Machine Learning Engineer

Headquartered in Los Angeles, California, Right Balance provides top-tier technology talent for innovative companies in the US. We’re in the top 50 companies to watch in LA.

Client Engagement Details

Our client is an VC-funded early-stage US-based startup with an ambitious vision to revolutionize the Real Estate space with a solution allowing home owners to sell their homes by themselves.

Join an exciting startup as a part of the initial team, make impact, and work on a new and exciting idea!

The Role:

We're seeking a Senior/Staff Software Engineer with deep expertise in LLM applications. The ideal candidate will bridge technical excellence with business problem-solving to help us build innovative AI solutions from the ground up.

Key Responsibilities

• Design and develop applications leveraging LLM technologies
• Build robust, scalable, and production-ready systems
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to translate business requirements into technical solutions
• Evaluate and implement state-of-the-art AI techniques for product development
• Contribute to technical architecture and engineering best practices

Technical Focus Areas

• Prompt Engineering - Ability to design effective prompts for different use cases
• Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) - Knowledge of embedding models, vector databases, and retrieval strategies
• Agent Building - Understanding of autonomous AI systems and orchestration
• Context Window Management - Techniques for working with and optimizing large context windows
• System Design - Architecture of LLM-powered applications at scale
• Fine-tuning Approaches - Knowledge of adaptation techniques like PEFT, LoRA, etc.

Startup Fit & Mindset

• Thrives in ambiguous, fast-paced environments with minimal direction
• Demonstrates high agency and self-starter mentality
• Embraces “get things done” attitude with focus on tangible results
• Comfortable wearing multiple hats and rapidly shifting priorities
• Bias toward action and iteration over perfect solutions
• History of driving projects forward independently
• Ability to make smart trade-offs between speed and technical debt

What’s in it for you?

1. Learn and evolve your skills using the latest and greatest technology tools in a rapidly growing company.
2. Learn from the best people around you. We constantly challenge the status quo and invent new ways of building a great product.
3. 100% remote. Work anywhere, whether it is remotely in the comfort of your home, in a shared co-working space, in an RV on the beach, or while being a nomad in another country.
4. Work on challenging problems, innovate, and positively impact many people's lives while having fun doing it.

Required Qualifications

• Upper-intermediate to fluent speaking and writing English. Able to have a real-time conversation.
• 5+ years of full-time hands-on Data Science/Software Development experience.
• 2+ years of full-time hands-on AI Development experience.
• Full-time hands-on experience with LLM, LlamaIndex, LangChain, Hugging Face
• Demonstrated experience building applications or products with LLMs
• Strong programming skills and software engineering fundamentals
• Experience working in venture-backed startups.
• Experience working with a non-technical entrepreneur.
• Proactiveness: ability to initiate conversations, figure out the requirements, and come up with solutions to vague problem definitions.
• Self-sufficiency: experience achieving results with minimal supervision and guidance.

Nice to Haves

• Experience at technology companies
• Prior startup experience, especially in early-stage environments
• Experience building and deploying production AI systems
• Track record of solving complex business problems with technical solutions
• Bonus: Open-source contributions or personal projects involving LLMs
• Bonus: Real estate industry experience or understanding is a plus
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or equivalent demonstrated ability.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are your typical clients?

The majority of our clients are venture-backed startups at the growth stage. Usually, at this stage, the company already achieved a product-market fit and is looking to expand rapidly. That’s where we bring the best engineering practices, strong architecture, the latest technologies, and consistent processes to help companies scale.

What is the length of your engagements?

Most of our long-term full-time engagements last multiple years. It allows you to evolve your career with the client company taking on more responsibilities.

What’s your company size?

The Right Balance team is 60+ engineers going to 100+ by the end of the year. The current client size team is 3+ people. The timing is great to be a part of a rapidly growing team making meaningful contributions.

What happens if the engagement is completed?

Most of our engagements are long-term in nature. That said, if the current engagement is ramping down, we’ll present you with more long-term opportunities to transition into.

What are your core values?

• Client First: we only win when our clients win. We treat client challenges as our own.
• Ownership: we embrace responsibility, taking on challenges, getting them to completion, and enjoying getting things done.
• Quality: we’re passionate about achieving quality outcomes by applying meticulous attention to detail.