Senior Machine Learning Engineer - Content and Contributor Intelligence (Remote - United States)

As a Senior Machine Learning Engineer on Yelp's Content and Contributor Intelligence team, you will lead the development and deployment of advanced ML models, including neural networks, large language models, and embedding techniques. Responsibilities include end-to-end data analysis, model training, and production deployment, as well as mentoring junior engineers and supporting both batch and real-time ML projects. The role requires experience with Python, Py Torch, Tensor Flow, Spark MLlib, XGBoost, Sklearn, and strong coding skills. A Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience is required. The compensation range is $112,000 to $269,000, with the option to work remotely across the US. Familiarity with LLMs, LLM APIs, and best ML practices is highly valued. As a Senior Machine Learning Engineer – Content and Contributor Intelligence at Yelp, you will play a pivotal role in building and deploying advanced ML models that connect millions of users and business listings. This fully remote position offers the opportunity to work with cutting-edge tools such as neural networks, large language models, and embedding techniques, while contributing to both offline and real-time data products. You will mentor junior engineers, drive best practices in ML development, and help shape the future of content intelligence. Compensation ranges from $112,000 to $269,000, with potential bonuses, restricted stock units, and comprehensive benefits, as explicitly outlined in the job description.

Summary

Yelp engineering culture is driven by our values: we’re a cooperative team that values individual authenticity and encourages creative solutions to problems. All new engineers deploy working code their first week, and we strive to broaden individual impact with support from managers, mentors, and teams. At the end of the day, we’re all about helping our users, growing as engineers, and having fun in a collaborative environment.

Yelp’s mission of connecting people with great local businesses requires the use of cutting-edge Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to scale across a vast and diverse base of users and businesses spanning various geographical locations. As a Staff-level ML Engineer on the Content Contributor Intelligence team, you will help build connections across millions of users and business listings. Your work will involve using cutting-edge industry tools, including neural networks (NNs), large language models (LLMs), and various embedding techniques for text, images, and videos. Additionally, you will apply traditional ML methods such as XGBoost and linear models to enhance our systems. You’ll be responsible for turning raw data into valuable signals and building ML systems end-to-end. This includes the full ML lifecycle from training models to deploying them in production, as well as contributing to the ML platforms these models rely on.

This opportunity is fully remote and does not require you to be located in any particular state within the US. We welcome applicants from throughout the US. We’d love to have you apply, even if you don’t feel you meet every single requirement in this posting. At Yelp, we’re looking for great people, not just those who simply check off all the boxes.

What you'll do:

• Conduct end-to-end analyses, wrangling data via SQL or Python, to statistical modeling, to hypothesizing and presenting business ideas.
• Mentor and guide junior engineers, fostering a culture of learning and technical excellence.
• Work with large and complex textual and visual datasets.
• Support the development and deployment of projects involving machine learned models for offline, batch-based data products as well as models deployed to online, real-time services.
• Work in the contributor and visual intelligence team on text and visual understanding, along with fine tuning transformer models to derive embeddings for multiple input types
• Productionize and automate model pipelines within Python services.
• Drive and advocate adoption of best practices in ML development and operations, and mentor newer engineers in those practices.

What it takes to succeed:

• Experience developing and productionizing machine learning models, particularly in neural networks, computer vision and LLMs including their supported data pipelines.
• Experience with machine learning using packages such as Py Torch, Tensor Flow, Spark MLlib, XGBoost, and Sklearn.
• Strong coding skills in Python or equivalent (Java, C++).
• Solid understanding of engineering and infrastructure best practices.
• The curiosity to uncover promising solutions to new problems, and the persistence to carry your ideas through to an end goal.
• We highly value experience of working with LLMs, utilizing LLM APIs (OpenAI, Bedrock, etc), prompt engineering and evaluation.
• A Bachelor’s Degree or an equivalent work experience is required

What you'll get:

• There are a variety of factors that go into determining a salary range, including but not limited to external market benchmark data, geographic location, and years of experience. Based on the anticipated level of experience we are seeking, we expect the compensation range for this role to be between $112,000 and $269,000. You may also be offered a bonus, restricted stock units, and benefits.
• This opportunity has the option to be fully remote in all locations across the US.
• You can find more information about Yelp's five star benefits here!

Closing

At Yelp, we believe that diversity is an expression of all the unique characteristics that make us human: race, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, disability, and education — and those are just a few. We recognize that diverse backgrounds and perspectives strengthen our teams and our product. The foundation of our diversity efforts are closely tied to our core values, which include “Playing Well With Others” and “Authenticity.”

We’re proud to be an equal opportunity employer and consider qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, ancestry, age, genetic information, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital or family status, veteran status, medical condition or disability.

Actual salary offered may vary based on multiple factors, including but not limited to, an individual's location and experience.

We will consider for employment qualified candidates with arrest and conviction records, consistent with applicable law (including, for example, the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance for roles based in San Francisco, the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for roles based in the unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County, and the California Fair Chance Act for roles based in California).

Where required by law, a criminal background check will not be conducted until after a conditional offer of employment is made, and any evaluation of a candidate's criminal background check will be subject to an individualized assessment that takes into account the candidate's specific criminal records and the responsibilities and requirements of the particular role.

We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations for individuals with disabilities in our job application process. If you need assistance or an accommodation due to a disability, you may contact us at accommodations-recruiting@yelp.com or 415-969-8488.

Note: Yelp does not accept agency resumes. Please do not forward resumes to any recruiting alias or employee. Yelp is not responsible for any fees related to unsolicited resumes.

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• Summary Yelp engineering culture is driven by our values: we’re a cooperative team that values individual authenticity and encourages creative solutions to problems. All new engineers deploy work Responsibilities
• Responsible for conducting end-to-end analyses and data wrangling to statistical modelling and hypothesis testing.
• Mentor and guide junior engineers, fostering a culture of learning and technical excellence.
• Work with large and complex textual and visual datasets to support model development.
• Support the development and deployment of machine learning models for both offline and real-time services.
• Play a key role in the contributor and visual intelligence team, fine-tuning transformer models for embeddings.
• Productionise and automate model pipelines within Python services.
• Drive and advocate adoption of best practices in ML development and operations, mentoring newer engineers. Skills
• Experience developing and productionising machine learning models, particularly in neural networks, computer vision, and LLMs.
• Proficiency with machine learning packages such as Py Torch, Tensor Flow, Spark MLlib, XGBoost, and Sklearn.
• Strong coding skills in Python or equivalent languages such as Java or C++.
• Solid understanding of engineering and infrastructure best practices.
• Demonstrated curiosity to uncover and solve new problems, with persistence in delivering solutions.
• Experience working with LLMs, utilising LLM APIs (OpenAI, Bedrock, etc), prompt engineering, and evaluation. Education
• A Bachelor’s Degree or an equivalent work experience is required.