Engineering Manager - Applied ML (Search & Recommendations)

Parspec • San Mateo, CA

3d • Hybrid

About The Position

We are seeking a technical Engineering Manager, Applied ML (Search & Recommendations) to lead our Search Retrieval, Ranking and Recommendations. You will be the architect of our "Discovery Engine," moving beyond keyword matching to deep semantic understanding of construction data. You will lead a team of Applied ML engineers to design and deploy state-of-the-art models leveraging LLMs, vector databases, and sophisticated re-ranking algorithms to transform how the industry procures materials.

Requirements

• Education: Bachelor’s or Master’s degree (PhD preferred) in Science or Engineering with strong programming and analytical skills.
• Leadership: 3+ years managing ML teams, with a track record of shipping production-grade search or recommendation products.
• Domain Expertise: Deep conceptual understanding and hands-on experience in Search, Ranking, Recommendation systems, or NLP/Document Extraction.
• Technical Proficiency: Expertise in Python (NumPy, scikit-learn, pandas) and training deep learning models using PyTorch or TensorFlow.
• Software Excellence: Ability to drive high standards for clean, efficient, and bug-free code.

Nice To Haves

• Search & Ranking: Deep experience with Learning to Rank (LTR), BM25, and hybrid retrieval strategies.
• Vector DBs & Embeddings: Hands-on experience with Vector Databases (Pinecone, Qdrant, Milvus) and optimizing embedding spaces for domain-specific retrieval.
• Model Optimization: Expertise in fine-tuning Large Language Models (LLMs) and Bi-Encoders/Cross-Encoders for specialized semantic search.
• Advanced MLOps: Experience building evaluation frameworks for search (nDCG, MRR) and managing the lifecycle of embedding deployments.
• AI Agent Orchestration: Hands-on experience with agentic frameworks (e.g., LangGraph, AutoGen, or CrewAI) for building complex, multi-step reasoning chains.
• Research & Community: A track record of publications in top-tier conferences (e.g., NeurIPS, SIGIR, KDD, ACL) or significant contributions to open-source ML projects.
• Experience working with geographically distributed teams across multiple time zones.

Responsibilities

• Semantic Search & Ranking: Own the architecture for our hybrid search engine, blending keyword-based retrieval with dense vector embeddings to improve precision and recall.
• Recommendation Systems: Design and scale personalization algorithms that suggest products based on project specs, historical data, and cross-catalog compatibility.
• Model Fine-Tuning: Lead the fine-tuning of open-source and proprietary LLMs/encoders for specialized construction domain tasks, including NER and relationship extraction from complex documents.
• Vector Infrastructure: Architect and optimize our vector database strategy for high-concurrency retrieval and low-latency ranking.
• Mentorship: Lead, mentor, and grow a high-performing team of Machine Learning Engineers.
• Cross-functional Collaboration: Work closely with product managers, UX designers, and business leadership to integrate AI components into fully functional systems.
• Lifecycle Management: Participate in the complete product lifecycle from concept design to development, testing, and deployment.
• Performance at Scale: Build products that handle large data volumes efficiently while remaining highly scalable for new clients.
• MLOps: Design end-to-end data and ML pipelines for seamless production integration and monitoring.
• R&D Leadership: Work with the leadership team on research efforts to explore cutting-edge technologies.
• Engineering Standards: Uphold a culture of excellence by maintaining high standards in code quality, innovation, and rigorous experimentation.

Benefits

• Competitive salary and benefits, including family insurance coverage, free health teleconsultations, and learning/upskilling budgets
• Equity in the company
• Flexible hours and a hybrid work setup
• Unlimited PTO
• Opportunity to grow with a fast-scaling company transforming a large market

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Manager