements and translate them into technical solutions
• Stay up-to-date with the latest research in recommendation systems, personalization, and other relevant ML fields
• Participate in code reviews and contribute to best practices for ML development and deployment

You'll be a great fit for this role if you have:

• ML experience: You have at least 5 years of experience working in an ML team and have successfully shipped ML features to production. You understand classical ML concepts and tooling (such as clustering, collaborative filtering, linear algebra etc.), their purpose and practical trade-offs. 
• Startup mindset: You're pragmatic, nimble, and have a good record of shipping features, iterating fast, and working closely with users and PMs
• Strong software engineering skills: You have a proven track record of writing and deploying quality code at a senior level
• Problem-solving skills: You enjoy tackling difficult problems and can understand and take action on complex ideas quickly
• Independence: You take ownership of your work and thrive when given creative freedom. You like to experiment with new concepts and learn from mistakes
• Agility: You can adapt to new and interesting challenges in a fast-paced startup environment
• Team spirit: You recognize when you need support and are quick to support others when they need the same
• Communication skills: You can explain complex technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders

Other skills that we value:

• Interest in LLMs (beyond working with APIs)
• Prior startup experience is required
• Data engineering or/and Python software development experience
• Experience with recommendation systems, personalization, and search algorithms
• Familiarity with GCP and the VertexAI stack is a plus

Current Tech Stack

Backend 

• Elasticsearch & Redis as the main databases
• Actively migrating to SQL as primary database 
• API service in Python running in Kubernetes 
• Daily pre-computations run in Airflow 
• Machine learning 
•  AI models - neural networks 
•  Machine Learning Eng focused on experimenting with ways to improve existing models, building new models - training and developing models and deploying them 

Frontend 

• Vue.js 3/Nuxt 3
• Migrating Vue Component frameworks from ElementPlus/iView to Vuetify
• Docker and kubernetes to deploy 
• Github Actions for CI

Benefits

• Competitive Salaries + Company Stock Options - we want to pay you well (and equitably!) and make you feel like an owner.  
• Flexible Schedule - we think high levels of autonomy, responsibility and working asynchronously foster an amazing workplace.
• Unlimited PTO + 10 Company Paid Holidays - we even have tools implemented to detect burnout to make sure folks recharge regularly.
• 12 Weeks Fully Paid Parental Leave - that goes for primary and secondary caregivers; even if you’re adopting or fostering!
• Biannual Company Paid off-sites - time for us to be together, brainstorm, and make magic happen.