Principal Machine Learning Engineer

Role Description

We are looking for a Principal Machine Learning Engineer to shape the future of machine learning across Prodege’s Performance Marketing business. This is a high-impact role for someone who wants to own more than models. You will build and evolve the production ML systems that drive outcomes across:

• Ranking
• Rewards
• ROAS / LTV prediction
• Offer optimization
• Experimentation
• Decisioning

Your work will directly influence revenue, margin, user value, and marketplace efficiency in a fast-moving AdTech / MarTech environment. This is a deeply hands-on principal role. We are looking for someone who leads by building, shipping, and operating production ML systems; not someone who stays only at the architecture or strategy layer. You will own the ML stack end to end, from:

• Problem framing
• Feature strategy
• Model development
• Experimentation
• Deployment
• Observability
• Lifecycle optimization

You will build production ML systems for a business serving 120M+ registered users that has delivered $2B+ in lifetime rewards, powered by a data platform with:

• 50M events per day
• 500M records of daily pipeline throughput
• 100TB Iceberg lake
• 50 Kafka topics and growing across batch and real-time workflows

If you enjoy building real-world ML systems, working close to the business, and helping a team move toward a more AI-first engineering model, this role is for you.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience in software engineering, machine learning engineering, MLOps, or related technical fields
• 5+ years building, deploying, and supporting production ML systems at scale
• Strong experience in AdTech, MarTech, Growth, Performance Marketing, or adjacent domains
• Strong hands-on background in ranking, recommendation, rewards/incentives, ROAS/LTV prediction, personalization/optimization systems
• Proven experience designing, shipping, and operating production ML systems end to end
• Strong understanding of offline/online ML architecture, feature engineering, model serving patterns, experimentation frameworks, A/B testing, MLOps, retraining, monitoring, and governance
• Strong system design skills with sound judgment across performance, reliability, scalability, and cost
• Strong technical leadership and mentoring capability

Requirements

• Ability to guide teams toward an AI-first way of working
• Comfort operating in ambiguity and still driving systems into production
• Experience partnering closely with Data Engineering / BI / Analytics teams

Benefits

• Comprehensive benefits package including medical, dental, vision, STD, LTD, and basic life insurance
• Flexible PTO and paid sick leave prorated based on hire date
• Eight paid holidays throughout the calendar year

Pay Transparency

The anticipated base salary range for this position is $300,000 to $375,000. The final salary offered to a successful candidate will be dependent on several factors that may include, but are not limited to; the type and length of experience within the job, type and length of experience within the industry, the type and length of knowledge and skills for the position, education, training, etc. Prodege is a multi-state employer and final compensation within this range could be impacted by work location.

Equal Employment Opportunity Statement

At Prodege, we are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment. We are proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer and do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. We encourage individuals of all backgrounds to apply.