Applied AI / ML Engineer

Position Overview

Catalyst Labs is a leading talent agency specializing in Applied AI, Machine Learning, and Data Science, deeply embedded in our clients' recruitment operations. Our client is a San Francisco–based startup building a GenAI-native platform that automates complex finance and tax document processing. They serve sophisticated players in private wealth and asset management, offering the pace and autonomy of a startup combined with the stability, benefits, and resources of an established enterprise.

Location: Union Square, San Francisco | Work Type: Full Time, 5 days a week On-Site

Compensation: above market base + bonus + equity

Visa sponsorship available for candidates with demonstrated brilliance and expertise.

This role is for an Applied AI / ML Engineer with 5+ years of experience who thrives at the intersection of real-world product development and cutting-edge ML engineering, particularly in document understanding and extraction.

Key Responsibilities

• Build and scale the ML and product infrastructure powering intelligent tax document processing at production scale.
• Design and optimize inference systems, dataset pipelines, and logic to improve accuracy, speed, and quality as document volume grows.
• Collaborate with accountants and tax domain experts to understand workflows and translate insights into robust ML systems.
• Integrate inference pipelines into a seamless, end-to-end experience for tax professionals.
• Develop expert systems that encode institutional tax knowledge into scalable software components.
• Drive experiments, measure outcomes, and iterate rapidly on core ML metrics.
• Collaborate cross-functionally with product, engineering, and leadership to shape technical direction and product vision.

Required Qualifications

• 4+ years of experience in machine learning/AI engineering with proven end-to-end ownership of ML-powered products.
• Strong track record of building systems that create direct user value.
• Expertise in working with large, complex datasets with a focus on accuracy, scalability, and reliability.
• Proficiency with Python and popular ML libraries (e.g. pandas, scikit-learn, spaCy, PyTorch, TensorFlow, Keras), cloud platforms (GCP/AWS), container technologies (Docker, Kubernetes), and web frameworks (Flask, Django).
• Experience deploying or integrating LLMs, LLM APIs, agents, and prompt engineering into production systems.
• Background in document understanding, OCR, or applied NLP.
• Exposure to financial or tax-related data environments and startup or 0/1 product experience.
• Exceptional problem-solving skills, curiosity, and strong product intuition.
• Excellent communication skills with the ability to engage directly with domain experts.
• Demonstrated growth trajectory through increasing responsibility or promotions.

Benefits & Perks

• Opportunity to work on cutting-edge GenAI technology in a fast-paced startup environment backed by enterprise resources.
• Collaborative culture with direct engagement with founders, CTOs, and Heads of AI.
• Exposure to complex real-world challenges in finance and tax automation.
• Visa sponsorship available for outstanding candidates.