Machine Learning Engineer - Supply Platform

Liftoff is the leading growth acceleration platform for the mobile industry, helping advertisers, publishers, game developers and DSPs scale revenue growth with solutions to market and monetize mobile apps.

Liftoff’s solutions, including Accelerate, Direct, Influence, Monetize, Intelligence, and Vungle Exchange, support over 6,600 mobile businesses across 74 countries in sectors such as gaming, social, finance, ecommerce, and entertainment. Founded in 2012 and headquartered in Redwood City, CA, Liftoff has a diverse, global presence.

Company

Liftoff is the leading growth acceleration platform for the mobile industry, helping advertisers, publishers, game developers and DSPs scale revenue growth with solutions to market and monetize mobile apps.

Liftoff’s solutions, including Accelerate, Direct, Influence, Monetize, Intelligence, and Vungle Exchange, support over 6,600 mobile businesses across 74 countries in sectors such as gaming, social, finance, ecommerce, and entertainment. Founded in 2012 and headquartered in Redwood City, CA, Liftoff has a diverse, global presence.

Position

At Liftoff, the Supply Platform team plays a crucial role in the company's Publisher side business success. Our team is dedicated to designing and constructing the platform infrastructure that processes over a billion events daily and is expanding rapidly. We're a group of innovative engineers who leverage the latest technology to develop efficient and scalable systems. If you're passionate about building and scaling low-latency, high-throughput systems, we'd be delighted to speak with you!

Location

The role is remote-first, if you are (1) able to work Pacific time zone hours and (2) willing to travel to Orange County for in-person meetings 1-2 weeks per quarter.

We are a remote-first company with US hubs in Redwood City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Orange County and NYC.

Given that the majority of the team is based in Orange County (OC), it would be beneficial for this individual to be located in the OC/Los Angeles (LA) area, allowing for regular in-person meetings at our OC office (Costa Mesa, CA 92626). Most of the local team meets in-office once per week. However, we are also open to candidates located on the West Coast who are willing to travel regularly (one week per quarter) to the OC office to meet with the team.

Responsibilities

• Develop and train machine learning algorithms to dynamically identify and prioritize high-value inventories for Real-Time Bidding (RTB) buyers.  Continuously explore and reassess previously underperforming inventories to capture opportunities when buyer demand shifts positively.
• Utilize existing machine learning infrastructure, and enhance it as needed, to support the optimization goals.  Ensure the infrastructure can handle the scalability and efficiency requirements for processing high-throughput, low-latency bid requests.
• Design, execute, and oversee experiments to test different optimization strategies.  Ensure offline estimations closely mirror online revenue estimations using techniques such as counterfactual estimation and inverse propensity score methods.  Perform advanced statistical analysis on experiment results to fine-tune the algorithms and improve their performance
• Collaborate closely with other engineering teams to ensure a robust data pipeline such that data is logged and aggregated efficiently and effectively.  Ensure that the ML models can effectively leverage this data in bidder technology
• Mentor and guide a diverse team of world-class engineers, fostering an “engineering excellence” culture through the adoption of state-of-the-art tools, risk-driven testing, explainable systems, and rigorous code reviews.

Requirements

• BS/MS degree in Computer Science, Data Science, Mathematics, or a related field.
• 12+ years total professional technical experience
• 5+ years of experience as a Software Engineer.
• 8+ years of experience leading and executing machine learning projects.
• Deep expertise in machine learning algorithms.
• Extensive practical experience with ML frameworks and libraries.
• Proficiency in at least one of the following programming languages: Python, Go, R, C++, or Java.
• In-depth knowledge of distributed systems and data processing frameworks.
• Exceptional problem-solving and analytical skills.
• Advanced experience with data visualization tools such as Tableau or Looker.
• Proven ability to effectively communicate complex technical concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Demonstrated leadership in the successful implementation of complex solutions.
• Highly self-motivated and comfortable working in a dynamic, fast-paced environment.
• Strong passion for mentoring and supporting team success.

Nice to have Experience

• Working experience on Ad tech industry
• Strong mathematical background (statistics in particular).
• Working experience on Data engineering, feature Store

Compensation: 

Liftoff offers all employees a full compensation package that includes equity and health/vision/dental benefits associated with your country of residence. Base compensation will vary based on candidate location and experience. The following are our base salary ranges for multiple levels:

SF Bay Area, NYC, Los Angeles/Orange County: $215,000 - $325,000
Seattle/Olympia, Austin, San Diego, Santa Barbara, Boston: $200,000 - $300,000
All other cities and towns in our approved states: $185,000 - $280,000

Working at Liftoff is fast-paced, fun, and challenging, and we thrive on innovation. Come join the rocket ship and help shape the future of the mobile app ecosystem with us! 

#LI-JH1

We use Covey as part of our hiring and / or promotional process for jobs in NYC and certain features may qualify it as an AEDT. As part of the evaluation process we provide Covey with job requirements and candidate submitted applications. We began using Covey Scout for Inbound on January 22, 2024.

Please see the independent bias audit report covering our use of Covey here.

Liftoff is committed to providing and maintaining a work environment where all employees and candidates are treated with dignity and respect and that is free of bias, prejudice, and harassment. Liftoff is further committed to providing an equal employment opportunity for all employees and candidates for employment free from discrimination and harassment on the basis of sex, gender (including sexual harassment, gender harassment, and harassment due to pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding, and related conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, gender nonconformity, race, creed, religion, color, national origin, ancestry (including association, affiliation, or participation with persons or activities related to national origin, English-proficiency or accent, or immigration status), physical or mental disability, medical condition(s), genetic information of an individual or family member of the individual, marital or domestic partner status, age, veteran or military status, family care status, requesting or taking pregnancy, parental or disability leave, requesting an accommodation, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local law, regulation, or ordinance. All such discrimination and harassment is unlawful and will not be tolerated. Liftoff maintains a continued commitment to equal employment opportunity and expects the full cooperation of all personnel.

Liftoff's Compensation Strategy

Liftoff's compensation strategy includes competitive market rate along with equity and benefits and perks that will give our employees what they need to do their best work. In order to ensure teams are compensated fairly for the work performed, we map out specific levels and take into consideration the cost of labor within each location. Liftoff provides employees a total compensation package of competitive market salaries, equity, health and wellness stipends, medical benefits associated with your country of residence. The base compensation will vary based on location, experience as well as level.

Agency and Third Party Recruiter Notice:

Liftoff does not accept unsolicited resumes from individual recruiters or third-party recruiting agencies in response to job postings. No fee will be paid to third parties who submit unsolicited candidates directly to our hiring managers or Recruiting Team. All candidates must be submitted via our Applicant Tracking System by approved Liftoff vendors who have been expressly requested to make a submission by our Recruiting Team for a specific job opening. No placement fees will be paid to any firm unless such a request has been made by the Liftoff Recruiting Team and such a candidate was submitted to the Liftoff Recruiting Team via our Applicant Tracking System.