About Tala

Tala is a global technology company building the world’s most accessible financial services. With more than $350 million raised from visionary investors, we are serving millions of customers around the world who have been overlooked by traditional financial institutions – and our plan is to serve millions more, and have been named by the Fortune Impact 20 list, CNBC’s Disruptor 50, and Forbes’ Fintech 50 list for four years running. We are expanding across product offerings, countries and crypto and are looking for people who have an entrepreneurial spirit and are passionate about the mission.

By creating a unique platform that enables lending and other financial services around the globe, people in emerging markets are able to start and expand small businesses, manage day-to-day needs, and pursue their financial goals with confidence. Currently, more than 6 million people across Kenya, the Philippines, Mexico, and India have used Tala products. Due to our global team, we have a remote-first approach, and also have offices in Santa Monica, CA (HQ); Nairobi, Kenya; Mexico City, Mexico; Manila, the Philippines; and Bangalore, India. 

Most Talazens join us because they connect with our mission of enabling financial agency for underbanked people around the world. If you are energized by the impact you can make at Tala, we’d love to hear from you!

The Senior Machine Learning Engineer will architect and stabilize Tala’s core machine learning models and services, using their expertise in both data science and software engineering to deliver scalable, robust ML products. This IC role will work to define and deliver new products and improvements relating to data science at Tala from within the Data Platform team, participating in collaborative design discussions and delivering well-tested, performant solutions which are reliable and trusted by the senior engineering staff. The Senior Machine Learning Engineer values the craftsmanship of clean and efficient code, believes in solving complex challenges with the most appropriate technologies, and helps to set standards and best practices for data engineering as a whole. The Senior Machine Learning Engineer will proactively identify and address potential barriers to success, both individually and for the team, and take ownership of their solutions. 

Competencies

• 4+ years experience working on backend software using modern languages and frameworks (Java, Scala, Python, GoLang)
• 4+ years of engineering experience relating to data pipelines and machine learning at scale
• Hands-on experience with machine learning tools and tech (such as SageMaker, sklearn)
• Strong database experience, both relational and non-relational (MySQL, PostgreSQL, Cassandra, HDFS)
• Strong hands-on experience in cloud computing (AWS, EC2, S3, RDS, ELB, GCP, Azure)
• Experience with batch and real-time processing data (Kafka, Airflow)
• Working knowledge in API development for mobile/web use
• Strong collaboration experience with Data Science and Analytics teams
• Excellent ability to prioritize and communication in a fast paced environment 
• Prefer expert proficiency in Agile development process
• Prefer advanced degree in Computer Science and/or Math

Outcomes

• Work closely with Data Scientists to bridge the gap between offline data exploration/model development and scalable, productionized inference tools.
• Assist in the development of a pluggable framework that Data Scientists can use to train, test, and deploy new models according to a self-service principle.
• Work with Data Science and Data Platform when extensions to this framework are required
• Assist QA team in making models and model services testable and reliable.
• Build and maintain tooling to monitor deployed models for stability, scalability, and liveness.
• Consult with Data Science as they build tooling to monitor model correctness and drift.
• Mentor engineers, data scientists, and analysts on best practices and code efficiency
• Review design documents, perform code reviews, and weigh in on implementation choices from other technical teams.
• Collaborate with and support cross functional teams (Product, Data, Credit, and Business Development) to ship solutions that align to our overall business strategy.
• Continually improve our codebase with clean and efficient code as well as solving problems using the most appropriate technology.

Our vision is to build a new financial ecosystem where everyone can participate on equal footing and access the tools they need to be financially healthy. We strongly believe that inclusion fosters innovation and we’re proud to have a diverse global team that represents a multitude of backgrounds, cultures, and experience. We hire talented people regardless of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, gender expression, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.