Lead Engineer, Machine Learning

Job ID: 287999
Location Name: CA-FSC SF Off (0174)
Address: 350 Mission St, 20th Floor, San Francisco, CA 94105, United States (US)
Job Type: Full Time
Position Type: Regular
Job Function: Information Technology
Work Location: Hybrid-San Francisco

Belong to Something Beautiful

At Sephora, beauty is about feeling seen, valued, and empowered, individually and collectively. It is connecting deeply with others, celebrating diversity and inclusivity, unlocking your potential, and making a difference every day. Together, we belong to something beautiful.

Your Role at Sephora:

Ready for a career glow up? As a  Lead Machine Learning Engineer , you'll be the driving force behind the architecture, engineering, and deployment of cutting-edge AI/ML systems at enterprise scale. The work you do will impact beauty, as you redefine how we inspire and connect with our customers — building the next generation of intelligent, AI-powered experiences across the beauty space. You'll lead a team that's united in beauty, supported by those who are equally passionate about pushing the boundaries of applied AI, engineering excellence, and real-world product impact.

What You'll Do:

• Architect & Engineer Production-Grade AI/ML Systems. Design, build, and maintain scalable ML and Agentic AI systems using established engineering design patterns. Lead security-first and reliability-first practices, maintain deep domain expertise in ML systems and LLM infrastructure, and proactively anticipate future technical needs, scalability requirements, and cost implications. (20%)

• Own End-to-End ML Solutions. Engineer and own batch and real-time model serving, agentic pipelines, RAG systems, and LLMOps infrastructure. Build and maintain robust tooling for monitoring, observability, logging, automated testing, performance testing, and A/B experimentation to ensure production reliability and continuous improvement. (20%)

• Establish & Optimize ML Pipelines. Build scalable, efficient, and automated pipelines for data processing, feature engineering, model development, validation, evaluation, and deployment — ensuring reproducibility, quality, and operational excellence across the full ML lifecycle. (15%)

• Deliver High-Quality Code in a Continuous-Release Environment. Write clean, efficient, and well-structured code to deliver AI/ML products iteratively. Uphold high engineering standards including code reviews, CI/CD integration, and test coverage across ML services and agentic workflows. (15%)

• Partner Cross-Functionally to Shape AI/ML Capabilities. Collaborate closely with Product, Engineering, Data Scientists, ML Engineers, and Business stakeholders to define, scope, and plan new AI/ML capabilities — translating business requirements into technically sound, scalable engineering solutions. (10%)

• Drive Delivery Planning & Engineering ROI. Review and prioritize epics and projects with clear breakdown, dependency management, and delivery planning. Proactively identify, communicate, and resolve blockers or delays. Navigate ambiguity and high-pressure situations with decisiveness, applying economic thinking to maximize value delivery. (10%)

• Mentor, Grow & Inspire the Team. Mentor and develop ML Engineers and Data Scientists by promoting best practices in ML engineering, code quality, and operational excellence. Foster a culture of effective communication, continuous feedback, and knowledge sharing. Build strong cross-functional relationships and actively contribute to engineering strategy and the AI/ML product roadmap. (10%)

What You'll Bring:

• Deep ML Engineering Expertise. 5+ years hands-on experience in model development, training pipelines, feature stores, model serving, and MLOps/LLMOps — with a proven ability to take systems from experimentation to production at scale.

• Strong Software Engineering Fundamentals. 8+ years proficiency in Python, distributed systems, API design, and cloud-native architectures, with a strong command of engineering best practices including CI/CD, testing, and observability.

• LLM & Generative AI Experience. 3+ years proven experience building and deploying LLM-powered applications, including RAG pipelines, prompt engineering, fine-tuning, and evaluation frameworks.

• Agentic AI & Multi-Agent System Design. Hands-on experience with Agentic AI frameworks such as LangChain, LangGraph, Claude, or similar, with the ability to architect and engineer production-grade multi-agent systems.

• Solid Foundation in Classic ML. Strong understanding of supervised/unsupervised learning, recommendation systems, reinforcement learning, and model evaluation methodologies.

• ML Infrastructure & Tooling Proficiency. Experience with Kubernetes, Docker, Databricks, MLflow, Vector databases, and cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, or Azure).

• Technology-Agnostic Mindset & Continuous Learner. A passion for exploring new ideas, staying current with the latest advancements in AI/ML, and solving complex engineering challenges at scale — bringing those insights back to elevate the team.

• Strong Communication & Cross-Functional Influence. Excellent communication skills with the ability to align stakeholders, influence technical direction, and drive clarity across engineering, product, and business teams.

What You’ll Get: 

The annual base salary range for this position is $191.520,00 - $212.800,00 The actual base salary offered depends on a variety of factors, which may include, as applicable, the applicant’s qualifications for the position; years of relevant experience; specific and unique skills; level of education attained; certifications or other professional licenses held; other legitimate, non-discriminatory business factors specific to the position; and the geographic location in which the applicant lives and/or from which they will perform the job. Individuals employed in this position may also be eligible to earn bonuses. This job will be posted for a minimum of five days. 

• Caring Community. You’ll collaborate with teammates who are equally passionate about innovating and driving the industry forward – together, united in beauty. 

• Fulfilling Path. Your career transformation starts here, with opportunities that will challenge, stretch and develop your skills. 

• Meaningful Work. As you make an impact on beauty, you’ll feel and see the positive change (consumer, industry, and social) that your individual voice is a part of. 

Rewards as Unique as You:

Some benefits have eligibility requirements and may depend on job classification and length of employment. 

• Health . Choose a healthcare plan to fit you and your family’s needs with medical, dental, and vision coverage. Sephora also fully covers our employees’ disability and life insurance. 

• Wealth . We offer a competitive 401k with 4% match as well as FSA and HSA programs. We also offer a Student Debt Retirement plan, where your student loan payments qualify to earn the 401k match from Sephora. 

• Balance . You’ll be empowered to find the perfect blend of work/life balance that actually works for you with PTO, flexibility, protected leave, and more. 

• Growth . Career growth is built into every role, with access to training, development, and tuition reimbursement. 

• Perks . Think you’ve tried it all? Enjoy a 30% discount on all merchandise/services, opportunities for free product or “gratis,” and flash sale discounts on LVMH brand products. 

• Support . Join a team that truly cares – with free mental health and financial coaching resources with 24/7 access to Modern Health and Financial Finesse. Plus, volunteer and donation matching. 

Sephora values a diverse and inclusive workplace and considers all applicants without regard to sex, pregnancy, race, color, national origin, gender (including gender identity and gender expression), age, religion, sexual orientation, military/veteran status, disability, or any other protected category. Sephora is committed to providing reasonable accommodation ta applicants with disabilities or other medical conditions.  

Sephora will consider all qualified applicants, including those with arrest and conviction records in a manner consistent with the requirements of all applicable laws, including the Los Angeles Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance, the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, and the New York City Fair Chance Act.  

Join Us and Belong to Something Beautiful