Applied AI/ML Engineer

Replica Inc. • Francisco, IN

106d • $157,500 - $239,800

About The Position

Replica provides data about the built environment and ways people interact with it. With better data, human-context and an intuitive design, Replica helps public and private sectors make informed, effective, and responsive decisions. By showing how people live, move and work, we contextualize hard choices, allowing our clients to see around corners and understand the trade-offs surrounding their decisions. Whether for a city planner increasing public transit to underserved neighborhoods or for a grocery chain evaluating where to open a new location, Replica’s insights lets clients make more informed, people-centered decisions. We spun out of Alphabet in 2019 and recently secured series B funding from venture firms including Founders Fund, Innovation Endeavors, Sidewalk Labs, Firebrand Ventures, and Revolution’s Rise of the Rest Seed Fund. Today, we are a team of 34 employees with offices in San Francisco, New York, Kansas City and Remote. We value our customers, believe in being resourceful, and work in service of each other to scale our product. As we build our team, we are committed to pursuing and bringing together a diverse workforce and creating an environment of inclusion. We value our differences and we encourage all to apply. We are committed to equal opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, gender, gender identity, parental or pregnancy status, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, Veteran status, or any other status protected by the laws or regulations in the locations where we operate.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Applied Mathematics, Engineering, or related field; advanced degree (MS/PhD) preferred.
• 4+ years of professional experience in applied ML/AI, research engineering, or related roles.
• Strong Python skills with experience in ML libraries (PyTorch, TensorFlow, scikit-learn) and numerical computing (numpy, pandas, scipy).
• Experience designing, training, and deploying AI/ML models in production.
• Hands-on experience with large-scale data sets, especially geospatial or time-series data.
• Familiarity with distributed computation frameworks (Dask, Spark, Ray) and cloud environments (GCP preferred).
• Proven ability to communicate technical decisions and tradeoffs clearly to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• Design, prototype, and implement applied AI/ML models for mobility, activity, and behavioral modeling at scale.
• Drive improvements to core models for routing, mode choice, demand estimation, and geospatial forecasting — balancing research innovation with production readiness.
• Partner closely with Product and Data Science leadership to set technical direction for modeling initiatives, ensuring they align with customer and business needs.
• Evaluate new data sources (e.g., vendor-provided mobility data, traffic sensors, geospatial layers) for quality, coverage, and fitness-for-use in Replica’s models.
• Develop new algorithms to fuse Replica’s proprietary data with external sources (e.g., traffic sensors, land use, census, streaming data).
• Evaluate model performance, define success metrics, and iterate quickly to improve accuracy, robustness, and fairness.
• Collaborate with data production engineers to transition prototypes into robust, production-quality systems used nationwide.
• Contribute to modeling frameworks and shared libraries, mentoring peers and raising the technical bar across the team.
• Stay current with advances in machine learning, optimization, and geospatial modeling, applying them pragmatically to Replica’s challenges.

Benefits

• Our people! We work as a team and are excited to contribute to city planning.
• Competitive salary based on experience and potential for impact.
• Equity at an early stage startup.
• Health benefits including medical, dental, vision, and FSA options.
• 401k account + employer safe harbor contribution.
• Offices in San Francisco, CA, New York and Kansas City.
• Flexible PTO.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Education Level: Bachelor's degree
• Number of Employees: 51-100 employees