Senior Software Engineer - Machine Learning & Geospatial

Job Title: Senior Software Engineer - Machine Learning & Geospatial

Location: 100% Remote (US Based Only)

• We cannot sponsor or transfer any visas, of any kind, at this time*

Hiring Manager: Senior Engineering Manager

Estimated salary range: $165,000 to $190,000

• The salary offered for this position will be based on a candidate’s experience and skill demonstrated during interviews and other evaluations

About Ocient:

Ocient is a data analytics software solutions company that enables always-on, compute-intensive analysis of complex, large-scale data with outstanding performance that delivers up to 90% price savings. Ocient brings data transformation, loading, complex query processing, AI, OcientML® and OcientGeo® as a single, consolidated solution for deeper insights and data-driven decision making. Enterprises can deploy Ocient’s pilot-to-production solutions on premises, in the OcientCloud® or in the public cloud, with little to no resource-intensive integration. Ocient is a global, carbon-neutral company, headquartered in Chicago, and backed by leading investors including Greycroft, OCA Ventures, In-Q-Tel and Buoyant Ventures. For more information, please visit www.ocient.com.

Job Description:

We’re looking for a Senior Software Engineer to help evolve our Machine Learning capabilities, with a particular focus on closing feature gaps and behavioral differences relative to widely used ML frameworks (e.g., Spark ML, scikit-learn), while continuing to deliver new ML functionality.

This role is ideal for someone who enjoys working across model behavior, system design, and customer expectations — ensuring that ML features behave predictably, perform well at scale, and align with how users expect industry-standard tools to work.

Responsibilities:

• Design and implement machine learning features used in production customer workflows.
• Help identify and close feature and behavior gaps between our ML capabilities and common frameworks (e.g., Spark ML, scikit-learn).
• Proactively evaluate semantic differences, defaults, and edge cases that could surprise customers.
• Partner with product, architects, and customer-facing teams to anticipate upcoming customer needs and gaps.
• Investigate and resolve issues where ML behavior diverges from user expectations (e.g., model output, metrics, configuration semantics).
• Contribute to other ML initiatives including new models, metrics, performance improvements, and infrastructure work.
• Analyze and improve the performance of existing ML code, balancing correctness and stability with customer facing latency.
• Write clear design docs, tests, and documentation to make behavior explicit and prevent regressions.

Minimum Qualifications:

• 5+ years of experience building production software systems.
• Strong proficiency in at least one backend or systems language (e.g., C++, Java, Scala).
• Experience implementing or integrating machine learning models in production.
• Familiarity with ML libraries or frameworks such as Spark ML, scikit-learn, XGBoost, or similar.
• Strong instincts around correctness, edge cases, and behavioral consistency.
• Ability to work across teams and codebases to turn ambiguous requirements into concrete solutions.

An ideal candidate will have:

• Experience comparing or validating behavior across multiple ML frameworks.
• Experience with large-scale data systems or analytical databases.
• Familiarity with distributed execution, performance tuning, or numerical stability.
• Understanding of spherical geometry and its application to geospatial analytics.

What success looks like:

• Customers see fewer surprises when using ML features compared to familiar frameworks.
• ML behavior, defaults, and limitations are well-documented and intentional.
• Feature gaps are identified early, not discovered under customer pressure.
• You deliver across parity work and broader ML initiatives, balancing short-term needs with long-term quality.

We are not open to using an agency or staffing company at this time. We do not accept unsolicited agency or staffing resumes and we are not responsible for any fees related to unsolicited resumes.

Ocient provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type and makes all hiring decisions without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws.

All official Ocient job postings and recruiting communications will come directly from our team via our Careers page, LinkedIn, or from an @ocient.com email address. If you receive communication about a role from any other source, please treat it with caution and direct questions to recruiting@ocient.com