Grindr

This is a hybrid role based in our Palo Alto or San Francisco offices and will require you to be in office Tuesdays and Thursdays.

What’s so interesting about this role?

At Grindr, our mission is to show a user the right match, in the right place, at the right time. We tailor our dating platform for a diverse and global audience, so customers world-wide with different tastes and backgrounds can find their best match on every visit. We grow our relationships with our users by leveraging our deep understanding of them to provide relevant and timely recommendations. We believe the current customer experience is only scratching the surface of innovative experiences that are made possible as dating continues to shift online, and that science is at the center of delivering a step-function change for our CX.

We are looking for a highly motivated and experienced Machine Learning Engineer to join our team and help us shape the future of machine learning at Grindr. In this role, you will tackle new challenges in machine learning that will have a real impact on the way people discover and interact with the world around them in the LGBT community. You will collaborate with a world-class team of research scientists and engineers to develop new machine learning algorithms, systems, and applications that will bring step-function impact to the business metrics.

What’s the job? As a Principal ML engineer you will have deep subject matter expertise in the area of recommendations science. You will work with multiple teams of engineers and product managers to translate business and functional requirements into concrete deliverables. You will lead ground-breaking efforts in Generative AI to develop new approaches to Personalization, and provide thought leadership to scientists and engineers to invent and implement scalable ML recommendations supporting new Customer Experiences. 

• Lead cutting-edge algorithm development in machine learning and collaborate with other engineering teams to adopt the innovations into Grindr problems
• Collect, analyze, and synthesize findings from data and build intelligent data-driven model
• Scope and independently solve moderately complex problems; write clean, efficient, and sustainable code
• Be an expert in matching algorithm and recommender systems machine learning models and own the implementation of dating recommendations in Grindr
• Use machine learning, natural language processing, and graph analysis to solve modeling and ranking problems across dating, personalization, growth, discovery, ads and search

What we’ll love about you

• BS in Computer science/Math or related field.
• Mastery of at least one systems languages ( Python, Java, C++) and one DL framework (Pytorch, Tensorflow, Keras) and one data analysis libraries (Pandas, R)
• Extensive experience building, deploying and maintaining end-to-end recommendation systems 
• Experience in building complex, real-time systems involving AI, ML, NLP, Recommender Systems, Ads with successful delivery to customers.
• Computer Science fundamentals in data structures, algorithm design and complexity analysis.
• 5+ years working experience in engineering or R&D teams that build large-scale production-level ML-driven projects. Ability to take a project from requirements gathering and design to actual product launch
• Strong track record of working with language modeling technologies. This could include the following: Developing generative and embedding techniques, modern model architectures, fine tuning / pre-training datasets, and evaluation benchmarks.
• Strong coding and software engineering skills, and familiarity with software engineering principles around testing, code reviews and deployment and expertise with Git version control.

We’ll really swoon if you have 

• MS or PHD degree in Computer Science or Machine Learning.
• Experience working on recommender systems and matching algorithms in dating industry
• Expertise in large language models or demonstrated ability to develop this expertise quickly.
• Exposure to architectural patterns of large scale software applications
• Experience in shipping products to millions of customers or have started a new line of product
• Experience with Hadoop/HBase/Pig or MapReduce/Sawzall/Bigtable/Hive/Spark
• Demonstrated track record of peer-reviewed scientific publications that advance state-of-the art for applied science.

What you'll love about us

• Mission and Impact: Grindr is the world-leading LGBTQ social networking service. Your role will impact the lives of millions of LGBTQ people around the world
• Multiple Locations: We are hiring someone for this role to be based ideally in San Francisco or Palo Alto
• Family Insurance: Insurance premium coverage for health, dental, and vision for you and partial coverage for your dependents
• Retirement Savings: Generous 401K plan with 6% match and immediate vest in the US
• Compensation: Industry-competitive compensation and eligibility for company bonus and equity programs
• Queer-Inclusive Benefits: Industry-leading gender-affirming offerings with up to 90% cost coverage, access to Included Health, monthly stipends for HRT, and more
• Additional Benefits: Flexible vacation policy, monthly stipends for cell phone, internet, wellness, and food, one-time home-office setup stipend, and company-sponsored events

About Grindr

Grindr is the world’s largest dating app for gay, bi, trans, and queer people. With around 13 million monthly active users, Grindr has become a fundamental part of the global LGBTQ community, and we take pride in empowering our users to connect, express themselves, and discover the queer world around them.

Our next evolution is underway as a newly public company looking to expand and continue to build meaningful experiences for our users. From social issues to original content, we’re blazing innovative paths with impact for our community, all while leveraging the latest tech stacks and striving for engineering excellence. At the heart of our work in this new chapter is a shared set of core values: openness and exploration, a bias for action, and strong support of the LGBTQ community. 

With a track record of strong financial performance and plans for continued headcount growth, we’re looking to build a team of talented, passionate, and open-minded people who believe in our mission, align with our values, and are excited to work at the intersection of innovative technology and social impact. Come be a part of this exciting journey with us.

Grindr is an equal-opportunity employer

To learn more about how we handle the personal data of applicants, visit our Employee and Candidate Privacy Policy.

#LI-Hybrid

Grindr is committed to fair and equitable compensation practices. This base pay range is for the U.S. and is not applicable to locations outside of the U.S. The actual base pay is dependent upon many factors, such as training, transferable skills, work experience, business needs, location, and market demands. The base pay range is subject to change and may be modified in the future. This role will also be eligible for equity, benefits, and a company bonus program.

Base Pay Range

$180,000—$280,000 USD