Staff Machine Learning Engineer

Madhive is the leading independent and fully customizable operating system built to help local media professionals build profitable, differentiated, and efficient businesses. Madhive empowers sales teams to extend their reach into streaming and connects local advertisers with the communities they serve. Madhive’s platform provides the unique ability to reach local audiences at national scale, with premium supply partnerships and end-to-end tools for planning, targeting, and measuring full-funnel campaign outcomes. Powering campaigns for over 30,000 small and medium businesses per day, Madhive is driving the evolution of local media. 

Join our tech-forward buy-side advertising platform as a Staff Machine Learning Engineer, where you'll be embedded in a full-stack team revolutionizing how broadcasters and agencies serve local advertisers. You'll shape the future of advertising technology by building ML systems that process billions of daily requests and while pioneering human-facing AI ergonomics—creating natural, hyper-collaborative interactions between humans and intelligent systems.

The Challenge

We're tackling complex ML problems at the intersection of advertising optimization and human-centered design:

• Campaign Intelligence: Build ML systems that optimize advertising campaigns in real-time, making billions of inferences daily across live transactions

• Data Storytelling: Transform massive-scale data streams into rich, actionable insights that empower local advertisers to compete effectively, and engage advertisers to connect novel insights from our data to facts on the ground they already know about their audiences

• AI Ergonomics Pioneer: Create ML interfaces so intuitive that users don't realize they're interacting with AI—where intelligence enhances rather than complicates workflows

• Real-time Decision Systems: Design models that make split-second decisions on bidding, targeting, and optimization while maintaining transparency and control

What You'll Do

Technical Leadership (80% IC work)

• Architect and implement production ML systems handling billions of daily requests with sub-second latency requirements

• Design sophisticated optimization algorithms for bidding strategies, campaign performance, and audience targeting

• Build both real-time inference pipelines and large-scale batch processing systems

• Create evaluation frameworks that balance multiple objectives: performance, cost, user experience, and advertiser ROI

AI Ergonomics Innovation

• Pioneer natural AI interactions where machine learning seamlessly enhances user workflows

• Develop collaborative AI systems that augment human decision-making without adding cognitive load

• Design ML features that feel intuitive and require zero training to use effectively

Technical Mentorship & Influence

• Elevate ML engineering practices across the company through mentorship and knowledge sharing

• Guide junior ML engineers on your team and throughout the organization

• Collaborate with executive stakeholders to align ML strategy with business objectives

• Partner with your full-stack team (frontend, backend, design, data) to deliver end-to-end solutions

Core Requirements

• Experience: 8+ years building production systems with 4+ years focused on ML at scale

• Education: Bachelor's in Computer Science, ML, or related field (Master's preferred, PhD welcome)

• Production ML: Proven track record deploying and maintaining ML systems serving billions of requests

• Technical Depth:

  • Experience combining LLM with classical ML models to solve problems more complex than RAG.

  • Expertise in modern ML frameworks (TensorFlow, PyTorch, JAX)

  • Experience with both real-time inference and batch processing at scale

  • Strong foundation in distributed systems and cloud platforms (GCP preferred)

  • Ability to thrive across the ML infrastructure spectrum—from rapid prototyping to robust production systems

• Leadership: Experience mentoring engineers and driving technical decisions in cross-functional teams

• Communication: Ability to translate complex ML concepts for diverse audiences

Nice to Have

• Experience in very large data organizations, collaborative and engaging agentic systems

• Background in optimization algorithms, operations research, distributed systems

• Contributions to open-source ML projects

• Experience with A/B testing at scale and causal inference

What We Offer

Compensation & Benefits

• Competitive base salary aligned with market rates

• Meaningful equity participation for all employees

• Comprehensive health, dental, and vision coverage

• Generous PTO and parental leave policies

Growth & Development

• Clear advancement path to Principal/Distinguished IC roles or Engineering Management

• Direct exposure to executive leadership and strategic decision-making

Work Environment

• Flexible hybrid model: 2-3 days/week in-office for those within 30 miles of New York City or Mountain View, CA

• Remote-friendly collaboration tools and practices

• Strong culture of work-life balance

• Fair on-call rotation for critical systems

Our Commitment

We're building a diverse team that reflects the communities we serve. We're an equal opportunity employer committed to creating an inclusive environment where different perspectives drive innovation. We encourage applications from candidates of all backgrounds, and we're happy to accommodate any needs during the interview process.

The approximate compensation range for this position is $200,000-$275,000. The actual offer, reflecting the total compensation package and benefits, will be determined by a number of factors including the applicant's experience, knowledge, skills, and abilities, as well as internal equity among our team.

We are Madhive

Madhive is a dynamic, diverse, innovative, and friendly place to work. We embrace our differences and believe they fuel our creativity. We come from varied backgrounds and think that’s important. Whether it’s taking ideas from previous lives and applying them in different ways or creating something completely new, we are all trail-blazing team players who think big and want to make an impact. 

We are committed to cultivating a culture of inclusion and collaboration. We welcome diversity in education, culture, opinions, race, ethnicity, gender identity, veteran status, religion, disability, sexual orientation, and beliefs.

Please be advised that we will NOT be using third-party recruiting agencies for this search.