Staff ML Engineer

Staff ML Engineer (Semantic Search & RAG Architecture)

Location: New York, NY

Employment Type: Full-time

Work Arrangement: Hybrid (3 days per week in-office)

About the Role

Our client, is the startup discovery engine used by the world's largest venture capital firms to find and invest in promising founders. They map the startup landscape to ensure hundreds of billions of dollars are routed efficiently. They have raised $30 million in funding.

They are seeking a Staff ML Engineer to lead the development of their core AI features. This is a high-impact role where improvements in ML outcomes directly enable customers to find better investment opportunities, driving innovation globally.

Scope of the Role

• Own Semantic Understanding: You will lead the strategy and roadmap to evolve their semantic search feature, which allows users to find compelling startups by describing market problems.
• This includes structuring data for embeddings, fine-tuning embedding models, and implementing creative retrieval and ranking strategies.
• Architect RAG + Personalization: You will own designing and building systems that leverage high-value customer data (notes, pitch decks, search patterns) to produce real-time, personalized search results and research answers.
• This involves designing systems for storage and Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) to align opportunities with customers' unique investment theses.
• Cross-Team Leadership: Partner with the infrastructure team to generalize your search and RAG architecture for platform-wide use, driving integration across product engineering teams.

• 6+ years of experience as a Staff ML Engineer.
• Hands-on experience with LLM-powered search, RAG implementations, or agentic workflows.

• Salary: $200K - $280K
• Equity: Competitive (top decile)
• Visa Sponsorship: Can sponsor H1B transfer (but not O-1).
• Benefits include: 100% premium covered health, dental, and vision insurance; 401k matching; Unlimited vacation/sick leave; Free lunch in the office; Monthly team dinners; and Quarterly company-wide offsites.

Due to the high volume of applications we anticipate, we regret that we are unable to provide individual feedback to all candidates. If you do not hear back from us within 4 weeks of your application, please assume that you have not been successful on this occasion. We genuinely appreciate your interest and wish you the best in your job search.

Commitment to Equality and Accessibility:

At MLabs, we are committed to offer equal opportunities to all candidates. We ensure no discrimination, accessible job adverts, and providing information in accessible formats. Our goal is to foster a diverse, inclusive workplace with equal opportunities for all. If you need any reasonable adjustments during any part of the hiring process or you would like to see the job-advert in an accessible format please let us know at the earliest opportunity by emailing [email protected].

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