Upwork ($UPWK) is the world’s work marketplace. We serve everyone from one-person startups to large, Fortune 100 enterprises with a powerful, trust-driven platform that enables companies and talent to work together in new ways that unlock their potential.

Last year, more than $3.8 billion of work was done through Upwork by skilled professionals who are gaining more control by finding work they are passionate about and innovating their careers.

We're looking for an exceptional team lead to manage the Machine Learning Discovery team which powers the core recommendation engine of our work marketplace. In this role, you will keep the Machine Learning Engineers focused on building cutting-edge machine learning models to deliver the intelligent and streamlined discovery and recommendation experience. At the same time, you will work with different cross-functional teams, such as Product, Research, and Frontend Engineers etc, to create alignment and clarity.

Your Responsibilities:

• Dive deep into the data to derive and share your insights across the business
• Lead the creation of models that will become core components driving the discovery and recommendation experience
• Provide context to your team and drive alignment towards business objectives
• Influence and empower the team to ensure key projects and engineering duties are fulfilled
• Build quality relationships with cross-functional teams
• Coach and mentor machine learning engineers on the team

What it Takes to Catch our Eye:

• Deep knowledge of machine learning, information retrieval, recommender systems, natural language processing, and related fields.
• Solid programming skills that enable you to retrieve, analyze and process data, and build machine learning models from the ground up (e.g. SQL, Python, Scala, Java).
• Experience in any of the Technologies like Solr, Lucene, Elastic Search, AWS lambda or others.
• Superior ability to analyze and interpret the results of product experiments.
• Excellent experience working with multiple organizational stakeholders including product, analytics, engineering, and research, etc.
• Strong team management skills with the ability to manage quarterly team roadmap and competing priorities.
• Strong communication skills, both written and verbal, being able to explain complex technical information to a non-technical audience.

The annual base salary for this position in California and Washington ranges from $224,000 - $355,000. The range displayed reflects the minimum and maximum salary for this position in California and Washington, and individual base pay will depend on your skills, qualifications, experience, and location. Additionally, this position is eligible for the annual bonus plan or sales incentive plan and eligibility to participate in our long term equity incentive program

Come change how the world works.

At Upwork, you’ll shape talent solutions for how the world works today. We are a remote-first organization working together to create exciting remote work opportunities for a global community of professionals.  While we have physical offices in San Francisco and Chicago, currently we also support hiring of corporate full-time employees in 19 states in the United States. Please speak with a member of our recruitment team to determine whether you are located in a state in which we are hiring corporate full-time employees. 

At the core of our vibrant culture are shared values that form the foundation of our organization. These values revolve around trust, risk-taking, customer focus, and excellence. Our overarching mission is to create economic opportunities so that people have better lives. We foster an environment where individuals are encouraged to bring their authentic selves to work, nurturing personal and professional growth through development opportunities, mentorship programs, and participation in Upwork Belonging Communities.

We take pride in providing exceptional benefits to our employees. These include comprehensive medical insurance coverage for both you and your family, unlimited paid time off, a 401(k) plan with matching contributions, 12 weeks of paid parental leave, and an Employee Stock Purchase Plan. To explore these benefits in detail, as well as gain insights into our company values, working principles, and the overall employee experience, we invite you to visit our Life at Upwork page.

Upwork is proudly committed to recruiting and retaining a diverse and inclusive workforce. As an Equal Opportunity Employer, we never discriminate based on race, religion, color, national origin, gender (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical condition), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, or other applicable legally protected characteristics.