Sign up to access all features of our service.
  • Job search
  • Favorites
  • Create a CV
    New
  • Salaries
  • Subscriptions

Founding Machine Learning Engineer

Full-time

Composite

About the Role

We're looking for founding Machine Learning Engineers (MLEs) to own and improve our core action models end-to-end - the intelligence that powers Composite's proactive automation platform.

You'll work at the intersection of LLM inference, browser understanding, and low-latency systems, shipping models that need to feel instant (sub-250ms) while reasoning over complex page state and user context.

Unlike hosted browser solutions that introduce latency and auth barriers, or consumer-focused "AI browsers," we run AI directly through professionals' existing browsers via a Chrome extension, creating instant response times with zero migration or IT friction. This architecture creates unique ML challenges.

This is a high-ownership role on our small, exceptional team where your work ships directly to users and has the potential to tangibly improve the work lives of hundreds of millions of people.

About Composite

College-educated professionals spend 85% of their day as digital factory workers in Chrome, clicking through repetitive browser tasks.

Composite is building the proactive layer for productivity so professionals around the world can focus on meaningful, high-leverage work. We're training action prediction models that run in real time, anticipating what you'll do next based on page context and prior interactions.

We've raised $5.6M in seed funding led by Nat Friedman and Daniel Gross, with participation from Menlo Ventures, Anthropic's Anthology Fund, SVAngel, and other incredible investors.

What You'll Work On

  • Improve the accuracy and latency of our core models across diverse web applications to predict users' intended next actions and execute them faster than manual input

  • Design and optimize LLM inference pipelines, including token caching strategies, streaming architectures, and network-level optimizations between client and server

  • Build evaluation frameworks and data pipelines to measure and improve model quality at scale

  • Experiment with retrieval-augmented approaches using vector databases for contextual memory

  • Develop synthetic data generation pipelines for browser interaction training data

  • Work with DOM states, accessibility trees, and user interaction data to improve browser understanding

  • Ship features end-to-end that go directly to users — this is not a research-only role

What We're Looking For

ML & Systems

  • Strong ML fundamentals with hands-on experience training and deploying models in production

  • Obsessive about latency — experience optimizing inference pipelines to feel instant to end users

  • Deep care about data quality, with the instinct to build tooling that ensures it

  • Experience with LLMs, transformer architectures, or sequence prediction problems

  • Comfortable working across the stack — our system spans a Chrome extension, Electron app, Cloudflare Workers edge proxy, and inference providers

Core Qualities

  • Character: You're someone we'd want to work closely with for the next ten years. You approach challenges with curiosity rather than ego. You're a team player, a great communicator, and aren't afraid to be wrong.

  • Work Ethic: You're energized by hard problems and comfortable working intensely toward ambitious goals.

  • Raw Intelligence: You can quickly understand complex systems and solve novel, ambiguous problems with self-guidance.

Bonus

  • Experience with browser automation, Chrome extensions, or web scraping at scale

  • Familiarity with accessibility tree / DOM parsing for page understanding

  • Background in RL or online learning from user interaction data

  • Experience with vector databases (e.g., Turbopuffer, Pinecone) and hybrid search

  • Full-stack development experience (TypeScript, Node.js, React)

Our Values

  • Disagree and commit: Respectfully challenge decisions you disagree with, even when it's uncomfortable. Don't censor yourself or your ideas. Once a decision is determined, everyone commits wholly.

  • Clear and consistent standards: Decisions are made based on a shared framework that applies for everyone. We don't leave room for "rules for you, not for me" or any perceived hypocrisy.

  • Over-communicate: Nothing slows down a company more than confusion, mis-, or under-communication. Leave no room for ambiguity. Ask dumb questions. Write things down clearly.

  • Health is #1: Stay hydrated. Eat a balanced diet. Sleep 8 hours a night. Exercise frequently. Maintain good social and mental health. Not doing so affects your mood and long-term productivity.

  • Do the right thing.

Vacancy posted 13 hours ago
Similar jobs that could be interesting for youBased on the Founding Machine Learning Engineer in San Francisco, CA vacancy
  • $55 per hour

     ...Visa episode of the Acquired podcast to learn how credit card networks did this for retail...  ...direction for how we do modeling, data engineering, and production ML at Wholesail for years to come. The Role ⚒️ As the founding MLE on the Risk Engineering & Capital... 
    Suggested
    Full time
    Temporary work
    Work at office
    Local area

    Wholesail

    San Francisco, CA
    13 hours ago
  •  ...the company We’re a team of engineers, neuroscientists, and designers...  ...’re building a generational founding team which is truly full-...  ...and demand intense, fast-paced learning. You will: Critically...  ...evaluate and implement the best machine learning approaches for our... 
    Suggested
    Full time

    Orbit Neuro Co.

