Senior Machine Learning Engineer

Checkr • San Francisco, CO

20h • Hybrid

About The Position

Checkr is hiring an ML Engineer (P3) for its central Data & ML team within Engineering. The role builds and ships production machine-learning services and AI systems that support Checkr’s core products, including document processing, charge classification, entity resolution, and in-product intelligence. The systems are used by Product Engineering teams and are intended to make background checks faster, more accurate, and less costly to operate. This is an end-to-end production engineering role, not a research or notebook-focused role: the engineer designs, codes, deploys, tests, and monitors ML services.

The engineer will work closely with Product Engineering, Product, and other cross-functional teams, translating business problems into ML solutions and defining API contracts. The role also contributes to Checkr’s AI strategy, including agentic workflows and a scalable semantic layer. Checkr is seeking a candidate based in San Francisco with experience building ML systems in fast-moving, impact-focused environments. Employees are expected to work from a Checkr hub office at least three days a week.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Mathematics, or a related technical field, or equivalent depth from experience.
• At least 6 years of professional software development experience, including at least 2 years building ML systems that run in production.
• Strong Python fluency and ability to write clean, testable, well-structured code with solid object-oriented programming skills.
• Hands-on experience using LLM APIs in production systems, including prompt engineering, structured outputs, function calling, cost management, and evaluation.
• Experience building and maintaining APIs, working with CI/CD pipelines, and shipping code that other engineers depend on.
• Comfort with and enthusiasm for AI-assisted workflows; ability to use AI tools while understanding and reviewing their output.
• Strong bias for action, ownership, urgency, resilience through ambiguity, and focus on delivering meaningful outcomes.

Nice To Haves

• Experience with MLOps platforms such as MLflow, SageMaker, or Vertex.
• Background in document processing, OCR, or information extraction.
• Experience with PySpark or large-scale data processing.
• Ruby experience; Checkr’s platform runs on Rails.
• Familiarity with compliance-sensitive domains such as fintech, legal tech, or HR tech.
• Working knowledge of dbt, Snowflake, or modern ELT and data transformation tools.
• Experience using LLMs, code-generation tools, or agentic systems in production or operational contexts.

Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and deploy production ML models and AI services relied on by Product Engineering teams.
• Build and maintain model code, API layers, monitoring, and tests.
• Use LLM APIs as production building blocks and select among LLMs, fine-tuning, classical models, or rules based on cost, latency, and quality.
• Write clean, well-structured production software with appropriate abstractions, error handling, and tests; work within CI/CD practices.
• Partner with Product and Engineering to translate business problems into ML solutions, define API contracts, and communicate approaches clearly to non-ML partners.
• Build evaluation frameworks, run experiments, and use data to assess and improve model and system performance.
• Automate workflows and pipelines, build agentic workflows, and contribute reusable skills and context to Checkr’s agentic platform.
• Contribute to Checkr’s broader AI strategy, including its agentic fleet and semantic layer initiative.

Benefits

• Learning and development allowance.
• Competitive cash and equity compensation, with opportunity for advancement.
• 100% medical, dental, and vision coverage.
• Up to $25,000 reimbursement for fertility, adoption, and parental planning services.
• Flexible PTO policy.
• Monthly wellness stipend.
• In-office lunch five times a week, commuter stipend, snacks, and beverages.
• Relocation stipend may be available for those willing to relocate to a Checkr hub location.

What This Job Offers

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