Senior Lead Machine Learning Engineer, Search and Recommendation

Location: Schiller Park
Posted on: June 23, 2025

Job Description:

Upwork ($UPWK) is the world’s largest work marketplace, connecting businesses with highly skilled professionals worldwide. From entrepreneurs to Fortune 100 enterprises, companies trust Upwork’s platform to access expert talent, leverage AI-powered work solutions, and drive meaningful business outcomes. Upwork’s AI-powered platform has facilitated over $20 billion in economic opportunity for professionals worldwide. With professionals spanning 10,000 skills, including AI and machine learning, software development, sales and marketing, customer support, finance and accounting, and more, Upwork empowers businesses of all sizes to scale, innovate, and build agile teams. Are you passionate about using machine learning to drive meaningful change? As a Senior Lead Machine Learning Engineer at Upwork, you will play a pivotal role in developing and scaling impactful ML models that power the experiences of millions of users. From improving search relevance to personalizing recommendations and enhancing fraud detection, your work will directly shape how talent and clients connect on the world’s largest work marketplace. You’ll collaborate across disciplines, own mission-critical initiatives, and bring forward innovative solutions that enable the future of work. Responsibilities • Design, develop, and deploy production-grade ML models that drive core user-facing features including recommendations, search, personalization, and trust & safety. • Lead complex cross-functional initiatives by aligning stakeholders, translating strategy into execution, and delivering measurable business impact. • Optimize model performance and infrastructure, championing operational excellence and responsiveness at scale across Upworks ecosystem. • Guide the team in setting and upholding best practices for experimentation, data quality, and model evaluation to support continuous learning and delivery. • Use advanced analytics to surface insights and influence decision-making at the team and leadership level. • Mentor and support team members, cultivating a collaborative, curious, and inclusive engineering culture. • Bring fresh ideas and frameworks to solve technical challenges, championing innovation and creative problem-solving across projects. What it takes to catch our eye • Extensive experience developing and deploying ML models at scale, including deep learning, NLP, or recommender systems in real-world applications. • Fluency in Python and ML libraries such as TensorFlow or PyTorch, and strong proficiency with data tools like SQL, Spark, and Pandas. • Proven ability to lead high-impact projects from ideation through deployment, working effectively with cross-functional teams. • Strong communication skills with the ability to explain technical decisions and data insights to stakeholders at all levels. • A growth-oriented mindset with a passion for innovation, learning, and advancing the state of applied machine learning.

Keywords: , Glenview , Senior Lead Machine Learning Engineer, Search and Recommendation, IT / Software / Systems , Schiller Park, Illinois