Senior Applied Machine Learning Specialist

Vector Institute•Toronto, ON

1d•CA$125,800 - CA$157,300

About The Position

As a Senior Applied Machine Learning Specialist, Industry Lead, you will provide technical leadership in designing, building, and scaling applied AI solutions that address real-world use cases and business challenges for Vector sponsors, small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and other industry partners. You will collaborate closely with leading machine learning and AI researchers to translate state-of-the-art research and technologies into practical industrial applications.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in computer science, mathematics, electrical engineering, or a related discipline; MSc/MEng preferred;
Minimum of four years of industry experience applying machine learning to data science, applied research, or technology product development; experience across multiple industries is considered an asset;
Demonstrated experience serving as a technical lead on projects that apply machine learning or AI research to novel problems and real-world datasets;
Strong proficiency in Python;
Demonstrated data engineering experience, particularly working with messy real-world data;
Experience working with one or more leading open-source deep learning software frameworks like PyTorch, TensorFlow, HuggingFace, JAX, CUDA, etc;
Understanding of the broad set of AI and ML tooling ecosystem, including model development, training, evaluation, and deployment;
Familiar with every stage of ML lifecycle from problem formulation and data preparation through operational considerations of deployment, monitoring, and iteration;
Strong problem-solving abilities, with the ability to translate between technical concepts and business use cases, tailoring communication to diverse stakeholders;
Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to clearly explain complex technical concepts.

Nice To Haves

Experience leading a team of researchers or engineers is an asset;
Experience with distributed systems and cloud-native infrastructure, including tools such as Kafka, Kubernetes, Terraform, Prometheus, Docker, and cloud-managed services (AWS/GCP/Azure) is preferred;
Experience building end-to-end AI software applications in an industry setting is an asset.

Responsibilities

Provide technical leadership for industry programs that enable SMEs, and other industry partners in Vector’s ecosystem, by leading end-to-end use case discovery and refinement to translate business problems into ML-ready use cases defining success metrics, data requirements, and MVP scope to accelerate adoption;
Evaluate and assess company use cases based on AI maturity, data readiness, and business impact;
Interview, select, onboard, and match Technical Associate (TA) candidates with participating companies. Mentor and support TAs, and oversee project progress through regular check-ins and periodic reviews;
Design and deliver training materials that incorporate state-of-the-art AI research, modern ML techniques, and engineering best practices, tailored to the specific use cases presented;
Consult directly with industry partners on immediate technical and strategic challenges through one-on-one engagements;
Support design and development of reference applications and model templates that apply AI research to real-world problems using public and private data sets, providing software for training, testing, operating, and updating models;
Deliver open-source software and models for AI development projects, following an agile methodology with teams that includes Vector Applied ML Specialists, Applied ML Scientists, professional staff, researchers, and industry sponsors;
Report and present software development outcomes for team efforts, including demos, status, and results;
Other related duties as assigned from time to time.