Senior Machine Learning Engineer, AI Agent

Genies is an AI avatar technology company powering the visual and embodiment layer for AI. Through the Genies SDK, their proprietary avatar framework brings AI to life as fully realized AI personas that look, think, behave, and play like living identities. Genies powers AI companion, NPC, and agent use cases across enterprise, consumer, creator, entertainment, and gaming.

Genies has raised $200M from Silver Lake, BOND, and Bob Iger. Genies is built on the belief that every website, app, game, brand, and human will have an AI persona.

About the Role

We are seeking a highly motivated and passionate Senior Machine Learning Engineer to join our core AI team in San Francisco, CA. This is a high-impact role where you will take end-to-end ownership of the research and development behind our core AI avatar chat systems. You will drive the technical roadmap that defines the intelligence, personality, and interactivity of millions of AI avatars.

By tackling fundamental technical challenges, you will bring fun, autonomous, and inspiring AI companions to life. Working alongside a dedicated team of engineers and researchers, you will bridge the gap between cutting-edge AI research and real-world, consumer-facing product impact.

What Youll Be Doing

• Research and implement state-of-the-art solutions using foundation models, prompt engineering, RAG, knowledge graphs, and multi-agent architectures, alongside classical machine learning techniques for a multi-modal AI chat product.
• Architect, implement, and deliver scalable AI features and agentic systems within our backend systems.
• Design and execute rigorous quantitative benchmarks to evaluate and continuously improve agentic systems and AI features.
• Partner with the product team to iterate on and refine AI systems based on user feedback and engagement metrics.
• Work closely with AI researchers to seamlessly transition experimental research outputs into robust, production-ready backend systems.
• Define, implement, and enforce best practices for AI agent quality assurance, safety, and cost control.
• Fine-tune and train LLM/ML models when off-the-shelf options are inadequate.
• Remain at the forefront of academic and industry research in LLMs and AI agents, actively identifying and prototyping novel techniques to advance our technology stack.

What You Should Have

• Master's or Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, or a related technical field.
• 2+ years of hands-on experience developing agentic systems utilizing Large Language Models (LLMs).
• 3+ years of experience building scalable, production-grade backend systems in Python (or Go, Javascript).
• 5+ years of experience in machine learning and statistics, with a proven track record of building products leveraging LLMs, ML, CV, or NLP models.
• Strong communication skills, with demonstrated experience collaborating directly with product teams to design and elevate AI-driven features.
• A proactive approach to learning, staying informed by taking an active interest in emerging AI research and industry trends.

What We Prefer

• Master's degree or Ph.D. in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, or a related field.
• 3+ years of specialized experience developing complex, multi-agent systems using LLMs.
• Strong product intuition and a refined taste for delivering exceptional user experiences.
• Comfort thriving in a lean, fast-moving team environment; a willingness to dive in, take bold initiative, and own complex problems.
• A genuine passion for shipping products that surprise, delight, and engage users.
• A track record of publishing research at top-tier AI/ML conferences (e.g., ACL, NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, AAAI, EMNLP, NAACL).

The base salary for this position will vary based on several factors, such as relevant experience, location and your approved internal leveling assessed during the interview process. The base salary range for this role is $200,000 - $275,000. Salary is one component of our total compensation package.

This position also qualifies for equity (i.e. stock options). The benefits available for this position include flexible time off, a 401K retirement plan, insurance (medical, dental, vision, life/AD&D), and 11 paid holidays. We also provide paid sick time as required by state and local law. Additional benefits and perks contained in our standard employee benefits package are also offered for this position.

How Genies will support you

• Competitive salary and equity packages
• Comprehensive health, dental, and vision insurance
• Unlimited PTO
• Parental leave
• Hybrid work structure (minimum 4 days in office weekly)
• Monthly wellness reimbursement

Genies is a well-funded, fast-growing start-up that values innovation, creativity, and ownership. Our roles and their responsibilities are created with a breadth of scope that introduces each employee to exciting new challenges and opportunities that a growing start-up encounters.

The actual base pay is dependent upon a number of factors, including: professional background, training, transferable skills, work experience, education, location, business and product needs, and market demand. The base pay range is subject to change and may be modified in the future.

These are for our full time, benefits eligible positions

Skills

Academic Research, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Artificial Intelligence (AI) Agents, Benchmarking, Best Practices, Bridge Building, Communication Skills, Computer Science, Continuous Improvement, Cost Control, Customer Relations, Customer/Client Research, Employee Benefits, Gaming, Industry/Trade Analysis, Leading Edge Technology, Machine Learning, Metrics, Modeling Languages, Natural Language Processing (NLP), Product Design, Product Development, Product Shipments, Prototyping, Quality Assurance Methodology, Quantitative Analysis, Research & Development (R&D), Safety/Work Safety, Startup, State Laws and Regulations, Statistics, Use Cases, User Interface/Experience (UI/UX)

About the Company

Genies Inc