    San Francisco, CA
    13 hours ago
  • $175k - $300k

     ...K cash. You will own a meaningful piece of the company. High talent density: Be a part of a great founding team in SF. Shivaal Roy (CTO) was a founding engineer at Glean ($100M+ ARR today) and managed the Assistant and Search teams, where he solved similar problems... 
    Suggested
    Full time

    Trove

    San Francisco, CA
    13 hours ago
  •  ...Everyone here talks to customers, owns whole surfaces end to end, and cares about the outcome, not the ticket. We're hiring our founding engineering team and would love for you to be a part of it! About the role You'll own how Booko thinks. We are building a... 
    Suggested
    Live in

    Socket

    San Francisco, CA
    1 day ago
  • Founding Machine Learning Engineer About the job Who we are Voyage is a Maison for Mind Computing - the first deep tech couture house, engineering non-invasive neural interfaces as objects of desire. With a founding team from Apple, MIT Media Lab, Harvard, the Royal College... 
    Suggested
    Shift work

    NeuroTech X

    San Francisco, CA
    1 day ago
  •  ...heals, evolves, and documents codebases autonomously. As a Founding ML Engineer , you’ll architect the intelligence powering autonomous pull...  ...Lead the roadmap for intelligence infrastructure and long-term learning 3 to 5+ years of experience building and shipping applied ML... 
    Remote work
    Flexible hours

    Kodezi Inc.

    San Francisco, CA
    4 days ago
  • $200k - $250k

    Founding ML Engineer - Anthropic Backed Startup *$200,000 - $250,000 + Founding Team Equity* *San Francisco Bay Area, CA | On-site* Most ML roles...  ...nice-to-have, it\'s the product Developing the systems that learn from user behaviour over time - making the autopilot... 
    Internship
    Work at office

    Socket.dev

    San Francisco, CA
    3 days ago
  • $150k - $300k

     ...resolution, text classification, contrastive learning, metric learning, representation...  ...dilution. Own the full ML research and engineering cycle, from prototype to production. Solve...  ...Work in a role with a direct path toward founding something of your own. #J-18808-Ljbffr... 

    Open Select

    San Francisco, CA
    3 days ago
  •  ...the boundaries of what our ML systems can do. We're hiring a Founding ML Engineer to own the research and engineering behind our core...  ...classifiers, and embedding models Comfortable with contrastive learning, metric learning, and representation learning Experience using... 

    Crustdata (YC F24)

    San Francisco, CA
    4 days ago
  • $200k - $280k

     ...A leading voice AI startup is seeking a Founding Senior Machine Learning Engineer to fine-tune and deploy human-like voice agents, handling millions of real-time calls. This role offers a salary range of $200,000 to $280,000 per year, with significant equity and benefits... 

    Retell AI

    San Francisco, CA
    13 hours ago
  •  ...Lab, Google Brain, Scale AI, and Qualcomm. We've previously founded and sold companies and created products used over 30...  ...conferences like ICLR, ICML, AAAI. Role Description As a Machine Learning Engineer at Advex, you will play a pivotal role in shaping the company... 
    Full time

    Openreq

    San Francisco, CA
    13 hours ago
  •  ...context and delivers help automatically. Founded in 2009, Superhuman empowers over 40...  ...busywork and focus on what matters. Learn more at superhuman.com and about our values...  ...Superhuman ubiquitous UI. As a Machine Learning Engineer on this team, you will be at the heart... 
    Full time
    Worldwide
    Home office
    Flexible hours

    Superhuman

    San Francisco, CA
    13 hours ago
  •  ...consistently fail. We are a small, fast-growing team of engineers in San Francisco powering Fortune 100 enterprises,...  ...in-office at our San Francisco office ~ Eager to learn and adapt quickly ~ Prior startup or founding experience is a plus About the Role Create... 
    Full time
    Work at office
    Visa sponsorship
    Relocation package

    Pulse

    San Francisco, CA
    13 hours ago
  •  ...About Handshake Handshake was founded on a simple belief that everyone deserves a path...  ...institutions Work together with engineers, scientists, operators, and more from Palantir...  ...The ML Opportunity at Handshake: Machine Learning is at the heart of Handshake's mission... 
    Full time
    Work at office
    Remote work
    Flexible hours

    Handshake

    San Francisco, CA
    13 hours ago
  •  ...16z, Benchmark, and First Round Capital, and are hiring a Machine Learning Engineer to help us train and deploy the models critical to the performance...  ...strategy Bonus points if you: Have prior experience founding a company or building products at early stages Are... 
    Full time
    Work at office
    Local area

    Reducto

    San Francisco, CA
    13 hours ago
  •  ...recover human embodied intelligence as a learned model. To achieve this, we build...  ...research into intelligence itself. Founded by Stanford and UC Berkeley researchers...  ...join us. The Opportunity As a Machine Learning Engineer, you’ll work on multimodal perception,... 
    Full time
    Shift work

    Human Archive

    San Francisco, CA
    13 hours ago
  • $160k - $240k

     ...for everyone, including yourself, you’ve found a match in Workday, and we hope to be a...  ...problems at the intersection of machine learning, agentic reasoning, and enterprise-scale...  ...applications.About the RoleAs a Machine Learning Engineer on the AI Core team, you will develop... 
    Full time
    Work at office
    Remote work
    Home office
    Flexible hours

