Senior Manager – Applied Machine Learning

📍 Location: Hybrid (Chicago, IL)

💼 Hiring via Reach Velocity | Deep Tech & AI Talent Partners

We’re partnering with a Fortune 500 innovator that’s redefining industrial technology and customer enablement through large-scale applied AI. They operate across North America, Europe, and Asia, serving millions of customers through both high-touch and digital-first business models.

This team is building out its Applied Machine Learning function to power the next generation of intelligent experiences — think AI copilots for sales, LLM-powered search and summarization, voice-enabled mobile tools, and intelligent customer data workflows. They’re looking for a Senior Manager who can scale and lead a small, high-performing team from day one while staying hands-on in model development.

Why It’s Interesting

This isn’t a research role sitting in a silo. You’ll be right at the intersection of AI innovation and operational scale — delivering real-world impact across a $17B business. You’ll work with cutting-edge tools (OpenAI, Snowflake, Databricks, Kubernetes, etc.), shape greenfield applications, and influence strategy from the inside out.

What You’ll Be Doing

• Build & scale: Hire and lead a team of 2–4+ ML scientists and engineers over the next year.
• Stay hands-on: You’ll be actively developing in the early days while you build the team.
• Develop and deploy: Architect and ship ML/LLM systems across use cases like AI agents, chat/search, summarization, and voice tools.
• Own the ML lifecycle: From experimentation and prompt engineering to productionization and retraining.
• Set best practices: Versioned deployment, monitoring, observability, and CI/CD will be core to your team’s operating rhythm.
• Collaborate deeply: Partner with product, engineering, and data teams to align AI capabilities with customer and commercial impact.

What You’ll Bring

• 7+ years of applied ML experience, including 3+ years leading teams
• (academic experience can be included).
• Hands-on expertise in classical ML, generative AI, and LLMs.
• Strong Python engineering skills; experience with cloud-native ML infra (Docker, Airflow, K8s, CI/CD).
• A pragmatic, delivery-first mindset — this role is about execution and innovation, not research for research’s sake.
• A people-first leadership style focused on inclusion, learning, and trust.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills.

Bonus Points For

• MSc or PhD in a technical field.
• Experience with PyTorch or GPU computing.
• Direct experience building LLM-powered or agent-based applications.

Compensation & Benefits

💰 Base Salary: $173,100 – $288,500 (DOE, location-adjusted)

🎁 Full benefits package from day one, including:

• 18 PTO days + 6 company holidays
• Medical, dental, vision, and life insurance
• 6% 401(k) company contribution (no employee match required)
• Parental leave (up to 14 weeks)
• Tuition support, student loan refinancing, mental health sessions, and more