Senior Machine Learning Engineer (Remote - Austin, or U.S.)

Introduction:

The Zebra, named a Best Place to Work in Austin four years running, is revolutionizing how connected consumers research and shop for insurance. We intentionally strive to build diverse teams that feel inclusive for all. Our motto is "All Stripes Welcome," and we put that into practice by valuing both traditional and non-conventional backgrounds and perspectives. Our Zeebs are passionate about learning, growing, & working together to tackle exciting problems.

The Zebra is highly invested in using data science to simplify insurance shopping for our customers. To support this goal, we are expanding our Data Science Engineering team and seeking a Senior Machine Learning Engineer to support production-grade ML deployment platforms enabling both single-record real-time/low latency scoring and batch predictions as necessary for models trained by the Data Scientists.

Reporting to the Head of Data Science, the role will have the unique opportunity to help set direction for Data Science Engineering at The Zebra and the future of our technical infrastructure. Our code should be well documented, have high test coverage, be configurable, secure, scalable, and maintainable. Our long-term goal is to stand up end-to-end ML systems in the areas of Model Re-training, Model Serving, and Model Monitoring.

We are looking for a curious, practical generalist with a passion for operationalizing machine learning models and enabling data scientists to be as impactful as possible. Our ideal candidate has not only hands-on technical skills and coding experience, but also the aptitude and desire to lead - whether that be evaluating new technology and architecting systems, or collaborating within and across engineering teams to help us achieve our goal of integrating data science throughout The Zebra’s products. The ability to be pragmatic and to balance technical sophistication with the constraints of working in a small (but growing) team is key to the success of this role.

Location: 

While we are open to remote work across the contingent US, we are still in the process of establishing our company to support work in all states! We’ve recently made the shift from an in-office organization to a hybrid model and love the flexibility it allows our employees. We are set up to support employees who want to be fully remote, in-office only, and a mix of the two. Please note - we will not be supporting work based out of the following states: CA, MA, NY, NJ.

What You'll Do:

• Expand and improve upon our existing platform to deploy machine learning models as REST APIs for real-time prediction in Python
• Lead the creation of a development platform to enable data scientists to deliver value faster (e.g. remote development environments, automated model training and monitoring, CI/CD for model deployment)
• Collaborate with other engineering teams (e.g. data platform, infrastructure) to identify areas of opportunity and enable data science across the organization
• Commit incremental changes to VCS while writing well-structured, quality, clean code
• Apply data science engineering standards: Unit testing, performance testing, documentation, modularity, maintainability
• Understands the tradeoffs of using existing tools vs. creating new ones

What We're Looking For:

As we evaluate candidates across all roles, we look for people who have a strong sense of ownership, great communication and collaboration skills, and a dedication to continuous improvement.

• Practical experience working with data scientists to operationalize machine learning models
• Experience leading large engineering efforts while making a solid individual contribution, understanding where to draw the line between good and perfect
• Strong experience with relational and/or NoSQL databases and with Git (branching, committing, pull requests, etc.)
• Familiarity with libraries and tools within the data science ecosystem (sklearn, pandas)
• Demonstrates exceptional attention to detail and strong programming skills in Python
• Strong understanding of REST concepts and the data science life cycle of model deployment

Experience that will Impress the Heck Out of Us: 

• Experience as an ML Engineer in a product driven B2C startup with a strong understanding of concepts such as a model repository and a feature store
• Experience building and deploying an ML pipeline for model development
• Exposure to data science modeling techniques (GLMs, machine learning, deep learning)
• Prototyping ability in: Containerization/Orchestration (Docker, Kubernetes); AWS (EC2, S3), Snowflake, Elasticsearch ML

Benefits & Perks:

Inclusive and healthy environments are crafted intentionally. All of our employees can join and participate in (or create your own!) Employee Resource Groups. Here are some other wonderful perks of working here:

• Competitive Compensation & Stock Option Offering
• Health, Dental, Vision & Disability Coverages
• HSA offering + employer contribution
• 401k plan + employer match
• Unlimited PTO (paid time off)+ the flexibility to enjoy it
• Paid Parental Leave Program
• Wellness perk ($100/month)
• Pet Adoption Reimbursement ($300/year)
• Learning & Development Opportunities
• Join a team that truly lives their values (outside of the office. Cliche, we know… but we really mean it)

About The Zebra:

The Zebra is the nation’s leading, independent insurance comparison site. With our dynamic, real-time quote comparison tool, consumers can identify insurance companies with the coverage, service level, and pricing to suit their unique needs. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, The Zebra has sought to bring transparency and simplicity to insurance shopping since 2012 -- it's “insurance in black and white.”

We've garnered attention and investment of some of the nation’s top venture capitalists. Check out all of our awards & recognition!

Our core mantra is "All Stripes Welcome." As part of our dedication to maintaining an inclusive and diverse workforce, we provide equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability or genetics. We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform core job functions, and to receive other benefits and privileges of employment. Please contact us to request accommodation.