    Workday

    San Francisco, CA
    4 days ago
  • $250k

     ...venture-backed AI Startup, is hiring a talented ML/AI Research Engineer to join their team in San Francisco. The successful candidate will...  ...with SOC2, HIPAA or GovCloud environments, or prior startup/founding team experience is a bonus. Benefits ~Salary: Circa. $250k.... 
    Full time

    Alldus International Consulting Ltd

    San Francisco, CA
    more than 2 months ago
  • $130k - $250k

     ...in one platform — as the market shifts from traditional search to AI-agent-driven discovery. Founded 2025 · 1–10 people (Seed) · Industry: AI Tools The Role Engineer number one, spanning product engineering across the full stack plus applied-ML judgment to build... 
    Full time
    Shift work

    David Joseph & Company

    San Francisco, CA
    18 days ago
  •  ...Anthropic, Meta Superintelligence Labs, and Microsoft AI. Machine Learning Engineer, Quality Intelligence Overview AfterQuery builds...  ...encode and scale real-world expertise. We’re hiring a Founding Machine Learning Engineer, Quality Intelligence to build... 
    Full time

    AfterQuery

    San Francisco, CA
    13 hours ago
  • $180k - $270k

     ...data security and privacy protection. To learn more about Plaud, please visit and...  ...-throughput, ultra-low-latency inference engines for large language models or foundational...  ...using Kubernetes.   What We Offer Founding Team Initiative: Opportunity to be an early... 
    Full time
    Work at office
    Worldwide

    Plaud

    San Francisco, CA
    13 hours ago
  •  ...Senior Machine Learning Engineer Location: SF or Waterloo, with ability to travel Start Date: Flexible, ideally Q3 2025 About Hum....  ...to create positive impact through earth observation and AI. Founded at the University of Waterloo by a team of PhDs and engineers... 
    Remote job
    Full time
    Work experience placement
    Flexible hours

    hum.ai

    San Francisco, CA
    13 hours ago
  •  ...Industries is a multifaceted media and entertainment company founded by Jimmy Donaldson, popularly known as MrBeast, the most...  ...build a legacy that inspires future generations. Senior Machine Learning Engineer Primary: Bay Area (San Francisco / Peninsula) | Secondary... 
    Full time
    Work at office
    Relocation package
    Flexible hours
    2 days per week

    Mrbeast

    San Francisco, CA
    13 hours ago
  • $163.42k - $285.98k

     ...users around the world and 300 billion ideas saved, Pinterest Machine Learning engineers build personalized experiences to help Pinners create a...  ...Pinterest and benefits available for this position can be found here.US based applicants only$163,418—$285,982 USDOur Commitment... 
    Local area
    Relocation package

    Pinterest

    San Francisco, CA
    4 days ago
  • $138.91k - $285.98k

     ...the development and research of applied machine learning. Our initiatives span a diverse range...  ...collaborative group of approximately six engineers and a product prototyping team, to...  ...benefits available for this position can be found here.US based applicants only$138,905—$... 
    Work at office
    Local area
    Remote work
    Relocation
    Relocation package

    Pinterest

    San Francisco, CA
    2 days ago
  • $189.72k - $332.01k

     ...Technologies Group (ATG), Pinterest’s advanced machine learning team. ATG’s goal is to keep Pinterest...  ...product in collaboration with product engineering teams. The team also publishes its work...  ...available for this position can be found here.US based applicants only$189,721—$... 
    Work experience placement
    Work at office
    Local area
    Remote work
    Relocation package

    Pinterest

    San Francisco, CA
    1 day ago
  • $200k - $230k

     ...healthcare with artificial intelligence. Founded by a radiologist, our AI‑driven...  ...team! Why Join Us? We’re looking for a Machine Learning Research Manager to lead a dedicated, high...  ...while partnering deeply with clinicians, engineers, and product leaders to bring high‑value... 
    Full time
    Work at office
    Flexible hours

    Rad AI

    San Francisco, CA
    4 days ago
  • $189.72k - $332.01k

     ...users around the world and 300 billion ideas saved, Pinterest Machine Learning engineers build personalized experiences to help Pinners create a...  ...Pinterest and benefits available for this position can be found here.US based applicants only$189,721—$332,012 USDOur Commitment... 
    Local area
    Relocation package

    Pinterest

    San Francisco, CA
    4 days ago
  • $220k - $320k

     ...We are a well-funded ten-person team of engineers who work in-person in downtown San Francisco...  ...writing code for over 10 years, and has founded and run their own software companies. We...  ...every box. Curiosity and the ability to learn quickly matter more. Compensation... 
    Full time
    Work at office

    Inference

    San Francisco, CA
    13 hours ago
  •  ...Job Title:  Machine Learning Engineer, Training Infrastructure Position Type: Full time Location: San Francisco, CA, USA Salary Range...  ...the need to collaborate with diverse teams. About Us: Founded in 2009, IntelliPro is a global leader in talent... 
    Full time
    Work experience placement

    Intellipro Group

    San Francisco, CA
    13 hours ago

Do you want to receive more vacancies?

Subscribe and receive similar vacancies to Founding Machine Learning Engineer. Be the first to apply!