Staff ML / AI Engineer

Choco is on a mission to enable the global food system to become sustainable by optimizing the way food is sold, ordered, distributed, and financed. Our AI-focused software connects distributors with their customers to operate waste-free and efficiently. A problem of this magnitude requires a massive scale and only the best people will be able to solve it. Are you in?

Here's what we're up to: Choco Overview

We are seeking a Staff Machine Learning Engineer ready to make a true impact.

At Choco, we went within 16 months from 0 AI revenue to AI driving 100% of our new revenue. We took AI seriously, not for window dressing, but to bring us to our vision faster and to drive a significant part of our revenue. Because only when AI drives a majority of revenue is it at the core of the company.

We have assembled an absolutely world-class AI team that you will be working with. We work with cutting-edge tech and are an innovation driver in our industry and the broader European ecosystem.

You'll need to be at the forefront of applied AI research and development, staying on top of industry advancements and constantly seeking ways to improve, validate, and deploy the latest models effectively. You must be an exceptional applied researcher with the ability to turn complex AI technologies into scalable, reliable systems in production. Excellence in engineering skills is a must, as you will be responsible for ensuring our AI models run efficiently, can scale, and meet the rigorous demands of our platform.

We're looking for someone who thrives in a fast-paced, high-execution environment—someone who can learn quickly, adapt to new technologies, take ownership and deliver impactful solutions. You will collaborate with an amazing team, working alongside peers, engineers, and other experts to help us realize our ambitious vision. If you have a passion for AI, the drive to innovate, and the engineering skills to execute at the highest level, we want to hear from you.

Our current tech stack includes AWS serverless stack, Databricks + mlflow, Kubernetes, Kafka, PostgreSQL, DynamoDB, Elastic Cloud, the newest models from different vendors incl. OpenAI, Python with common libraries and frameworks. For data transformations, we primarily use SQL, dbt & PySpark.

What You'll Be Doing

We move fast. We commit to delivering user increments and advancing research on a weekly basis. Team members rotate between a variety of challenging problems. One week, you might be validating hypotheses and assumptions, demonstrating your conclusions in a defendable and reproducible way. The next week, you could be building a proof of concept, and in the third, you'll be shipping the first iteration of your work directly to our users.

• Drive Choco's technical AI vision, roadmap, and projects alongside the rest of Data and Engineering leadership.
• Lead end-to-end development of AI and ML systems, incl. experimentation, deployment, optimization, and monitoring.
• Collaborate with and be part of cross-functional teams to integrate sophisticated models into our systems.
• Carry the team through support, coaching, feedback, tooling, documentation, establishing best practices and knowledge sharing.
• Develop innovative solutions for complex business challenges.

Your Responsibilities

• Articulate a vision and long-term roadmap for AI at Choco, outlining immediate actionable steps to achieve it.
• Understand and interpret complex business and customer challenges, translating them into actionable AI solutions.
• Ensure AI systems are scalable, efficient, and effective.
• This role requires you to be hands-on. You are expected to contribute to our codebase on a daily basis.
• Lead by example, demonstrating a strong work ethic, quick iterations, and a commitment to continuous delivery. Embrace and drive Choco's ambitious goals, thriving in a fast-paced, challenging startup environment.
• Employ an agile approach, emphasizing swift delivery, responsiveness to feedback, and continuous improvement.

What We're Looking For

• Technical Leadership: You can think two, three steps ahead while not losing sight of what is important today. You have had demonstrable influence and impact on the success of the products you have worked on.
• Expertise with LLMs: Hands-on experience with state-of-the-art language models like GPT-4, including safely deploying them in production environments. Familiarity with applications and architectures involving conversational agents, fine-tuning, and Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG).
• Search and Recommendations: Proven expertise in building personalized search and recommendation systems, with a deep understanding of information retrieval and natural language processing (NLP) challenges like Named Entity Recognition (NER).
• Engineering Excellence: Strong programming and engineering skills, with the ability to design, build, and maintain scalable AI systems.
• Communication and Collaboration: Clear, effective communication skills, with the ability to translate complex AI concepts into practical, actionable solutions for cross-functional teams.
• Startup Mindset: Experience in fast-paced environments, with the ability to navigate ambiguity, take ownership of projects, and - most importantly - get shit done.

At Choco, we're experiencing rapid growth and leading the AI revolution in the food supply chain. Our industry-leading Choco AI solution has achieved strong product-market fit, demonstrating the impact of our innovative approach. As a data scientist here, you'll work end-to-end, from conducting deep-dive analyses to building and deploying production-ready ML and AI systems. Join us in our mission to transform the industry through cutting-edge technology and relentless innovation.

Choco was founded in 2018 in Berlin. Now, we are a dedicated team of over 200 Chocorians across Europe and the US. We seek hungry and humble individuals who embrace hard work, put our team first, and are committed to building a lasting company. Our mission demands urgency and speed while maintaining a long-term vision.

In just five years, Choco has raised $328.5 million and achieved unicorn status in 2022, with a valuation of $1.2 billion. We're supported by some of the world's best investors like Bessemer Venture Partners, Insight Partners, Coatue Management, and LeftLane Capital.

Choco is an equal opportunity employer. We encourage people from all backgrounds to apply. We are committed to ensuring that our technology is available and accessible to everyone. All employment decisions are made without regard to race, color, national origin, ancestry, sex, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, age, genetic information, religion, disability, medical condition, pregnancy, marital status, family status, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.