Ever wondered what the meaning is in the songs of whales, in the chirping of the birds in your garden, or in the ultrasonic communications of bats? You’re not alone…
Earth Species Project (ESP) is a non-profit research lab and impact organization dedicated to using AI to solve these questions. We believe the exponential progress we’re seeing in AI offers new ways of looking at the world and expanding the ability of human beings to learn from other species. Our hope is that this will make a significant contribution to altering human perspective on how we relate to the rest of nature.
ESP partners with biologists and machine learning researchers at leading universities and institutions around the world, and we are honored to be supported by many forward-looking philanthropists and groups, including the Paul G Allen Family Foundation and the National Geographic Society.
Our dynamic global team is growing, and we are looking for a talented communications professional with exceptional strategic and storytelling skills to lead efforts to engage key target audiences in our work and to super-power our mission.
We are seeking an experienced and passionate Machine Learning Operations Engineer to join our team. This is a unique opportunity to apply cutting-edge data engineering and machine learning techniques to hard challenges in the fields of bioacoustics, animal communication, and conservation. The ideal candidate will have a strong background in data engineering and machine learning, with a passion for environmental science and conservation. Initially, this role will be very hands-on, but we expect this person to grow into a leadership role.
Key Responsibilities
Infrastructure Management: Oversee ESP's ML infrastructure, maximizing performance. Evaluate hosting options, negotiate with providers, and configure infrastructure (cloud-based, on-premise, or a hybrid model).
Interdisciplinary Collaboration: Work closely with machine learning scientists and biologist/ecologist partners to support the implementation of ML models in the study of non-human communication.
Data Pipeline Development: Build and manage data scraping and processing pipelines for large-scale machine learning model training.
Model Optimization & Deployment: Conduct R&D to retrain, optimize, scale-up, and deploy ML models, converting them to portable formats like ONNX.
Code Base Maintenance: Maintain a unified code base for data processing, ML training, and analysis tools.
Demo Applications: Translate complex research into practical demo applications for bioacoustic data analysis.
Continuous Learning: Stay updated with the latest advancements in machine learning and explore their applications within the organization.
Qualifications
- Advanced degree in Computer Science, Data Science, Machine Learning, or a related field.
- Co-authored publications at top AI conferences such as NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, AAAI.
- Experience with training large ML models on large datasets, including data and model parallelization and foundation models.
- Strong experience in infrastructure building and software development using Python.
- Proven experience in developing large-scale data collection and processing pipelines.
- Expertise in deploying ML and deep learning models at scale.
- Familiarity with major ML frameworks such as PyTorch, TensorFlow, and/or JAX.
- Experience with cloud infrastructure providers like GCP, Azure, AWS.
- Strong problem-solving abilities and creativity.
- Excellent communication skills, capable of explaining complex concepts to non-technical audiences.
- Experience in a fast-growing startup environment with leadership potential.
Preferred Qualifications
- Familiarity with bioacoustics or animal communication.
- Passion for environmental science and conservation.
- Experience with Python audio processing libraries like librosa or torchaudio.
We are a fully remote team, and you can be located anywhere in the world, with expectations to occasionally participate in virtual meetings outside your typical working hours. Additionally, you must have the willingness to travel internationally (<20%) for events and in-person team gatherings.
Benefits
- $155,000-185,000 USD depending on the level of seniority.
- Medical insurance, dental insurance, and vision insurance - ESP covers 100% of the premium
- 401k plan with match (if based in the United States)
- 2,000 USD home office stipend
- Unlimited paid time off, with a recommended minimum of three weeks per year
- Flexible working hours
- Regular team retreats around the world
Earth Species Project is a fully remote team, we strive to create a culture where all can thrive and be our authentic selves is essential to our mission. We believe our success depends on our diversity and fostering an inclusive environment that supports creativity and innovation. As an organization, we are committed to promoting equity and belonging in our work.
We are committed to equal employment opportunities regardless of race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, pregnancy, sexual orientation, marital status, ancestry, national origin, genetics, disability, age, veteran status, and criminal history, consistent with legal requirements. We encourage folks of all backgrounds and perspectives to apply.
If you require any accommodations, please email us at [email protected], and we’ll work with you to meet your accessibility needs.
