Senior Machine Learning Engineer

LendKoi is a financial technology company that provides credit and a digital financial suite for immigrants. We're on a mission to empower individuals to achieve stability and thrive. We're an early-stage startup backed by Techstars NYC and top angels with an incredible team.This is a unique opportunity to work on an impactful product and deploy models with purpose and value. We're looking for a star Senior Founding ML Engineer to build our platform and share the mission. You will contribute to the design of machine learning models and AI-powered features - and roll up your sleeves on ML engineering and web application development to bring them to life in production. You'll bring strong problem-solving skills, a collaborative spirit, and a passion for building robust, scalable, production-grade models and data-driven systems. You will work closely alongside experienced leaders, a cross-functional team, and our vendor partners.The compensation for this role is pay + equity. Flexible New York City hybrid.Qualifications● Technical experience as a lead ML engineer, VP of machine learning, senior ML engineer, principal applied scientist, CTO, or similar.● 6+ years of experience designing, building, and deploying production-grade machine learning models and AI systems, including technical leadership.● Deep proficiency in Python with experience in ML frameworks (PyTorch, TensorFlow, scikit-learn).● Experience with NLP, LLMs, and RAG architectures.● Strong proficiency with TypeScript, Next.js, Python and Django, including the Django REST framework.● You care about model interpretability, explainability, and building systems that enterprise users can trust.● Strong hands-on experience with AWS (configuring, not just deploying).● Strong familiarity with GIT, CI/CD pipelines and automated deployment.● Strong command of AI coding tools with disciplined verification and data privacy guardrails.● Excellent documentation skills and a commitment to maintaining organized, understandable code that scales as the team grows.● Curiosity about fintech + empathy for users (you are passionate about building technology that solves real-world financial challenges).● Comfortable in a lean, early-stage environment with high ownership (hands-on, end-to-end builder across the stack); you are a self-starter who builds without needing constant oversight.● You thrive in fast-paced environments and are excited about pushing AI from research into production.● PhD or Master’s degree in computer science or engineering required.● Background check, in-person NYC interview, and references required.Nice to have/Preferred● Familiarity with MLOps platforms and model serving infrastructure.● Experience with applied mathematics, including discrete mathematics, complex systems, and mathematical modeling.● Strong understanding of data structures and distributed systems for large-scale data processing, as well as proficiency in algorithm and code design for efficient and scalable solutions.● Experience designing and supporting the lifecycle of AI and data science models in Fintech - from model architecture and prototyping through to production-grade code and application integration, alongside the engineering team.