Principal Machine Learning Engineer

Attentive® is the AI marketing platform for 1:1 personalization redefining the way brands and people connect. We’re the only marketing platform that combines powerful technology with human expertise to build authentic customer relationships. By unifying SMS, RCS, email, and push notifications, our AI-powered personalization engine delivers bespoke experiences that drive performance, revenue, and loyalty through real-time behavioral insights.

Recognized as the #1 provider in SMS Marketing by G2, Attentive partners with more than 8,000 customers across 70+ industries. Leading global brands like Crate and Barrel, Urban Outfitters, and Carter’s work with us to enable billions of interactions that power tens of billions in revenue for our customers.

With a distributed global workforce and employee hubs in New York City, San Francisco, London, and Sydney, Attentive’s team has been consistently recognized for its performance and culture. We’re proud to be included in Deloitte’s Fast 500 (four years running!), LinkedIn’s Top Startups, Forbes’ Cloud 100 (five years running!), and Inc.’s Best Workplaces.

About the Role
Our Machine Learning Engineering team powers personalized experiences for hundreds of millions of customers across thousands of brands. We build advanced ML models that predict customer behaviors in real-time, enabling highly personalized shopping experiences. Joining our team offers a high-growth career opportunity to work with some of the world’s most talented machine learning engineers in a high-performance and high-impact culture.

We are seeking a self-driven and highly motivated Machine Learning Engineer to join our growing machine learning teams. As an early hire, you will contribute to the development of machine learning models and infrastructure needs across the Attentive platform and work with Product Management and Engineering to implement end-to-end modeling use cases.

What You’ll Accomplish:
• Define the long-term technical vision for machine learning systems at Attentive, setting the standard for quality, scalability, and innovation
• Architect and build production-grade ML systems that deliver personalization at scale and in real time
• Lead cross-functional initiatives across ML, data, and engineering teams to accelerate the deployment and reliability of ML-powered features
• Proactively safeguard model and system quality by implementing rigorous testing, monitoring, and validation pipeline
• Champion best practices in ML development, driving improvements to model performance, system resilience, and engineering efficiency
• Act as a mentor and thought leader - guiding engineers, influencing architecture decisions, and advocating for long-term technical excellence
• Thrive in a high-impact, fast-paced environment, influencing both technical direction and product outcomes

Your Expertise:
• Proven experience building and maintaining large-scale ML systems in production environments
• Deep proficiency in Python and experience with frameworks such as TensorFlow, PyTorch, and xgboost
• Strong background with data processing and analytics tools including pandas, Spark, SQL, and matplotlib
• Expertise in designing scalable, automated pipelines for data processing, model training, validation, and deployment
• Experience leading cross-functional ML projects, collaborating with engineering, product, and analytics teams
• Strong communication and leadership skills with the ability to influence technical direction across teams

What We Use:
• Infrastructure: Kubernetes (AWS EKS), Istio, Datadog, Terraform, Cloudflare, Helm
• Backend: Java / Spring Boot microservices (Gradle), DynamoDB, Kinesis, Airflow, Postgres, PlanetScale, Redis
• Frontend: React, TypeScript, GraphQL, Storybook, Radix UI, Vite, esbuild, Playwright
• ML & Data: Python, Metaflow, HuggingFace 🤗, PyTorch, TensorFlow, Panda

You'll get competitive perks and benefits, from health & wellness to equity, to help you bring your best self to work.

For US based applicants:
- The US base salary range for this full-time position is $315,000 - 420,000 annually + equity + benefits
- Our salary ranges are determined by role, level and location

#LI-EF1

Attentive Company Values
Default to Action - Move swiftly and with purpose
Be One Unstoppable Team - Rally as each other’s champions
Champion the Customer - Our success is defined by our customers' success
Act Like an Owner - Take responsibility for Attentive’s success

Learn more about AWAKE, Attentive’s collective of employee resource groups.

If you do not meet all the requirements listed here, we still encourage you to apply! No job description is perfect, and we may also have another opportunity that closely matches your skills and experience.

At Attentive, we know that our Company's strength lies in the diversity of our employees. Attentive is an Equal Opportunity Employer and we welcome applicants from all backgrounds. Our policy is to provide equal employment opportunities for all employees, applicants and covered individuals regardless of protected characteristics. We prioritize and maintain a fair, inclusive and equitable workplace free from discrimination, harassment, and retaliation. Attentive is also committed to providing reasonable accommodations for candidates with disabilities. If you need any assistance or reasonable accommodations, please let your recruiter know.