Senior Software Engineer, Machine Learning
Job description
About the role
You will architect and implement the next generation of relevance and personalization systems that power Roku's streaming platform at scale. You will lead the design and execution of machine learning solutions that span search, recommendations, and advertising, directly influencing how millions of users discover content. You will mentor engineers and data scientists, translating ambiguous product goals into robust, production-grade ML applications. You will ensure that AI capabilities are reliable, performant, and aligned with Roku's global audience expectations. You will partner closely with product and data teams to iterate quickly and deliver measurable business outcomes. You will champion best practices in model development, deployment, and monitoring across the entire lifecycle. You will contribute to the strategic vision of the relevance stack as Roku evolves toward generative AI and multimodal understanding.
Key facts
What you'll do
Define and own the end-to-end design of large-scale ML systems that drive content discovery and user engagement on Roku platforms.
Implement advanced ranking and retrieval algorithms, including deep learning, bandits, transformers, LLMs, and causal inference, to optimize streaming experiences.
Establish and operate robust online experimentation frameworks, running AB tests and analyzing results against critical business KPIs to guide product decisions.
Collaborate with distributed engineering teams across the US and cross-functional partners to translate business requirements into technical specifications and deliverables.
Lead the development of ML infrastructure, feature stores, and model training pipelines that enable rapid experimentation and reproducibility.
Design and integrate vector-database solutions and multimodal retrieval techniques to support next-generation search and recommendations.
Partner with product managers to define success metrics, create dashboards, and set up monitoring for model performance and data quality in production.
Champion software engineering excellence, including code reviews, testing, documentation, and knowledge sharing across the ML organization.
Mentor and grow junior engineers and data scientists, providing technical guidance and fostering a culture of learning and experimentation.
Contribute to the strategic roadmap of the relevance stack, balancing short-term optimizations with long-term architectural investments.
Requirements
8+ years of hands-on experience in software engineering or machine learning engineering roles, with a strong track record of delivering production systems.
Demonstrated expertise in building and scaling machine learning models in production environments, including model training, deployment, and monitoring.
Proficiency with modern ML frameworks and libraries such as TensorFlow, PyTorch, scikit-learn, and associated tooling for model development and experimentation.
Strong programming skills in Python and experience with distributed data processing frameworks commonly used in large-scale ML pipelines.
Solid understanding of information retrieval, search algorithms, ranking models, and evaluation methodologies for measuring user satisfaction.
Experience with A/B testing platforms and statistical analysis methods to evaluate experiment results and drive data-informed decisions.
Knowledge of vector databases, embedding techniques, and retrieval-augmented generation approaches relevant to personalization and search.
Excellent communication skills, with the ability to articulate technical concepts to both technical and non-technical stakeholders across global teams.
Nice to have
Experience with agentic engineering tools and model-driven workflows, including coding harnesses such as Claude Code or Cursor.
Hands-on experience building and shipping AI or automation projects that demonstrate improved velocity, quality, or scalability.
Familiarity with Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers, custom skills, or agent frameworks used to build intelligent applications.
Understanding of multimodal models and their application in search, recommendation, and content discovery scenarios.
Practical notes
This is a full-time position based in Bengaluru, India.
No compensation details are provided in the source material.
There are no specified travel requirements, visa sponsorships, or application deadlines mentioned in the source.
About Roku
Roku is hiring for Senior Software Engineer, Machine Learning. The listing location is Bengaluru, India.
This Senior Software Engineer, Machine Learning opening is posted for Bengaluru, India.