Lead AI/ML Engineer

Arkestro

3h • $160,000 - $190,000 • Remote

About The Position

As a Lead AI/ML Engineer at Arkestro, you will own significant parts of how the company builds, ships, and operates AI-powered functionality in production. This startup-scale role spans a broad path from idea to production. You will help shape Arkestro’s AI/ML architecture while working closely with its existing ML engineer and the broader Data and Product Engineering teams. Arkestro’s Predictive Procurement Platform applies AI, game theory, and behavioral science to enterprise negotiations, helping procurement teams make data-driven offers and reach better outcomes.

Requirements

• At least 6 years of experience in data science, machine learning engineering, or a related quantitative or engineering field, including hands-on delivery of production ML or AI systems.
• Strong software engineering skills, particularly in Python.
• Direct experience building and shipping ML models or AI/agentic functionality in production.
• Experience building or curating evaluation sets or ground truth for ML- or LLM-based systems.
• Experience with MLOps tools and practices for production ML/AI systems.
• Familiarity with cloud platforms, preferably AWS, and data warehousing such as Snowflake.
• Understanding of machine learning concepts and their practical production application.
• Experience with version control and CI/CD practices.
• Demonstrated ability to lead technical work with limited oversight and influence technical direction without formal authority.
• Excellent problem-solving and analytical skills.

Nice To Haves

• Experience embedding LLM-based or agentic features into a production product.
• Experience with dbt for data transformations.
• Familiarity with containerization and orchestration tools such as Docker and Kubernetes.
• Experience mentoring other engineers or serving as a technical go-to person on a team.
• Knowledge of procurement and/or supply chain data models.
• Prior experience in enterprise software and startups.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and productionize machine learning and agentic AI functionality.
• Partner with product engineering squads to embed AI and agentic capabilities into Arkestro’s product.
• Contribute to architecture decisions for AI products and systems, including the evolving AI/ML stack.
• Contribute to dbt and data pipeline work as needed for the systems being built.
• Own evaluations and ground truth for projects, partnering with product managers and stakeholders.
• Work with the existing ML engineer to build and curate human-generated evaluations for the in-house automated evaluation system.
• Build and maintain tooling to bring AI/ML systems into production reliably, with attention to latency, cost, and error handling.
• Promote safety, reliability, and responsible-AI practices, flag risks, implement guardrails, and help define production readiness for AI features.
• Serve as a go-to resource for engineers on AI/ML best practices.
• Communicate clearly with technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Occasionally engage with customers or customer-facing teams to explain AI-driven functionality.

Benefits

• Competitive salary and startup equity.
• Medical, dental, and vision insurance premiums covered up to 100% for employee-only coverage.
• 401(k) discretionary employer matching.
• Unlimited PTO.
• Remote-first team with regular opportunities to meet in person for team building, design sprints, and customer visits.
• Annual $1,000 budget for learning and professional development.
• Diverse, inclusive, highly collaborative, and vibrant culture.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Education Level: No Education Listed