Engineering Manager in AI/ML

Smartcat was founded in 2016 to help global enterprises create and manage their multilingual content. Today, Smartcat is the essential language AI platform for the global enterprise. 

Our client-tailored language AI turns content in any format into any language, from documents to videos to complex websites and software, making global operations simple for any corporate team. It also allows users to create new content by tapping into a multilingual enterprise library. 

More than 1,000 global companies, including 25% of the Fortune 500, trust Smartcat to communicate their innovations and ideas worldwide.

Smartcat’s vision is to realize a world with equal access to innovations and ideas. 

Smartcat is backed by Matrix Partners, FJ Labs, and other leading VC firms focusing on SaaS, marketplaces and AI. In their portfolios, you might recognize names like HubSpot, Zendesk, Uber, Stripe, RigUp, and Quora. Despite the economic recession, Smartcat is growing at 150% YoY. It's well-funded and capital-efficient, providing a unique combination of a hyper-growth environment with downside protection and the ability to think and plan long-term

Mission

We seek an experienced Engineering Manager in AI/ML to join our team. Reporting directly to the Director of Engineering, you will lead a talented team of up to 10 software developers, focusing on one of the essential products in our highly successful product line. This role offers high autonomy and responsibility, effectively positioning you as a 'mini-CTO' for your product. In addition to having full responsibility for all technical aspects of the product, you will also manage the team, encompassing team development, talent acquisition, adjustments to team composition, and the promotion of team members. This position will be remote-based in Europe. Ideal locations include: Serbia, Armenia, Bulgaria, Georgia and Romania.

Outcomes

• Manage a team of ML and Backend Engineers (3+ Engineers in the Team)
• Work closely with the team: lead daily calls, sprint plannings and reviews, regular 1-1s and do your best to facilitate the development experience
• Create and plan team tasks together with the Product Manager and be responsible for the timely delivery of ML solutions into production
• Regularly research new AI/ML technologies
• Build production-scale services as well as MVPs and quick prototypes
• Communicate with third-party service providers

Requirements

• Mastery in Python, data analysis libraries, and ML frameworks (pandas, numpy, PyTorch, transformers, etc.)
• Expert knowledge of ML system design and architecture for scalable solutions
• Extensive background in Math, Statistics, Classical ML, Deep Learning, and NLP
• Proven experience with MLOps, deploying, and scaling ML models in production
• Proficiency with containerization and orchestration tools (Docker, Kubernetes)
• Experience fine-tuning and self-hosting open-source LLM models for various tasks (like LLaMA, Mistral, etc.)
• Strong experience with cloud platforms (AWS EC2, Sagemaker, S3)
• Experience with building solutions based on OpenAI, Claude, Gemini, and other proprietary and open-source LLMs
• Advanced English, both written and spoken
• Experience in leadership positions

Personal traits

• Excellent communication and leadership skills
• Strategic and innovative thinking
• Readiness to work in a highly intense startup environment requiring extreme focus, a strong sense of ownership, and persistence to breakthrough
• A data-driven approach. Ability to justify decisions using concrete metrics.

Will be an advantage

• Backend development background (Python and/or .NET Core)
• Experience with MongoDB and vector databases
• Experience with Speech and Image processing

Why joining Smartcat might be your best move so far

• Fully remote team
  We are a global team of 200+ enthusiastic people spread across 30 countries. We have been fully remote since 2020, with some locations populated with more Smartcatters than others, such as Boston, NYC, SF, the Bay Area, London, Lisbon, and Yerevan.
• Innovating the $50 Billion-old industry
  Smartcat’s innovative business model taps into this $50B language translation industry with a platform allowing enterprise end users to stop using traditional outsourcing and enjoy easy-to-use AI-powered SaaS that delivers immediate high-quality results at a fraction of the cost.
• High-impact role enabling innovation and inclusion in organizations
  You will enjoy building with us. You will drive changes in how an old-fashioned global language industry operates while improving how hundreds of thousands of people work, and millions of people exchange knowledge and ideas worldwide. 
• Join the rocketship to scale up 10x and beyond together
  We are looking for someone to become an integral part of our team and play a crucial role in the most exciting part of our journey: transitioning from a post-Series B startup to a company exceeding $100M in ARR and $1B in valuation. Our journey isn’t for the faint of heart. We are growing at 150% YoY, thanks to our strong product-market fit and high-performing team. 
• Smartcat Culture: Where Diversity Meets High Performance
  At Smartcat, we are committed to building a culture that emphasizes respect and appreciation for each individual's unique background and perspective while maintaining a strong focus on results and clear, honest, and direct communication. We believe in welcoming everyone and fostering an inclusive environment where team members can be authentic at work. Our commitment to diversity and inclusion is steadfast, and we stand firmly against discrimination and harassment.