Full-Time

Senior Machine Learning Engineer

Posted on 10/31/2025

Haystack News

Haystack News

11-50 employees

Free ad-supported video news aggregator

No salary listed

Company Does Not Provide H1B Sponsorship

Fort Lauderdale, FL, USA

Hybrid

Category
AI & Machine Learning (2)
,
Requirements
  • 5+ year professional experience with at least 3 years building large-scale recommender systems (for news feeds, shopping, image, music, video, ads, etc)
  • Track record of shipping models to real-world applications and making an impact
  • Experience building and deploying online ML algorithms (e.g. contextual bandits)
  • Master's degree in Computer Science, Mathematics, Electrical Engineering, Statistics, or Operation Research
  • Proficient in programming in Python. Additional programming experience in Java, JavaScript, or C++ is a plus.
  • Experience with deep learning and being familiar with tools such as PyTorch or TensorFlow
  • Familiarity with common machine learning algorithms, such as GBDT, XGBoost, Random Forest, Logistic Regression.
  • Experience with SQL (e.g. postgres, snowflake, etc)
Responsibilities
  • Work cross-functionally to translate business problems into ones that can be solved using machine learning.
  • Have curiosity and apply analytical skills to dive deep into data to find key insights that would impact the business.
  • Develop machine learning models to make recommendations and influence the product roadmap.
  • Work with other team members to develop key metrics to achieve business outcomes.
  • Be a champion of AB testing. Design, execute, and analyze experiments to prove product change attribution.
Desired Qualifications
  • 2+ years of applied research experience (including research work during PhD)
  • Experience working with LLMs, Semantic Search and text embeddings (e.g. BERT)

Haystack News provides free, ad-supported streaming of local, national, and international video news. It aggregates news content from partners and offers live 24/7 channels plus on-demand clips, delivered through a personalized playlist that uses the viewer’s location and interests. The platform runs ads within streams to monetize, with a premium subscription available to remove ads. It works across many devices, including smart TVs, OTT boxes, and mobile apps, and includes features like an interactive Newsline ticker. Haystack News differentiates itself by securing local news coverage in over 90% of U.S. markets through partnerships with nearly 300 broadcast stations and by combining personalized, short-form clips with live feeds on an ad-supported model. Its goal is to give cord-cutters and other viewers easy access to a broad, personalized news experience without needing a traditional cable subscription.

Company Size

11-50

Company Stage

Early VC

Total Funding

$4.5M

Headquarters

San Francisco, California

Founded

2013

Simplify Jobs

Simplify's Take

What believers are saying

  • 114% employee growth to 47 staff supports scaling operations and product development.
  • Live 24/7 channels from ABC News, CBS News, Bloomberg expand premium content offerings.
  • Smart TV integration with Samsung, Vizio, Roku positions Haystack in high-engagement viewing environments.

What critics are saying

  • YouTube Shorts' 2.5B users and superior algorithms directly cannibalize Haystack's 25M user base.
  • Roku and Samsung launching proprietary news features eliminate third-party app distribution and ad revenue.
  • Local broadcasters launching direct-to-consumer apps reduce content licensing and threaten 90% market coverage claim.

What makes Haystack News unique

  • Aggregates 350+ channels covering 90% of U.S. local markets through 300 broadcast partnerships.
  • Personalized news curation using location, interests, and publisher preferences across devices.
  • Free ad-supported model with premium option, generating $9.4M revenue at $200.8K per employee.

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Benefits

Remote Work Options

Flexible Work Hours

Growth & Insights

Headcount

6 month growth

-2%

1 year growth

-2%

2 year growth

-2%
INACTIVE