Senior Machine Learning Engineer

Position Title:

Senior Machine Engineer / Lead

Location:

San Francisco, CA

Time Type:
Full Time

Ohalo is looking for a hands‑on Senior Machine Learning Engineer / Lead to convert cutting‑edge quantitative‑genetics and computer vision research into production systems that accelerate crop improvement. You will steer a squad of ML/Data/Software Engineers, partnering with quantitative geneticists and statisticians to deliver Bayesian genomic‑prediction pipelines, breeding‑system simulations, and AI‑powered hybrid‑optimization services. Your work will directly shape how breeders make thousands of crossing decisions and drive the next leap in agricultural productivity.

• Design, build, and maintain scalable ML pipelines on GCP (or the best‑fit cloud) using Python, Big Query/Spark, Kubernetes, and CI/CD best practices.
• Mentor & grow a small team—provide technical guidance, establish code‑review norms, and cultivate a culture of rapid, well‑engineered experimentation.
• Own model‑ops lifecycle: automated testing, containerized deployment, continuous monitoring, and A/B evaluation against breeding KPIs.
• Collaborate cross‑functionally with plant scientists, data engineers, and the automation group to ingest high‑throughput phenotyping data and close feedback loops.
• Establish MLOps Excellence:
  Build robust infrastructure for model versioning, data lineage, and automated retraining
  ; implement "champion‑challenger" deployment patterns to safely promote research models to production while ensuring full auditability of breeding decisions.

• Education – M.S. in Computer Science or related field (or equivalent industry record).
• Experience – 5+ years building production ML/AI systems, technical lead experience preferred.
• Engineering excellence – Expert Python plus one ML framework (JAX/Num Pyro, Tensor Flow, or PyTorch); strong grasp of microservices, Docker/Kubernetes, and cloud data platforms (Big Query, Vertex AI, etc.).
• Data‑engineering acumen – Comfortable designing batch, streaming, and event‑driven pipelines;
  Pub/Sub, Kafka, or equivalent.
• Leadership & communication – Able to set direction, give candid feedback, and bridge domain‑scientist ↔ engineer conversations with clarity.

• Advanced Image Techniques – Proficiency in leveraging Foundation Models (e.g., SAM, CLIP) and Self‑Supervised Learning to automate high‑throughput feature extraction, converting unstructured imagery into high‑dimensional embeddings for advanced statistical analysis.

Ohalo™ aims to accelerate evolution to unlock nature's potential. Founded in 2019, Ohalo develops novel breeding systems and improved plant varieties that help farmers grow more food with fewer natural resources, increasing the yield, resiliency, and genetic diversity of crops to sustainably feed our population. Ohalo's breakthrough technology, Boosted Breeding™, will usher in a new era of improved productivity to radically transform global agriculture.

For more information, visit

The anticipated pay range for this role is $170,000 - $220,000 per year for our San Francisco, CA location, though salary will be based on a variety of factors including, but not limited to, experience, skills, education, and location.

No visa sponsorship is available for this position at this time.