Senior Machine Learning Engineer, Recommendations

About the role

At Lyft, our purpose is to serve and connect. We aim to achieve this by cultivating a work environment where all team members belong and have the opportunity to thrive.

With a billion rides per year and counting, Lyft is solving hard problems in a rapidly growing domain with a lot of data and creative solutions in Rider, Marketplace, Growth, and beyond. While traditional approaches to optimization and problem decomposition are sufficient to disrupt transportation, building a next-generation platform for low-cost, ultra-immersive transportation to improve people's lives warrants modern ML utilizing peta-byte scale data. Our highly motivated Machine Learning Engineers work on these challenging problems and define solutions to directly impact various aspects of our core business.

If you are a critical thinker with experience in machine learning workflows and LLMs, passionate about solving business problems using data and working in a dynamic, creative, and collaborative environment, we are searching for you.

We are seeking a Senior Machine Learning Engineer to join the Rider Applied AI team and lead the design, development, and deployment of state-of-the-art machine learning and artificial intelligence systems. This role requires a strategic thinker who can balance high-level system architecture with hands-on technical implementation. You will collaborate across teams to shape the future of ride-sharing by leveraging AI, Machine learning and Data science.

Responsibilities:

- Model Development & Research: Design, build, and deploy machine learning models for real-time applications, including translating state-of-the-art research into production-ready solutions.

- System Design: Architect scalable, reliable ML pipelines that integrate seamlessly with existing backend systems.

- Innovation & Applied Research: Stay ahead of the curve by exploring emerging algorithms, technologies (such as LLMs and LLM-based applications), and frameworks — critically evaluating new research and identifying high-impact use cases across business areas.

- Collaboration: Partner with ML engineers, product managers, data scientists, and software engineers to align ML initiatives with business goals.

- Data-Driven Decision Making: Leverage data-driven insights to inform and refine ML strategies and solutions.

- Mentorship & Technical Leadership: Provide technical direction, mentor Junior engineers, and foster a culture of learning and collaboration.

- Code Quality: Write production-level code and participate in code reviews to ensure quality and share knowledge across the team.

Experience:

- M.S. or Ph.D. in Computer Science or related technical field

- 5+ years (or Ph.D. with 3+ years) of experience in machine learning modelling or related fields

- Experience with deep learning technologies for recommendation systems, including TensorFlow, PyTorch, or similar frameworks

- Understanding of statistical concepts such as hypothesis testing, regression analysis, and performance evaluation metrics for machine learning