AI/ML Engineer (Founding Technical Team) (San Francisco)

Position Overview

At FoodHealth Company (formerly bitewell), we’re on a mission to fundamentally change the way the world eats—a world without diet-related disease. Our flagship product, the FoodHealth Score, is the most widely distributed retail nutrition rating in the U.S., already live in major stores. As an AI/ML Engineer (Founding Technical Team), you will be at the heart of rebuilding our technical landscape by designing, implementing, and optimizing production-grade ML systems. Applicants must have permanent work authorization in the United States. We do not offer visa sponsorship or transfers.

Key Responsibilities

• Design and implement end-to-end ML pipelines from experimentation to production.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to rebuild our core data and ML infrastructure.
• Apply rigorous algorithmic thinking to solve ML challenges (e.g., optimization, probabilistic modeling, search, graph algorithms).
• Translate academic ML research into robust, scalable production-ready systems.
• Optimize model performance through hands-on tuning including data flow, GPU/TPU utilization, and distributed training.
• Own CI/CD for ML workflows including training, evaluation, deployment, and monitoring.
• Influence architectural decisions and contribute to our technical roadmap.
• Write high-quality, testable, and maintainable code across the stack.

Required Qualifications

• 37+ years of experience in AI/ML, software engineering, or related roles.
• Strong foundation in algorithms, data structures, linear algebra, probability, and statistics.
• Deep proficiency in Python and experience with at least one ML/DL framework (e.g., PyTorch, TensorFlow, JAX).
• Familiarity with classical ML, deep learning, and modern architectures (transformers, diffusion models, etc.).
• Demonstrated experience in shipping ML systems into production.
• Experience with containerization, orchestration (Docker, Kubernetes), and cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, or Azure).
• Proven track record of contributing to research (papers, benchmarks, or open-source projects) and non-linear, creative problem solving.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in low-latency or high-throughput system design.
• Comfort with C++, Rust, or Go for performance-critical components.
• Exposure to ML systems such as Ray, MLFlow, and Weights & Biases.
• Background in DevOps/MLOps and enhancing system reliability.
• Prior startup or early-stage product development experience.

Benefits & Perks

• Compensation: $145K - $175K + Bonus + Equity
• Location: San Francisco - hybrid (3 days in office)
• Reports to: Sean Hoskin, Chief Technology Officer
• Benefits: Health, Dental & Vision Insurance, Employee Assistance Program
• Monthly Food Stipend
• Unlimited PTO