Axial
Lead Engineer, Machine Learning
Location: NYC
In-office 3-4 days per week
Reports to: Director of Engineering and CEO
Compensation: $300,000 and above
About Axial
Axial is a trusted online marketplace connecting professional buyers and sellers of $5M-$100M American privately held companies. Trusted by over 3000 professional acquirers and 2500 M&A advisors, we have built a pioneering digital transaction platform that radically improves the speed, confidentiality and success by which small businesses achieve successful exits.
In 2024, over 10,000 private companies pursued an exit via the platform, leading to over 1,000,000 platform connections, 75,000+ signed NDAs, and hundreds of millions of dollars in successfully closed transactions (https://www.axial.net/closed-deals/). About the Role
We are hiring a Lead Engineer to lead the planning, architecting and coding of ML and related advanced technologies into our recommendation systems and core product experiences.
Our current algorithmically-driven approach is effective but insufficient. Customer and technical research makes us confident that there is significant user experience and commercial upside by incorporating and matching real-time private data sets that we have gathered via platform usage and 3rd party aggregation.
We are searching for a technically excellent lead engineer who can lead the creation of ML and AI capabilities at Axial, collaborate with the existing team, help us grow the team over time, and ship roadmaps that materially upgrade the customer experience. What You'll Take On Design, develop, and deploy ML/AI-driven models to enhance our matching engines, industry classification systems, and more. Help establish ML and MLOps best practices that lay a groundwork for sustained AI/ML development at Axial. Collaborate with product managers, engineers, and business stakeholders to define and execute AI strategies aligned with company objectives. Optimize AI and machine learning models for speed, accuracy, and scalability, ensuring reliable integration into Axial's platform. Develop and refine recommendation systems, applying NLP, deep learning, and predictive analytics to improve buyer-seller matchmaking. Create clear documentation and visualizations to communicate insights and recommendations to technical and non-technical audiences. Who We're Looking For 5+ years of experience using AI/ML and related technologies to improve consumer or B2B software experiences. Strong production expertise building, modifying, and scaling machine learning recommendation systems / engines Familiarity with SQL and data warehouses (e.g., AWS Redshift) for AI-driven analytics. Strong problem-solving skills with the ability to work independently in a fast-paced environment. Our stack Python (FastAPI), Postgres (RDS) Angular 18+, Typescript Terraform, AWS EC2/EKS, OpenTelemetry, Grafana/Prometheus/Loki/Tempo GitHub, Shortcut, Notion, Slack Working at Axial
We have a high functioning and remote-friendly engineering team. Some engineers are in NYC and come to the office almost daily, and we have many engineers working across the USA, Canada, and a few teammates in Central / South America. Our NYC office is casual, engineer-friendly, pretty quiet, and well-stocked with good coffee and snacks.
We are a team of ~50 employees with an overall technical organization of ~20 split among three squads. We have a senior, tightly-knit engineering team, where you will have the opportunity to have a direct impact on the product and the company. We use a "lite scrum" process, including daily stand-ups, bi-weekly sprints, sprint demos and retrospectives. Since much of our team is fully remote, we use Shortcut to track our work through the development cycle.
Below are Axial's core values. We believe in these and we practice them actively, so if you connect w/ these, you may enjoy working here: Obsess Over Member Trust:
Your daily choices reflect your awareness that we facilitate vital life-altering transactions. You consistently take this responsibility seriously and it's top of mind. Expect and Deliver Excellence:
You pursue consistent high performance so that your colleagues feel confident partnering and relying on you. You demonstrate a personal commitment to continuous improvement and you inspire it in others. Communication Matters:
You are concise and articulate in your communication, external or internal. You listen actively and genuinely and ask good questions. Invent and Simplify:
You are open-minded AND opinionated, looking for great new ideas that can elevate and even transform the member experience. You find novel ways to simplify complex status quos. Be an Owner:
You think about the long-term effects of your decisions. You take full responsibility for your work product. You invest real time in building genuine relationships with your teammates.
