Principal Machine Learning Engineer

See yourself at Twilio

Join the team as Twilio’s next Principal Machine Learning Engineer on Twilio’s Emerging Technology & Innovation organization.

Who we are & why we’re hiring

Twilio powers real-time business communications and data solutions that help companies and developers worldwide build better applications and customer experiences.

Although we're headquartered in San Francisco, we have presence throughout South America, Europe, Asia and Australia. We're on a journey to becoming a global company that actively opposes racism and all forms of oppression and bias. At Twilio, we support diversity, equity & inclusion wherever we do business.

About the job

This position is needed to spearhead ML/AI focused research projects,  build prototypes, and explore emerging  technologies for Twilio's Emerging Technology & Innovation (ETI) organization.

Twilio's ETI organization is focused on exploring the future of customer engagement through research and experimentation. We dream big, but we also believe in rapidly prototyping our ideas to share with real customers for feedback and iteration. As an early member of this new organization, you will have the chance to influence the strategy and culture of our organization.

As a Principal Machine Learning Engineer of the ETI organization, you will be responsible for leading research projects, experimenting with proof of concepts, and staying on the cutting edge of “what if”. There are many exciting challenges ahead of us and we are looking for an engineer who is comfortable with ambiguity, has a proven track record for delivering results, and has experience with the emerging technologies of AI, LLMs, and a passion for keeping up with their latest developments.

Responsibilities

In this role, you’ll:

• Research new ML and AI technologies and tools
• Build prototypes to further your research and test them with customers.
• Collaborate with data scientists, engineers, and developers to integrate AI models and algorithms into existing systems and applications
• Collaborate closely with your product, design and go to market partners to ensure our work puts the customer first and we are all rowing in the same direction.
• Rapidly acquire new technical skills and knowledge in a fast-paced, high-delivery environment. There will be a steep learning curve to this job, you should be comfortable diving in the deep end and creating clarity for yourself.
• Influence steering committee discussions on leveraging AI across the whole of Twilio.
• Most importantly, Experiment! As our new team grows, you should embody the practice of testing out new ideas and iterating based on feedback. Not only in the products you deliver, but in the way we conduct ML/AL research at Twilio.

Qualifications 

Not all applicants will have skills that match a job description exactly. Twilio values diverse experiences in other industries, and we encourage everyone who meets the required qualifications to apply. While having “desired” qualifications make for a strong candidate, we encourage applicants with alternative experiences to also apply. If your career is just starting or hasn't followed a traditional path, don't let that stop you from considering Twilio. We are always looking for people who will bring something new to the table!

Required:

• 10+ years hands on experience as an engineer writing production-grade code in a modern programming language (language agnostic)
• 3+ years of research experience in a professional or academic setting where building your idea and testing it with customers was a must.
• Experience evaluating the performance of different ML models/versions and making enhancements
• Experience working collaboratively with ML engineers, data scientists or ML Researchers
• Experience building an ML model and operating it in a production environment. 
• Passion for emerging technologies and staying up to date on their latest developments 
• Proven track record of shipping products to production, testing ideas early with customers and iterating rapidly on their feedback.
• Exceptional collaboration skills, the key to our success is going to be tied to our ability to partner with other parts of the organization and help them be successful.
• Strong customer focus, our feedback loop with customers will be very tight!
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills. Our ideas will only be as good as our ability to share them.

Desired:

• You have previously shared your ideas in public forums