Manager, Software Engineering (Machine Learning)

Figma is growing our team of passionate people on a mission to make design accessible to all. Born on the Web, Figma helps entire product teams brainstorm, design and build better products — from start to finish. Whether it’s consolidating tools, simplifying workflows, or collaborating across teams and time zones, Figma makes the design process faster, more efficient, and fun while keeping everyone on the same page. From great products to long-lasting companies, we believe that nothing great is made alone—come make with us!

We’re looking for a leader for our Machine Learning Engineering team that is bringing cutting-edge Machine Learning and AI technology to Figma’s industry-leading design and collaboration products. You will be leading a team that is driving fundamental and applied research in this area, combining industry best practices and a first-principles approach to design and build ML models and infrastructure that will improve Figma’s products. You will be building, leading and supporting a world-class team of ML Engineers to bring this innovative research to a new space and support Figma users all over the world.

This is a full time role that can be held from one of our US hubs or remotely in the United States.

What you’ll do at Figma:

• Manage a team of ML Engineers that are driving fundamental and applied research in ML/AI. You and the team will explore the boundaries of what is possible with the current technology set
• Hire and develop a world-class team of engineers
• Combine industry best practices and a first-principles approach to design and build ML models and infrastructure
• Work in concert with other product and infrastructure engineers to improve Figma’s design and collaboration products

We'd love to hear from you if you have:

• 8+ years of experience in one or more of the following areas: machine learning, recommendation systems, natural language understanding/generation or artificial intelligence
• 2+ years of experience managing high-performing engineering and/or applied research teams
• Experience communicating and working across functions to drive solutions
• Experience in mentoring/influencing senior engineers across organizations
• Deep domain knowledge and understanding of machine learning research, frameworks, data pipelines, and platform architecture

While not required, It’s an added plus if you also have:

• Proven track record of planning multi-year roadmap in which shorter-term projects ladder to the long-term vision
• Experience building and productionizing ML models within highly used products and services
• Strong understanding of Language Models (LLMs) and related technologies

At Figma, one of our values is Grow as you go. We believe in hiring smart, curious people who are excited to learn and develop their skills. If you’re excited about this role but your past experience doesn’t align perfectly with the points outlined in the job description, we encourage you to apply anyways. You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles.

Read more about our team

• Figma's VP of Design, Noah, presenting on our ML roadmap at our annual conference, ConFig
• Fast Company awarded Figma the General Excellence award in the 2023 Innovation by Design category
• Investing in Figma: The Decade of Design
• Figma's next product is a multiplayer whiteboard called FigJam

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Pay Transparency Disclosure

If based in Figma’s San Francisco or New York hub offices, this role has the annual base salary range stated below.  

Job level and actual compensation will be decided based on factors including, but not limited to, individual qualifications objectively assessed during the interview process (including skills and prior relevant experience, potential impact, and scope of role), market demands, and specific work location. The listed range is a guideline, and the range for this role may be modified. For roles that are available to be filled remotely, the pay range is localized according to employee work location by a factor of between 80% and 100% of range. Please discuss your specific work lo