NY Pay Range
$300,000-$300,000 USD
Axial is a trusted online marketplace connecting professional buyers and sellers of $5M-$100M American privately held companies. Trusted by over 3000 professional acquirers and 2500 M&A advisors, we have built a pioneering digital transaction platform that radically improves the speed, confidentiality and success by which small businesses achieve successful exits.
In 2024, over 10,000 private companies pursued an exit via the platform, leading to over 1,000,000 platform connections, 75,000+ signed NDAs, and hundreds of millions of dollars in successfully closed transactions (https://www.axial.net/closed-deals/). About the Role
We are hiring a Lead Engineer to lead the planning, architecting and coding of ML and related advanced technologies into our recommendation systems and core product experiences.
Our current algorithmically-driven approach is effective but insufficient. Customer and technical research makes us confident that there is significant user experience and commercial upside by incorporating and matching real-time private data sets that we have gathered via platform usage and 3rd party aggregation.
We are searching for a technically excellent lead engineer who can lead the creation of ML and AI capabilities at Axial, collaborate with the existing team, help us grow the team over time, and ship roadmaps that materially upgrade the customer experience. What You'll Take On Design, develop, and deploy ML/AI-driven models to enhance our matching engines, industry classification systems, and more. Help establish ML and MLOps best practices that lay a groundwork for sustained AI/ML development at Axial. Collaborate with product managers, engineers, and business stakeholders to define and execute AI strategies aligned with company objectives. Optimize AI and machine learning models for speed, accuracy, and scalability, ensuring reliable integration into Axial's platform. Develop and refine recommendation systems, applying NLP, deep learning, and predictive analytics to improve buyer-seller matchmaking. Create clear documentation and visualizations to communicate insights and recommendations to technical and non-technical audiences. Who We're Looking For 5+ years of experience using AI/ML and related technologies to improve consumer or B2B software experiences. Strong production expertise building, modifying, and scaling machine learning recommendation systems / engines Familiarity with SQL and data warehouses (e.g., AWS Redshift) for AI-driven analytics. Strong problem-solving skills with the ability to work independently in a fast-paced environment. Our stack Python (FastAPI), Postgres (RDS) Angular 18+, Typescript Terraform, AWS EC2/EKS, OpenTelemetry, Grafana/Prometheus/Loki/Tempo GitHub, Shortcut, Notion, Slack Working at Axial
We have a high functioning and remote-friendly engineering team. Some engineers are in NYC and come to the office almost daily, and we have many engineers working across the USA, Canada, and a few teammates in Central / South America. Our NYC office is casual, engineer-friendly, pretty quiet, and well-stocked with good coffee and snacks.
We are a team of ~50 employees with an overall technical organization of ~20 split among three squads. We have a senior, tightly-knit engineering team, where you will have the opportunity to have a direct impact on the product and the company. We use a "lite scrum" process, including daily stand-ups, bi-weekly sprints, sprint demos and retrospectives. Since much of our team is fully remote, we use Shortcut to track our work through the development cycle.
Below are Axial's core values. We believe in these and we practice them actively, so if you connect w/ these, you may enjoy working here: Obsess Over Member Trust:
Your daily choices reflect your awareness that we facilitate vital life-altering transactions. You consistently take this responsibility seriously and it's top of mind. Expect and Deliver Excellence:
You pursue consistent high performance so that your colleagues feel confident partnering and relying on you. You demonstrate a personal commitment to continuous improvement and you inspire it in others. Communication Matters:
You are concise and articulate in your communication, external or internal. You listen actively and genuinely and ask good questions. Invent and Simplify:
You are open-minded AND opinionated, looking for great new ideas that can elevate and even transform the member experience. You find novel ways to simplify complex status quos. Be an Owner:
You think about the long-term effects of your decisions. You take full responsibility for your work product. You invest real time in building genuine relationships with your teammates.
NY Pay Range
$300,000-$300,000 USD